BlogInternational Services
Day 2 of Rtr. Amrit’s visit to Sri Lanka started early in the morning and along with me, he came to Colombo central bus station to catch a bus to Pinnawala. We reached to Pinnawala elephant orphanage around 11.30 am after a tiring journey with heavy traffic. On the way to Pinnawala Rtr. Amrit was interested in the coconut trees and since in Nepal coconut is expensive, he wanted to take some trees home. We hurried to the river and were not late to see the elephants bathing in the river. After taking some pictures we came back to the orphanage and see other attractions inside. Then we came back to Karandupana were we had our lunch.
After lunch we caught a bus to Kandy, unfortunately, we had to stand for some distance. After another one and a half hours of journey, we reached Kandy bus stop. Rtr. Rasho from the Rotaract Club of Kandy and a Nepalese friend of Rtr. Amrit joined us there for the rest of the visit. Then we had a cup of tea and went to KCC for some free time. Then we walked around the Kandy lake and came to visit the Museum inside the Temple of the Tooth. In the museum, there was a statement called “Lord Buddha was born in India” and Rtr. Amrit was not happy because of this false information. It caused a friendly argument with the workers at the museum, and we came back to visit the Temple of the Tooth. Rtr. Sanira joined us after work. So, all five of us went to Temple of Tooth and after a few hours inside the temple, we came back.
Rtr. Rasho and Apil (Amrit’s friend) bade goodbye to us after the visit and then we went and buy some tea for Rtr. Amrit to take back to Nepal. Then we went to Helabojun food stall near KCC and took dinner. Unfortunately, we had to skip the visit to Bogambara Park due to heavy rainfall, so we went to our accommodation directly. We waved goodbye to Amrit and came back to Sanira’s boarding to spend the night.
The third and final day the plan was to visit Nuwara Eliya. Initially, we had planned to catch the train from Kandy to Thalawakele but due to the trade action of SLR, we have to change our plans. So, we picked up Rtr. Amrit at 4.00 AM in the morning to catch a bus from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. After having a cup of tea, we started our journey to Nuwara Eliya, and it was a hard journey for Amrit due to the extra cold misty hills. We reached Haggala botanical garden around 7.30 am. We spent nearly two hours in the garden and Rtr. Amrit was really excited to see so many varieties of flowers and trees in a single area. He really enjoyed the landscapes in the garden.
After buying some sweets for our homes, we came back to Nuwara Eliya once again. Then we visited our last destination the Gregory Lake Park in Nuwara Eliya. After walking towards the lakeside, we came to a restaurant to have lunch. Then we shot a small video regarding Rtr. Amrit’s journey and came to Nuwara Eliya town to catch a bus to Colombo. We returned to Colombo around 6.00 pm in the evening and then I said goodbye to Amrit after two days of a wonderful experience.
On the early morning of the next day our International service director Rtr. Sithija dropped Amrit to the Colombo International Airport and the first phase of the project Mitrata ended in a high note where we eagerly waiting for the second phase which is one month away. Rtr. Amrit also invited us all to Nepal and the countdown started for our journey to their beautiful country.
By: Rtr. Hasitha Prashan
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