Trip To Sri Lanka 2006
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In March 2006, a twenty three strong team, including Remove and Lower Sixth pupils journeyed to Sri Lanka for a fortnight of wild adventures, Buddhist insights, encounters with nature and post-tsunami service.
A Post-Tsunami World A Pilgrimage Experience Nature and Beyond
Visits to schools and charitable gifts to four local charities enabled us to make some response to post tsunami needs and we were delighted to liaise with Senahasa Trust projects in Unawatuna.
The memorial to the Japanese tsunami victims at Yala introduced us to the ruins, tented camps and rebuilding of lives on the south coast.
It was a great boost for morale to have lively and friendly teenage Marlburians bringing the first post-tsunami youth group tourist custom to so many of the hotels and locations we visited. So many Sri Lankans we met were extraordinary, quite inspiring individuals.
A pilgrimage up Adam's Peak (2,250 metres) was a mesmerising overnight experience while the 'puja' pilgrimage to holy Hindu Katagarama was an intoxicating confusion of sight, sound, smell and taste.
The simple rooms and food at the Nilambe Meditation Centre gave us pause for thought as did the 6am Tibetan yoga, morning 'vipassana' meditation in the pine forest, afternoon Dhamma lectures and evening Pali chanting.
One monk had practised meditation and complete silence for 5 years! Can we manage a day?
The Pinnawela Orphanage elephants entranced us all and even blind and one-legged animals had pride and dignity. Yala surprised us with leopards and Udawalawe was home to more happy nelly families.
The highland waterfalls were iconic in their beauty. Horton Plains were breathtaking enough but the 1,500 metre descent through tea, paddy and jungle was a magical mystery tour ending in a concealed campsite fit for a Victorian explorer or tribal king.
White water rafting the sub-tropical Kelani past the 'Bridge over the River Kwai' was incredible sport and cycling the tuk-tuk, truck and bus infested highway to the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens was both exhilarating and exacting.
Kandy and Nuwara Eliya were a delightful blend of Sri Lankan and British; lunch at the Queen's Hotel and afternoon tea on the Hill Club lawn both tasted great!