by Lucia Edmondson 🙂 

Day 1

When we got to Colombo my mouth was wide open, I'd never seen so many trees in one city! Colombo is an amazing place, just like the rest of Sri Lanka.

We got to Colombo by plane, and when we walked out of the airport we were really tired but I was really excited so I didn't care.

When we got through the gate there were so many people holding signs with names on them and one of them was for us. When we found our name, the person holding it was called Daham and he was our tour guide. Daham took us outside and told us that he and our driver were going to be with us for most of the holiday and they will be taking us to see all of Sri Lanka.

Our driver took us to our first hotel and it was really nice, but we didn't do much because we were tired after 9 hours of travelling. We had a little nap before going for a swim in the pool, and after that, we had to go back in and get ready for dinner which was yummy..

Day 2

The next day we got breakfast at the hotel before going on a boat ride with Daham in a mangrove lagoon. We saw a lot of jellyfish and there were small birds that we're diving in the water behind us for fish. In the lagoon there was an island, in the middle of it there was a big crack going all the way through it, big enough for the boat to go through so of course, we went through it, I even saw two bluefish jumping out of the water and back in.

After that, we put all our bags in the minivan and set off for the next hotel. We were on the road for about four hours, but we stopped halfway to drink some coconut water (i like coconut milk more) and saw a lot of monkeys.

When we got to the next hotel my brother and I saw a really big staircase to reception and we couldn't believe that we were staying there. When we got up the stairs the view of Sigiriya rock was amazing and there were squirrels running around in reception.

They gave us the key to the room we were staying in, and I couldn't wait to see it. We walked through the massive hotel gardens to the room and passed some monkeys. When we got there our room had two floors!

Day 3

The next day after breakfast we went climbing up Sigiriya rock. The rock had 1200 steps so it was quite hard. I only realised how high up we were when we got to the top. From what I know the rock was once a city and it was the royal citadel of King Kassapa for 18 years.

The way up was fine but the way down was the scariest thing that I'd ever done, you always know how high up you are because you're looking down.

When we were finished with that we went for some food before going on a bike ride to see Buddhist temples. I thought that the temples were lovely but I liked the bike ride more.

After that, we went for some delicious food in the middle of the town. I was just eating my noodle soup when all of a sudden an elephant showed up out of nowhere. I LOVE ELEPHANTS!

We finished our food then went back to the hotel so that we could go to sleep. Then my brother and I found a badminton room. We stayed

there for a really long time and forgot that our mum was alone and then we felt bad. 🙁 Turns out she was fine. 🙂

Day 4

We got up really early to meet our driver. Dad and I weren't really happy about it because we LOVE buffet breakfasts and it wasn't even open at that time. Instead of the minivan, a jeep collected us to take us to an elephant jeep safari. Inside the jeep there were some packed breakfasts for us which we enjoyed later at a fabulous lookout point.

At the start of the safari, we didn't see much, just peacocks, but after 15 minutes the driver slammed onto the brakes and we saw an elephant with her BABY! We were staring at them for quite some time before driving again but two seconds later we saw a whole family of elephants.

The driver got us really close, I thought that the elephants would run away but they didn't, they were just eating or crossing the road. We saw three babies, two toddlers and a lot of adults. None of the elephants minded us being there except one, the elephant that was leading the rest of her family got mad and she came really really close and looked at us as if to say ‘go away’ and then started waving her trunk around, but it's a good thing that the safari driver was used to these things and drove us away.

After the safari we went to a small village, our driver told us to get on another boat and that we were going on a lilypad lake. The boat was a paddle boat and my dad really wanted to paddle it because every week, twice a week he goes paddling with his team to warm up or practice for competitions.

On the other side of the lake, in the middle of a jungle, there were two small houses that we were going to go to so we could learn how to make Sri Lankan food. There were four people living there, two women and two men and they made the houses by themselves with mud and trees. There was no electricity and no water. They went to get the water from somewhere, I don't know where though. It looked as though they liked to live like they did in the old days.

When we made the food we set it out on the table. Our plates were baskets with banana leaves. We had to eat with our hands and I was so happy when I heard that because I LOVE EATING WITH HANDS! And the food was amazing.

What a brilliant day!

Day 5

In the morning we got straight in the car so that we could go to Kandy and to our next hotel. We were on the road for about 4 hours, but we stopped at a wedding venue to have some tea and see some spice plants.

In Kandy, we saw a traditional dance show which I really liked.

When that was finished we had some food and went back to the hotel for some sleep.

Day 6

After breakfast, we went to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, and it was a really big garden. The garden looked like Queen Elizabeth's biggest garden, and her gardens are massive. The garden had plants and trees from all over the world, each one placed in its right position, nothing out of place. The garden was bright and colourful, there were ponds with islands in the middle, bamboo and even trees that looked thousands of years old, but what I really liked in that garden was the two trees that had connected together.

Once we were finished with that we went to a train station so that we could go to Nuwara Eliya, also known as Little England because the British made Nuwara Eliya look like an English village. When we got on the train there was this group of friends next to us with drums. They were playing music and singing which surprised me because if you did that in England they would tell you to stop, but it was amazing. When they started playing my dad and Daham went to them so that they could join in, at the time there were no seats available so I was just standing, but at the next stop people got off so of course, I ran to go sit with my dad and the group because i really wanted to join in.

The rest of the trip was like that, so I really enjoyed it. At first, the train was in a city, but after some time we got to the mountains where the tea plantations were, and it was beautiful. My parents couldn't stop taking photos and videos of it.

One of the things I really liked about the train was that every person that was in the villages would smile and wave at you, especially the little kids.

Once we got to Nuwara Eliya I understood why it was called little England, it looked exactly like an English village, with pubs, golf and everything. When we got to our hotel we went for some food, and even the food was English.

Day 7

We got up at 5am that morning because we had to go on this walk called the World's End, and it was better if we went early in the morning.

When we got there, we had our packed breakfasts that the hotel made for us before setting off. The walk was really nice, and there were birds everywhere. Halfway through there was a viewpoint and it was called the Mini Worlds End, and 15 minutes later there was the Great Worlds End, and dad nearly fell off the cliff!!!

Once we left the Great Worlds End, we saw a lot of stairs that took you to a waterfall. The waterfall was lovely, but when I went to see it I realised that I had to climb up the stairs again.

When we finished the walk my legs felt like they were going to fall off. I ran back to the minivan so that I could sit down when I saw an unexpected animal there and it got really close to us

When we got back to our hotel my mum, my brother and I went down to the pool while my dad had a little rest. The pool was an indoor heated pool, and it was really nice. One of the rules there was to stay quiet, but my brother did the complete opposite of that.

After my delicious smoothie, we went back up to our room. My dad and I went for a walk in the village, because we like exploring. We went to a shop and took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Had some pizza, and went to bed.

Day 8

We left our hotel when we got up, and we were driving for a while. Daham told us that we were going to stop for some lunch before going to the safari, which I was really excited about.

Daham told us that we had to go outside at 2 o'clock, so we did, then he told us to get in the jeep, and it was really nice, nicer than the last one anyway. The jeep took us to the safari and it was a long drive to get there, but really nice because you could feel the wind in your hair, and it was a really high jeep. When we got there we had to wait for a bit again because we had to get someone who worked there, we got a driver and a man who literally had eagle eyes because he spotted everything for us.

We set off and before we even entered the gates the man told the driver to stop and he pointed out a tusk elephant. The miles travelled by themselves and he looked lonely, but I'm sure he wasn't. When we actually entered the park it looked like something out of The Lion King, there were trees everywhere, a lake, even a huge rock.

We were driving through the trees when I saw a pond, but in the pond I saw about 7 water buffaloes just having a bath, and it was really cute.

While we were driving we saw a lot of termite homes, land monitors, peacocks, and we even saw a family of wild boar!!!!! The little babies of the family were running around and bothering their mum. I just wanted to go and hold one, but sadly I couldn't.

I was looking out for things and then the eagle eye man got a phone call, when he put it down he told the driver where to go and to go fast. When we got to the place we were told to go to, there were already 4 cars there. I was confused at first but then I saw all the other people looking at a really big tree, and the man gave us some binoculars, so I just pointed them to where the other people were looking. I looked for a long time then when I found it my mouth dropped. THERE WAS A LEOPARD IN THE TREE!!!! A leopard is one of the rarest things a man can see, and I was so happy that I saw one. And we were really lucky we got there in time because 2 minutes later there was a big line of jeeps trying to get past.

We couldn't stay there forever even though I would have done, so we went to go find some animals. We saw a lot of elephants, but one time we saw a family and they were so close you could touch them.

I saw a lot of things and more wild boar!! I was looking out the binoculars when the driver got a call again, the driver sped up and I knew what was going on. When we got there I was so excited, they said the leopard was on a big rock, because that's a leopard's favourite place to be. But unlike the other one, it was really close, so it got scared of all the cars and ran away so we never got to see it.

By the time we were finished with the safari the sun was going down, and I loved riding in that jeep. It was even better at night because there were more people out, so that meant more people to say hi to, and more music. My brother and I were talking about what the next hotel will be like. I thought it was going to have a big pool, and a two-floor room, because that's what we got in most of the other hotels, and my brother thought so too, but we were wrong, completely wrong. When we got there the jeep took us down this bumpy road that was lit by torches, but not the battery ones, ones that were made from fire. The road was long but when the car stopped I was confused because there was nothing there but a tent. The man told us to have some tea and to sit down so we could listen to the safety rules, and that's what made me ask what was going on but I didn't get an answer.

He told us that we had to always take our shoes off before entering the tent and to always close the door, and that's when I realised what we were doing, we were going CAMPING! I love camping and I couldn't wait, when the man took us to our tent it was massive. I went inside and it looked like an actual hotel room, there was electricity, running water and actual beds. When I normally go camping we have to sleep on a blow-up mattress and have a battery-powered torch, but that's what camping is all about, and this tent was so different compared to the ones I'm normally in. The man told us that he'll be back to take us for dinner, and told us setel in. There were two rooms in the tent too.

He came back and I was expecting the food to be served in another tent but no, there were tables around a big campfire. We didn't choose what we wanted to eat but there was a lot of it so if u didn't like something you wouldn't get hungry. For starters, we had onion soup and I loved it, for mains we had pork with BBQ sauce poured on it with rice and vegetables and for dessert, I have no idea what it was but it was still yummy.

We had to walk back on our own now because they thought we knew the way but it took us a good five minutes to find the pathway. When we got back my dad told us that the man told him there would be a night walk to see the animals at night and that it started at 9:30. Dad, my brother and I went but my mum didn't want to go.

The walk was really nice and the man had a purple light so if he saw an animal and pointed it to the animal, it wouldn't blind him, but there was this boy at the back pointing a really bright torch at them, so the man had to yell at him.

When we finished with that we went to bed, and in the middle of the night i woke up to some animals, but I stayed up listening to them because I love doing that.

Day 9

In the morning we went to a place that feeds orphaned baby elephants. I never knew that there were so many elephants that didn't have a family, there were so many there. Not all of the elephants were small though, some of them were already growing tusks. When the elephants are old enough they let them back into the wild, but they put colours on their neck to make sure that they're ok. Some of the elephants that have been let go have started a family of their own.

When we left, we had to go on the road again so that we could get to Ambalangoda. We drove for a long time, but before we got to the villa we had to have some sort of junk food, so we went to KFC.

The boys dropped us off at the villa and my brother and I should have been happy that we were staying in such a nice place, but we weren't, it was the last time we were ever going to see the boys. So we asked if they wanted something to drink and we had one last goodbye before they were gone 🙁

The villa had three rooms, 2 upstairs and 1 down, it had a really nice kitchen and living room, and just outside was our beach.

My brother and I were a bit down, so our dad said we could get in the pool. Because the villa next to us was empty and it was owned by the same man who owned our villa, he let us go in his other pool too. There was a gate that separated the two so he just opened it and we had two big pools all to ourselves. We spent the rest of the day swimming and putting all our stuff away from our rooms, i had the downstairs room and I was happy because it looked like the biggest.

It was dark by the time we were done with all that, so we just sat down and watched some TV while we were waiting for food, and this time it was on a maneu.

Day 10

I woke up to the sound of waves hitting the sand outside. One of the things I loved about the villa was that if you walked out of the back door, the first thing you'll feel is sand on your feet. I got out of bed and then went to have some breakfast. My brother and I just had cornflakes, but mum and dad ordered breakfast.

Once we got ready my brother and I went to the pool. The pool had a swing next to it, so you could just swing in, and I loved that. We were in the pool for a while and then we went to the beach. The waves in Sri Lanka are a lot stronger than the waves in Cyprus so we didn't go in just in case one wave swept us away, but we ran around and sometimes got in, but only up to our knees so that we could splash each other.

Mum told us that we had to get showered at about 10 o'clock because we had to go get a PCR test so we could come back home. We got a ride to the hospital, and when we arrived there we had to sign some papers, but when we got in the line we were waiting forever and when it was finally our turn a man from the hospital told us that we had to go inside to do the test, and when we did we got pushed all the way at the back again!

We were finally done with that, so we went to walk along the beach to look for a bar or restaurant. We found one and had some food before going back to the beach because it was really nice. My brother and I were snorkelling and playing and the time went really fast.

My mum said we had to go shopping, but I just bought presents for people at home. We were shopping for a while and then when we were done, my mum found a hole in her dress so we had to go back. After that, we went to a little bar so mum and dad could have a drink and my brother and I a smoothie. The place was really nice, it was half on the ground, half in the sea. There were seats that were on top of the sea and it was amazing to sit there. We were planning on only having a drink but my brother and I ended up getting some food. We got a lot of chips and a cucumber,tomato and avocado salad for me. we finished eating but then mum and dad got hungry so they got food, and i got another salad because it was sooooooooooo good. Yeah, we stayed there for a really long time.

We got home and then my brother and I watched some films and mum and dad went to bed.

Day 11

This is the day I learnt that in 2004 a tsunami hit Sri Lanka and the worst place was in Ambalangoda. In 2004 not many people knew what tsunamis were because they never happened, so the schools never told them what they were. There were three waves that struck that day. When the first wave hit the water went a few metres inland, and through the restaurants, so when that happened some people wanted to know what was going on and some wanted to go get the fish and the lobsters that were on the sand, as all the people were doing that a second wave hit them, but this one was massive, it went three kilometres inland, taking 50,000 lives with it, many children were left orphaned. Another thing that the second wave did was cause the world's worst train accident, when the first wave hit some people panicked and tried getting away, many people got on the train, but because there were so many people on the train there wasn't enough space inside, so people started climping the train to ride on top, but when the train was moving the second wave hit and knocked it off its tracks. People spent 10 years building the place up again and looking for the bodies.

We also spoke to some people who survived the tsunami, when we were in a tuk-tuk the man driving it started telling us about what happened, and that he survived because when it happened he was taking some people to a safari, and when he came back he found out that his dad had died in it :(. Another person we spoke to was a lady who owned the tsunami museum. It was hard being in there because they had pictures everywhere of what happened and letters from people that lost their children. She told us that the museum was her home, and you could see how damaged it was there.

Day 12

We didn't do anything on day 12 because we were so tired of travelling from one place to another. My brother and I went to the pool and the beach, we watched some TV, argued, had some food and yeah that's how it went.

Day 13

Day 13 was the day we were going back home, and I wasn't happy at all. I was happy that I was going to see my friends again but I just wanted to stay D: We wanted to do as much as possible that day so we went out for a walk to see what it's like one last time.

My mum wanted to get a Sri Lankan pot to do her cooking, my dad wanted a moonstone, my brother just wanted to sit down and I wanted to get more gifs for people at home, so we went shopping again. Mum wanted her pot so much, and she wanted the perfect one. We went to so many shops, and there were pots in everyone, but it was too light, too heavy or not the right size. We went to about 5 shops and 1 pottery shop, and we returned to most of them. When mum found the right one we went looking for dad's moonstone, and we went to one shop and found one. When the workers in that shop saw us they laughed because we had already been there twice in the last hour. They gave us the moonstone, we had a chat with them again and then we left.

Now it was time for my shopping, by that time my brother couldn’t even walk so we got my things and took a tuk-tuk back to the villa.

We had to pack our bags now for the plane and the man came to take us to the airport. When we got there we checked in, did the normal things you do at an airport and got on the plane home…

THE END