Second Turtle Location

Since the turtle hatchery is only just being built we are also going to a Rehabilitation place which is outside of Ambalangoda and near a town called Hikkaduwa. Its about a 30-40min tuktuk ride to get there. They have lots of tanks with turtles and our job there is to scrub the tanks, feed the turtles, clean the larger turtle shells and do any painting that needs done. It is right next to the beach so there is a nice sea breeze to keep us cool! The man who runs it now had to rebuild from scratch after the 2004 Tsunami. At the time his sister had run it but she was killed alongside the entire place being destroyed. It is therefore open for tourists to come and see the turtles and take photos with them in return for a donation. 

A handful of baby turtles! 

Scrubbing a tank. Just a tad bigger than the fish bowl at home!

Cleaning a turtle shell

right on the beach!

So cute!

Eating the fish we cut up for them

First Day at Girls Orphanage

On Tuesday afternoon I went to the girls orphanage for the first time. The girls were all lovely and excited to see someone new. They call us all sister as a sign of respect. We teach english to them for about 3/4 of the time and then have playtime till we leave. I will do a more detailed blog post sometime describing what we do there.

Regardless of losing a significant length of my hair before leaving for Sri Lanka as soon as I sat down during playtime a little girl came over and started playing with my hair and putting flowers in it. The ants from the flowers were itchy on my neck but otherwise it was so cute!

spot my sunburnt neck from the boat trip..and the white strip from my camera strap!

First Day on Turtle Conservation Project

 For my first two weeks my primary project will be the Sea Turtle Conservation Project. On Monday afternoon we went to a beach in Ambalagoda where PMGY has recently bought some land and built a fence around it in preparation for a turtle hatchery. We were given a talk by the Captain (nae clue what his actual name is, just the Captain!) about sea turtles and the project. He has his own Sea Turtle Conversation volunteer project which is in fact a rival to PMGY however his job is to oversee everything turtle-related in Sri Lanka hence his involvement with us. He also very proudly showed us a newspaper cutting of himself with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.


For the rest of the afternoon we were tasked with filling the hatchery. The hatchery at this point was a empty rectangle about a metre deep surrounded by concrete walls. Outside the fenced area was a large pile of sand and so we spent the afternoon moving bucketfuls of sand into the hatchery.

Lucky timing, Ashika had baby turtles ready to be released that night at sundown. Since that day marked the first day of volunteers on the brand new Sea Turtle Conservation Project everyone was invited to come to the release. It was most definitely a brilliant end to my first Monday in Sri Lanka!

A lot of the turtle eggs dont survive to hatch, and then a lot of the babies wont survive long out at sea due to various circumstances such as predators or strong waves crashing them against rocks and so on. Out of the ones that do survive however, it will take 15-20 years for them to reach maturity at which point some of those female turtles should return to the same beach they were released from to lay their own eggs. In theory the beach at the hatchery will, in 20 years time, be a completely safe and protected environment for sea turtles.

And once again here are some photos. I think my posts will end up having more photos than words! A picture is worth a thousand words though right!?

Jenn from Canada, ME and Harman from England all holding tiny baby turtles

SO CUTE

The sea turtle project group

To freedom! And life at sea!

some banter in the sea after the turtles had gone. We got splashed during this photo! 

Orientation Boat Trip

On the Monday after orientation instead of starting our projects in the morning we went on a local boat tour. We got to see some wildlife, a lot of birds and some reptiles in the water. There were lots of local people fishing on the river which was very interesting to see. Their boats, methods of fishing and attire were very rustic in comparison to fishing boats at home in Scotland. We stopped off at Cinnamon Island, where one family live and produce cinnamon sticks, oil and powder. We got a demonstration where a man started off with large sticks and then whittled them down to get what was needed from them. We then stopped off at another island with a temple on it where we received a blessing from a Buddhist monk. The monk tied a piece of white string around our right wrists while saying a blessing. The next stop was at a jetty where we sat with our feet in tanks full of fish. This was completely unlike it is at home, the fish were large and there were SO many of them. It only cost the equivilant of a couple of pound and it was strange to think that people at home paid money to go to spas (or the random place in the Eastgate shopping centre!) to get this done while there we were, sitting on a jetty in the sun on Sri Lanka getting our feet nibbled by fish! It was a very strange sensation at first but once you overcame the urge to move your feet the feeling became pleasant. Jenn took quite a while to get used to it and broke into a hysterical laughter which was rather amusing! More amusing for the locals working there I'm sure! They also had a baby crocodile which they passed round for us to hold, it was surprisingly soft feeling and was perfectly placid whilst being passed about us all. Overall it was a very good morning and we all returned to the house for lunch greatly looking forward to going to our afternoon projects!

Once again choosing just a few photos to upload was a hard challenge!

Just my luck the baby monkey wouldn't look at the camera!

A kingfisher

We were split onto two boats, so mine looked exactly like this

A local man fishing

At Cinnamon Island

Cinnamon Island

My boat

The island with the temple

A monk

The Island temple

Hana from Ireland, Jenn from Canada, Nalaka who works for PMGY, and me!

fishies!

baby crocodile!

local fishermen

Orientation Day Moonstone Mine

On orientation day we also visited a Moonstone Mine. There we saw the whole process of gems and moonstones being taken out a mine, washed, made into jewellery, and put into the shop there or exported to be sold elsewhere.

 

A bucketful of muddy clay gets extracted from the mine

Next it gets sieved and washed 

Now the stones are clean and so gems and moonstones can be selected

Preparing tools for the mining and jewellery making process. 

Gems being cleaned and shined ready to go into jewellery 

Making jewellery 

Bartering down the price in the shop at the mine

Selection of gems

Orientation Day Temple Visit

In the afternoon we went to a Temple, which was up 1000 steps first. Those steps were unpleasant since we have yet to get used to the humidity and heat! The temple was cool though, it holds the longest reclining Buddha in south Asia. See more about it here. Ashika told us a bit about the place which was interesting. I don’t know a great deal about Buddhism so it will be interesting to learn about it whilst in a primarily Buddhist country.

For example there was a pond with a statue in it, and it is okay to take a photograph of the statue, or to take a photograph of someone with it but only if they are standing alongside the Buddha, but not if they have their back to it.

the statue was so long even my wide angle camera lens struggled to fit it all in! 

The statue is in the process of getting repaired so you can see some scaffolding etc in the photo. That also meant that our donation (so many places in Sri Lanka don't charge for entry but instead a donation is expected) went towards repair costs. The people standing next to the statue further down also show the scale of it! The temple was rather impressive with lots of colours, statues and patterns. Needless to say I am definitely going to find it difficult to choose just a few photos to upload onto here and Facebook!

Orientation Day

The weekend I arrived a large collage group from London also arrived, and they were all staying at a hotel as the two volunteer houses couldn’t accommodate them. Sundays are orientation days so we had orientation in the hotel.  Ashika went through everything we needed to know about Sri Lanka, the projects, the town, how to go about weekend trips etc

Then EVERYONE came back to Lion House (which is what the house I am staying in is called) for lunch which was pretty mental. The food has been fine, I was worried it would be way too spicy for me to handle but they make sure they make everything ‘bland’ for us volunteers. Apparently food at the other house is much spicier so I am counting myself as lucky because some of the dishes here I do still find rather spicy and can only just handle them! It’s all been good though, and so far I am not fed up of rice…but something tells me that may change as the weeks progress!

In the afternoon we went to a gemstone mine, and then visited a temple. I will talk about those in separate posts so that this one doesn't get too long with photo uploads. 

Volunteer House

On arriving to the volunteer house in Ambalogoda we were welcomed by Nalaka, who gave the three of us  a flower garland round our necks. (the three of us being Hana. Georgina and I, the other two girls from the airport were part of a collage group who were staying in a hotel all together) We got a wee tour of the house which exceeded expectations. The downstairs is big and spacious with a large dining table and a second smaller one. There is also a 3 seater, 2 seater and single couch around a small television and a wall full of dvd's. There is also a downstairs bedroom, where Nalaka sleeps, and a downstairs bathroom. The kitchen is also downstairs and I was surprised to see no oven/cooker but instead a tabletop stove that reminded me of camping stoves. 

Upstairs there is a large spacious landing with which overlooks downstairs (not really sure how to describe it, balcony seems the wrong word, so here is a photo to illustrate!) Upstairs is a bedroom with tow bunkbeds and small shelfing unit, and doors to a small outside balcony. In this room were two girls from Hong Kong called Tammy and Gigi, who had arrived late the previous night. Hana and I took the other two beds in that room.

There is a bathroom upstairs and a large bedroom with 4 bunkbeds and one double bed. Then there is another smaller room with a bunkbed and a double bed. Georgina took a bed in this room alongside Jenn, from Canada, who had arrived earlier that day. I had also spoken to Jenn via Facebook before coming out. Her trip duration is 12 weeks so she will be here the entire time that I am. There is also an outside balcony (larger than the one on my room) which has clothes horses two small washing lines. 

Up another flight of stairs is the roof, which has nothing on it but can be used for sunbathing etc

When we arrived the power was out so none of the fans (the house has no AC) were working so we were really feeling the heat! I had been apprehensive about the cold-water showers but in the heat I barely even noticed! Tammy, Gigi, Jenn, Hana, Georgina, Nalaka and I all played some card games to fill time. Other girls who were already living in the house were away on weekend trips but two were due back later that day. Claire and Kitty, who both returned sunburnt from spending the day on the beach! 

Overall it was a good journey, the house seems decent and I don't mind the prospect of staying here for 10 weeks, and everyone has been realy friendly and interesting so far. Its great talking to other volunteers because everyone has come from somewhere different and are doing different things with their lives. 

The upstairs landing and (?) balcony-like bannister looking downstairs

My bed!! Spot the ''Scotland'' sticker on my laptop!

The Journey

Left the house early in the morning on Friday the 6^th to head to Glasgow airport for my 2.15pm flight to Dubai. We arrived at the airport too early but by luck the check-in gate was open earlier anyway so I didn’t have to hang around waiting. I had already checked-in online so just had to check-in my suitcase (which was 10kg lighter than required!) said bye to dad and then headed on through security to the departure lounge.

Sitting in departures waiting to meet Georgina 

Through the PMGY Sri Lanka Facebook group page I had already chatted to a girl called Georgina. Another Scot, raised in Elgin and now living near Glasgow. We had chosen our seats on the plane to be beside one another and met in departures. The flight left Glasgow on time with no problems. It was my first time flying with Emirates and the plane was fantastic, great seating and Georgina and I were lucky enough that it was only the two of us sitting on our row of three seats. The choice of in-flight films was brilliant too and the flight was quickly filled with three films. (The Monuments Men, Philomena and Saving Mr Banks) The food was ‘meh’ but then again when is plane food ever good?! We did have quite a lot of turbulence on the flight, more than I have had before, but it was quite good fun!

On landing in Dubai airport we had just over an hour to kill so we decided to get a smoothie. Slight problem was that we had no currency, and the currency converter place would not accept Scottish bank notes! By luck Georgina had one £20 English note though.  The departure gate was chaos, unlike any departure gate I have ever been in before but we made it onto the next Emirates plane to Sri Lanka amid the chaos. There was a stark difference on this plane and we were in the vast minority of white people. We also had a sense of déjà vu as the plane was exactly the same as the previous one and we were in the same seats!

We touched down in Sri Lanka and made it through customs in super quick speed. Compared to the customs process in America (especially considering 2013 when I was taken into a scary wee office and questioned!) the Sri Lankan customs was very basic. The guy didn’t even look at my passport photo, just glanced the visa and wrote down the number and ta-da that was me through customs.

We were collected by Ashika, the guy in charge of all the Sri Lankan projects, and we sat down with a girl named Hana from Ireland while we waited for two more girls to arrive. The airport was very small and regardless of the Air Con it seemed very hot. Unsurprisingly the sudden wave of heat and humidity when we walked out the airport was crazy! 

We had quite a long drive from the airport in Colombo to the town we will be based in called Ambalagoda. 

So this is a blog...

So this is my travel blog for my 10 week adventure in Sri Lanka this summer. Blogs aren't really my thing so I think keeping this going for my whole time here will be a challenge!

So yeah I will be spending 10 weeks in Sri Lanka with Plan My Gap Year (so for you not-so-tech-savvy people, looking at you mother, the 'Plan My Gap Year' in the last sentence looks slightly different to show you its a link...so you can click on it!)

I'll be spending my first two weeks doing the Sea Turtle conservation project, and the other eight weeks doing a mixture of the english teaching and orphanage projects.

I will try to post updates or some photos every so often but I don't envision myself being very prompt with it!

Reading up on Sri Lanka from my garden in Invergordon