Every good trip begins with a bright beginning, in our case, it was the complete opposite. My story begins in the pitch-black, peaceful darkness of my room, abruptly awoken by a sharp BEEP BEEP BEEP at 2:30 am. The morning went by quickly, I hopped in my Uber and zoomed through the empty streets of Colombo, driving to school in F1 fashion. Greeted by the smiling faces of the guards, I hauled my bags up the very familiar hill into the blue gates of the school. We departed at 4:00 am sharp. The warm whispers of excitement slowly turned into soft breathing, we were all out cold; all of us except Sam, Aniq, and Adam who decided it was the perfect time to laugh, snort, and converse loudly about arctic animals🐧🦭 We rose to the sound of screeching tires, the bus had stopped at a halt. An 8:00 am breakfast of spicy curries from a local shop was calling our names, and omgl was this spicy. This was the first (of many) moments of bonding between Vicky and I over unbearably spicy foods, twas toujours great pain mais muchos fun memorias 🪇🍹🎉🤪 We got back on the bus and everyone went back to their cozy dreams where we were safe from the pain of the fiery dhal. We all awoke at around noon passing the time by playing wavelength, categories, and the alphabet game thingy (the one Mr. Hentz would always let us play), our fun was cut short by yet another halt. We had stopped at Kaludiya Pokuna (Kings Pond) a tranquil archeological site, containing remains of an old stupa and monastery bearing signs from one of the earliest hydraulic civilizations of the Sinhalese kingdom. We stretched our legs and got out of the bus, greeted by a pack of Toque Macaques, the cute fellas guided us up the steps and into a peaceful pond surrounded by dozens of broken tan buildings. We were given postcards, on which we were instructed to write our address so we could send it to our parents at Point Pedro. I wrote mine at the top of a huge rock along with Vicky, Darius, and Stephie. We circled the pond slowly walking behind Mr. Lockwood who explained to us about the natural aspect of everything. We climbed up this building, and Darius spotted this cool snake which we took a bunch of photos with. We also went through a cave where the monks used to sleep and climbed this giant tree that I almost fell off of🙀 When we got back to the bus, I cracked open the bag of Cheetos to satisfy our bumbling bellies, Alex crushed them up and covered chicken nuggets in them creating a masterpiece of a concoction. It was bussin🤤🐣🍗 We stopped for lunch 30 minutes later, at this local spot on the side of the road where they served us incredible paneer malasa with naan. It was the perfect amount of heat and flavor and went down as a treat. We bought a couple more snacks for the rest of the trip and departed.

After a couple hours of driving, we reached Point Pedro, the most northern part of Sri Lanka. We dropped our postcards in, posed for a sick photo (which a bird came and violently interrupted, nearly taking us out), took off our shoes, and strolled along the beach. The beach was littered with interesting trash, we found these dead sea urchin and cuttlefish skeletons which were cool, as well as this coconut shaped like a football which we launched across the beach in classic Patty Mahomes style😏We even found this foam piece with a rope which we tied to this wooden pole, where we played tetherball with. The best part of the beach was for sure the wrecked boat, which was turned upon its side. We took a boys photo✌️which turned out amazing, from then on we decided to take as many as we could. There was also this old lighthouse which we weren’t able to go up but were able to look inside and admire.

We left Point Pedro for our next stop, Keerimalai Springs, a natural spring next to the ocean believed to have healing properties. We arrived after the springs had closed however there were great amounts of people in it, so we decided we could go through. There were 2 sides, split between girls and guys. I decided not to swim but I did explore the area with Aniq and Adam where we found this horrid-smelling bathroom. We decided to climb up the bathroom and take some sexy sunset photos of us🌅We left the springs, and headed for our final destination of the day, our hotel. When we got there we split into our rooms, mine was with Sam and Darius. We had room 310 an identical room to the other boys, with 2 single beds and a pull-out couch-bed. When pulling out the couch bed, since our room was so small, we needed to move a table. Now we didn’t check whether the glass part was properly stuck to the wooden bit so when we turned it to the side, leaning against the wall (it was my idea I admit) we watched the glass panel slowly fall out of place, shattering all over the floor😫 We dealt with the table, showered, and got ready for dinner. The hotel did a great job of providing food, it was a buffet, filled with many different types of foods. There was this delectable seafood pasta 🤯🍝 which I must’ve gone back for fourths for, potato wedges🥔, and sweet and sour shrimp🍤. Me and Alex also tried Jaffna’s famous crab curry🦀, which we both agreed was pretty mid, too much effort for barely any meat. After dessert and a whole bunch of papaya juice shots, we left back to our room where the other 3 boys snuck over to play some late-night Monopoly Deal. I decided to skip it, I was exhausted from the long day and sunk into the soft mattress, dozing off immediately.

I was annoyingly awoken at 6am by Sam. I slept like a baby👶🏿🍼We got up for the breakfast buffet, where the food was just as good as last nights was. Brushed our teeth, applied layers on layers of sunscreen, packed our day bags, and left. The bus ride was supposed to be “a calm 30-minute ride” but ended up being nearly 2 hours😾 After the gruesome ride of being in the back row, squished between Adam and Darius, we got out onto the pier. Aniq and I wanted extra protection for the boiling boat ride so we bought matching bucket hats to clash with our competitors, Darius and Adam, who rocked bright pink, flowered, Bo Peep lace hats👒, and Stephie and Vicky’s crisp cowboy hats. We walked along the pier and boarded our boat🛥️, a lot less sketchy than the previous year’s boat was, but evenly as shaded. There was one room with limited seats, a sizzling deck, and a lower area used for storage. All the kids sat outside either sleeping in the sun, laying down across the deck, or resting our backs along the outer wall. The ride was super wavy🌊, we kept tossing and turning, all stumbling across each other.

We finally reached Delft Island, a little small island 2 hours away from the coast of Jaffna. We hopped onto this steaming bus and started our tour. We first drove to a giant Babob tree. It was nothing compared to the African baobabs which towered the savannah but it was quite cool to see one again. There was a small opening in the baobab, and writing along the trunk which the group took many aesthetic photos by. There were also a ton of bumps and strong branches on the tree, which we took as an invitation to climb up. We left the tree and headed for Cholan Ruins, a Buddhist stupa made entirely of coral stones. It was a small bunch of buildings that were blown out but still climbable (which is exactly what we did) we stayed there for 30 minutes before leaving just as a group of monks entered to pray inside. The heat was seriously affecting the group, the only source of fresh air from the bus was from the barely openable windows, which we got hardly anything out of. We stopped at Quindah Tower tower, built by the British to be a trigonometric point and a light navigation point for diurnally operated ships. We used the tower for shade and enjoyed the breeze of the ocean while sipping on our purple aloe vera drinks🍷 They had a very peculiar taste which was a mix of dragon fruit, aloe vera, and pepperflakes. I found it to be very refreshing and chugged the whole thing. I even got a little extra as Adam clumsily spilled his whole glass on my socks🤬🖕 We dreadfully got back onto the bus and I passed out, all the heat from the boat ride and bus ride had gotten to me, I was exhausted. When it was time to come out to tour the Delft library I was fully out of it, only being able to lie down across on the broken wall💤 Supposedly the island was supposed to be full of wild ponies but we only managed to see 1, which we sped past, hurrying to fill our quaking bellies after being starved for 7 hours. We found this place near the dock, which I will never know if it was truly exceptional or just that good because of how ravenous we were. But I remember the food being of the gods. We ate these vaipans which resembled doughnut balls🍩 but were made from banana, flour, and water (now one of my favorite Sri Lankan snacks), as well as this fried rice which took me back to 4th grade, living in Senegal 🇸🇳, on independence day when they would bring out giant pots of Thieboudienne🍲, and we would devour them clean. It was sensational. There was even this fried chicken🍗, with orange batter full of spices, it was 10x better than any KFC dish. We were finally satisfied. The island brought many feelings of disappointment and tiredness but we finally were leaving on a good note. The boat ride back made one one of the greatest naps in my life, 🏆🏅 “for sure in the top 5” 🏅🏆 I said after waking up to us tying ourselves to the pier.

We got back onto the bus and rode back in the sunset to get ice cream. Today was a great food day, if the rice, chicken, and doughballs weren’t enough, we ended lunch off with a glass of ice cream🍨each, from Rio’s a very famous ice cream shop in Jaffna. I’ve never seen an ice cream shop, or really any Sri Lankan shop, this packed before. Nearly every table was packed, we pushed through the long line and ordered whatever our heart desired. I was still full from lunch so I decided to just get butterscotch🧈, a flavor I’d never tried before, and was heavily hyped up by Aura to me on the way there. It was underwhelming but still good. We rode back to the hotel, took showers, and after an hour of free time (which we spent watching Bear Grylls and Discovery Channel with all the boys📺) we headed to the dining hall. The food was just as good as the previous nights had been, and once again the pasta was a favorite of mine. I piled it high the first time knowing I was gonna love it, and still went back for seconds and thirds of it. After dessert (and many more papaya shots), we left back to the room where the other boys snuck over for games of poker🃏 I won🤑💸 but we weren’t playing with any money 🙁 it still was really enjoyable though, and Adam invited us all to his house after the trip where we could use his poker set to play a couple of chill games sometime. Even after the boat ride nap, I was still ready to drop and did exactly so just minutes after the other boys left after our final round.

We were able to catch up on sleep this day. We decided not to wake up early to hit the gym💪as we knew the next 2 days would be early morning wake-ups. Rising to the sound of Sam’s 30-minute morning shower😣we left for breakfast. I packed it high with French toast🍞 and eggs🍳, making sure not to take it easy on the portions after yesterday’s starving Delft trip😩We left back to our room, stuffed our bags, and left for the main hall. It started to trickle down raindrops, a drip became a drizzle which led to a full-force pour down⛈️ However, this didn’t stop us from taking the famous photo in front of the dancing buddas on the wall. We got on the bus to Jaffna Fort arriving after a short drive, the pour down had halted to a drip. We got out looked at interesting artifacts in the museum, and split into 2 groups touring around the perimeter. The Fort was quite cool, it was surrounded by a moat, and the tall walls made for a nice breeze when walking atop them. We eventually caught up to the other group, we climbed up one of the ruined walls, and walked down to the middle scurrying down a sketchy ladder. There was this huge field where Vicky, Darius, Stephie, and I played freeze tag for a bit before joining the others in Duck Duck Goose🦆🪿 Peak Esufally moments emerged from that game, where we saw Aniq play by his “Aniq rules” not running after the goose but waiting for them at the designated seat😭 as well as slipping on the wet dirt, being chased by Alex💀 What a goofy goober. We took some quick boat photos of the whole group in one big boat, lined up after each other, and headed for the exit. After exiting the fort walls, the group heard Adam call from the back “IT’S COMING FOR US”, sprinting past everyone followed by Aniq. We all thought he was doing Adam activities again, Darius and I exchanged a look of ‘bro wtf is this guy doing?’ Then it hit us. I’ve never seen anything like it, a the drip skipped the drizzle and went straight for a full-blown storm. Me and Darius immediately started sprinting after Adam and Aniq. It was one of the funniest moments of the trip. I heard Aniq yelling “IM GONNA SLIP AGAIN” running up front like a headless chicken clumsily avoiding all the puddles, then suddenly Alex came through shouting “WHOS GONNA CARRY THE BOATS AND THE LOGS” with exaggerated motions and a face of ferociousness. I burst into laughter, giggling to myself all the way back to the bus. We were soaked, having only the headrests and our hoodies to dry ourselves off with.

We stopped for an early lunch before leaving Jaffna, nearby Rio’s and this giant temple we eyed the day before. Now I know I keep going into high detail about the food from this trip, seeming like each meal gets better and better, but this was genuinely the best food on the trip and probably one of the best foods (period) I’ve ever had in my life. Yes, it was that good. It was in this vegetarian Indian restaurant that didn’t seem like anything special from the look of it, but the food blew the socks off of everyone. I thought the paneer masala I had on the first day couldn’t be beaten, but goddamn was I wrong. I couldn’t get enough of the first day’s one🍛so I decided to order it yet again. This dish was mouth-watering, and the fresh buttery paratha pushed it into one of the best foods I’d ever put in my mouth. As well as that, the cheese and onion dosa that Alex shared with me was even better. It tasted like straight parmesan frico🧀with the freshness of the raw onion🧅which cut through just perfectly, adding a sweet layer of acidity, topping it off with the dipping of the coconut chutney🥥which tied it all together. I washed it down with a salt lassi🥛, something I’d never tried before but was delighted by, tasting similar to Greek yogurt in liquid form. I loved every part of the meal and was sad I couldn’t eat anymore once we got back on the bus. The bus ride to Mannar Fort was quite uncomfortable, through chattering teeth and numbed fingers🥶, everyone messed with the ACs to fix them in the best spot to dry themselves up from the earlier soaking. We arrived at the fort in 2 hours. The rainclouds had all dispersed and left us with the blazing sun, it felt amazing. We all got out of the bus with a gasp of glee🌞 The Mannar Fort was much smaller than the Jaffna Fort, with walls roughly of the same height but nowhere near the area/perimeter. The first thing the boys all did was take a quick tinkle🦴〽️ in this pitch-black room under the walls, it smelled putrid like a dead possum. We then walked along the walls, there wasn’t much to the surrounding scenery unlike Jaffna Fort but there was this really interesting well with odd leaves which would reform after a rock would be thrown in. Me, Vicky, and Adam found this to be enjoyable, finding the biggest rocks we could to throw in. After taking some photos and videos, we came back to the group and got back on the bus. On the way to our hotel, we stopped by this sacred baobab, which was planted by the feces of a camel passing through thousands of years ago🐪💩

It was getting late so we decided to leave to Adam’s Bridge, the most western point of the island which used to connect to India centuries before. It was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. The vibes were immaculate, the sunset, the rugby, the memories. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

We got to the new hotel, which looked similar to an Indian wedding, proudly hanging a ton of lights to highlight them in the night. This time I was rooming with Aniq and Adam, we were across from the other 3 boys. We all showered and left for dinner where we were served kottu with chicken fried rice. It was amazing. I’ve loved every meal since we’ve been on the trip. With our bellies stuffed, we did our reflections and said our goodnights. However, shortly after the other guys came over and we played a couple rounds of Cards Against Humanity where a fun little fight broke out between Aniq and Sam. It was late at night and we were all howling with laughter so I didn’t blame Ms. Melinda for coming down to scold us for being able to hear us from the 2nd floor. Eventually, the other boys left, and Adam, Aniq, and I lay on our beds chatting to each other until around 11:30 before our eyelids couldn’t resist the urge to close.

 

The fourth day began with a very early wake-up, Mr. Lockwood lightly tapped my door letting me know it was time to wake up and get ready for the flamingo searching. I silently washed my face, got changed, and stepped into the dark hallways, I made sure not to make much noise as Aniq and Adam chose to catch up on sleep. We got onto the hushed bus, no one spoke until we stopped. We hopped off and started our trek toward the birds, it was an interesting biome, a salt-crusted desert filled with acacia trees and thorned bushes, reminiscing features of the many African savannas that I went on as a young kid. The walk wasn’t too bad, the sun had come up but it wasn’t unbearably hot. We reached the spot where we couldn’t get any closer to the birds, making sure to stay unseen in the bushes, the group hid in an acacia tree and admired the flamingoes. I must admit it was quite underwhelming, what I thought would be bright pink feathers were faded white and black, barely comparable to the “typical” flamingo that first comes to mind when thinking about it🦩 We walked back to the bus, all a bit disappointed, and took off back to the hotel.

After showering and changing, we gathered in the dining room to eat breakfast. I made myself 2 egg sandwiches, with 2 cups of incredible milk tea☕, poured from a dispenser (which I’d never seen before). We dumped our bags back into the van and loaded ourselves into the bus. I sat next to Stephie, behind Analie and Lotty. The four of us talked for most of the bus ride, only pausing during the in-between naps. We stopped at the Donkey Clinic, a safe space for the roaming donkeys of Mannar🫏 We all bought a cup of dried lentils and were able to feed the donkeys by hand, I fed all of mine to a fluffy donkey, I named Turbo (after the snail🐌🏎️), he was adorable. After learning about the company’s aiding history, and taking a whole bunch of photos we once again got back on the bus heading to Piturangula.

We reached our destination after a gruesome 4-hour drive, where we immediately got off the bus to go on a “short walk around the camp” which ended up being a 2-hour hike around Piturangula rock. The walk was the perfect temperature, through thick bushes and a beaten-up dirt path we finally reached back to camp. However, the other half of the group had already been waiting for us for some time as Mr. Lockwood took a large group of us to look at Sigirya, actually in the same spot where I was last year for the biking trip. Vicky, Darius, Stephie, and I acted as the caboose, meeting this cool tuk driver (whom we took a selfie with), these guys who were filming the ruined road to send to the government to push for new ones sans all the potholes, as well as this local who tried selling us this wooden elephant with a secret compartment for 100 dollars😭

We were all exhausted after the walk, not because it was physically hard but from the long car ride and lack of sleep. We dropped our bags off at our rooms, took a quick potty break 😃 and napped. We awoke to Alex telling us it was time to get back out into the forest, it was around 8 o’clock, pitch black, the perfect time for a night walk🌚 Aniq and I strolled back to the main room where Mr. Lockwood instructed us on our next activity, an “iNaturalist scavenger hunt” where we would break into groups of 1 ESS person per group (of 2) and look for different species. I was appointed Lotty 🇦🇺🐨🦘🪃 as my partner, who I made my apprentice and would go on to teach the ways of being an ESS kid (the best type of science kid ofc🥼🦠). Our first order of business was immediately running to the glowing alien bug thingy which we found earlier to claim for our own🐛 We walked out of the camp with Stephie, Anais, and Adam, a different group, and waited for the slowpokes to catch up. As soon as we stepped out of the trees, we feasted our eyes upon a majestic array of stars, all sparkling in the sky. We saw Orion, Scorpio, and both dippers🌌, even the north star⭐ and Jupiter🪐too! I’ve never seen the sky so full of light, cause clouds and pollution normally would block it in the big city. It was truly a sight to see. We began our midnight walk on the road searching for Lorises, a funky-looking fuzzball of a creature with owl-sized eyes🦉 and a pointy nose resembling the features of a big mouse🐭 The red team (people with red lights woah fancy ik) led the way for us, nooby normal flashlight folks, along with 3 guides all mimicking the sounds of a Loris hoping to lure it out of the trees. While Adam left to be part of red team, Anais, Stephie, Lotty, and I, linked hands and began our hour-long journey into the red-tinted forest, never separating for a moment. We didn’t see a Loris, only were able to hear a couple of squeaks and chirps but never saw any big bulbous eyeballs 👀 behind the cute calls. Nonetheless, it was still a very calming, beautiful walk and I found it very fun, whispering between the 4 of us, and finding new and innovative ways to annoy each of them 🤠 We got back roughly around 9:00, ate dinner, showered, and headed back to our rooms all eagerly waiting for the 3:00 am wake up next morning 😑

Waking up this early in the morning was starting to take a toll on my sanity, I would have to catch myself from dozing off just when standing still. It didn’t help that Aniq and I decided to stay up till midnight having a heartwarming❤️🥰, friendly🫂 talk, and we were running on 3 hours of sleep, but it did help someone was going through the same pain as I was. We quickly got dressed putting on the same damp clothes we had worn for yesterday’s under-the-stars walk along with our mud-crusted hiking shoes, struggling over to the main cabin. Shortly after, the main cabin recorded every person and our trek up to Piturangula began. The hike wasn’t too bad, there was just minimal amounts of light under the trees and we all kept stumbling over the uneven steps. Passing by the giant sleeping statue, and the place Stephie hit her head last year😭 we strutted into a huge group of tourists all as eager to watch the sunrise as we were. Crammed all together for many minutes, watching the sky turn more orange with every passing second, we finally reached the top. It was incredible, genuinely a sight that I’ll never forget. The sky was filled with ribbons of warm oranges, yellows, and pinks, all merging with the faded baby blue sky above as the white mist circled the pine-colored mountain ranges. The wind was cooling, a slight breeze, not too much to give goosebumps but just enough to tickle the hairs on your arms. We sat in awe, staring at the steadily rising sun peek through the hills. The rest of the group finalized the climb and slowly lined up across the chilly rock soaking in the moment. We stayed at the top for an hour, laughing, taking numerous photoshoots, and enjoying the last moments of the trip together, I felt both happy and sad it would all be over soon, unable to wait for the soft silk sheets of my bed but unwanting to part ways with my newly made family.

The ride back was quite peaceful, I sat next to Stephie in the 2nd back row. I slept most of the ride, regaining the lost hours of sleep, only waking for the coffee and lunch break we took. We arrived back to school at 3:30 right as the other busses were loading on the primary kids, I said my goodbyes, gave my hugs and daps then dipped. I was exhausted and extremely grateful to be back, what a blast the last 5 days had been. Next year this time, MOCKS will hit us like a train🚆so we all made sure to cherish every moment together. This trip brought many unforgettable memories, and I’m ever glad I chose it.