COLOMBO

I know I forgot to post my roster for April like an idiot! But I was actually meant to have a Rome instead of this Colombo... however, me being so junior I got pulled off :( Never mind though because I had always wanted to go to Colombo to see the elephants!

The flight was really short and we actually have a scheduled flight where Colombo can be a turnaround... I'm so glad mine was the layover though haha. When we arrived there we decided to go straight to see the elephants. The hotel had a kind of tour package for the elephant sanctuary, medicine gardens, and tea factory. There was four of us in total so it was perfect as we could share a car which made it slightly cheaper.

The drive was loooong... about 2 hours! Once we got to the sanctuary I couldn't believe I was seeing a real life elephant this close! I had seen them before in India when I was younger but I couldn't really remember that. I'd never rode one though. We all had so much fun going through the river where he splashed us! We then fed him lots and lots of bananas haha.

They were really well looked after. I know some people are concerned about how these animals are treated but I enquired at the hotel beforehand to make sure. And I saw for myself that these animals were free to roam through the sanctuary without chains. We even met another elephant without a rider in the river while we were on our elephant! They were free to eat the plants and leaves off the trees as well as all the bananas that other tourists were giving them. It was really nice to see that not all of these kinds of tours make you feel sorry for the elephants. In fact I could definitely see that these ones were so happy and it was good they had people to feed and care for them.

We then went to the medicine garden where we learnt so much stuff about different plants and herbs and what they can be used for. I ended up buying some massage oil for my legs because with all this flying I'm kind of concerned about varicose veins! Hopefully it will help.

After that we went to the tea factory which again, was really interesting. The lady showed us the different machines and described different tea leaves. We got to try some different types and it was all delicious!

I really enjoyed this layover even though it was unexpected. I had so much fun with these girls, one of who was also on my date of joining! So it was nice to see her again and fly together :)

I've heard the city of Colombo is also really nice to explore so if I ever get this layover again I will have to go see for myself :)

- Parul xo

#colombo #elephants #srilanka #layover