We made it! Paddy’s ponderings on the first day…

So after fourteen hours of frisking, screaming children and aeroplane movies, we have finally arrived in Colombo. Everyone in the team is currently a bit jet lagged but relieved that after a year of fundraising and planning we have finally arrived in Sri Lanka. As was to be expected for this time in the season, we were met with a hot, wet and sticky climate but the beauty of the country was not lost on us despite our exhaustion. The trip from the airport to the capital was rich with vegetation everywhere you looked, with side streets and motorways laden with coconuts trees. We arrived at the Bunk Yard Hostel around midday to drop off our bags and have a little explore of the city as we’re only spending a couple of days here. We found a park, as you can see above…

The relief of grabbing a cold shower was palpable, as was the odour erupting from the room as all of the team huddled in our cosy eight bed dorm. Although I must admit there is a certain childish nostalgia I felt when claiming the top bunk.

After freshening up we met downstairs and talked to a couple of British medics currently stationed in the capital as part of their elective. We interrogated them for information on what is good to do in the city and ended up having quite an interesting chat about nationalised health care in developing countries which put the efficacy of our own NHS back home truly into perspective. From there we made our way into town to get some food and tie up a few basic utilities we still needed for the trip.

After rounding up the essentials (sim cards, biscuits and obscure fruit) we headed back to the hostel to eat and gather our energy for tomorrow the itinerary for tomorrow so far is a trip to the department for immigration to extend our visas, surely promising a long wait. I am afraid due to travel fatigue this post will have less excitement than a documentary on man hole covers throughout the century but hopefully things will pick up once we arrive at our final destination on Saturday morning and start prodding around the Trincomalee sea; then the real fun/work will begin… Overall a very successful first day and the team are excited to get things going!