Sri Lanka 2014: 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!