My last WWW trip was the biking one which was a nice challenge but still very enjoyable. This year I got to go on the Jaffna trip and here is a summary from my memory of what happened each day.
Monday Day 1:
- Very early wake up, (3am-ish)
- Long train ride for 5 hours
- War memorial (big tank)
- Point Pedro (sending a letter in the mail)
- Military barracks esc hotel (1 night)
Tuesday Day 2:
- Beach walk in the morning (6am-ish)
- Big temple and a swim in a sacred(?) pool
- Going to the Thinnai (2 nights)
- I eat one of the spiciest chilis I have ever eaten for lunch
- Head over to Jaffna Fort via bus
- Dinner at Levin’s 👍
- Back to Thinnai
Wednesday Day 3:
- Breakfast at the Thinnai 🙂
- Bus ride over to a small port (which will take us over to an island with an important and impressive temple)
- Take the boat over to the island
- Walk around the island and visit the temples
- Take the very loud boat back (they wouldn’t let us sit on top of the boat this time so we had to stand inside very close to the engine)
- Lunch at Levin’s 👍
- Visit Jaffna Library (Thisath and I just sat in the children zone and read books)
- Visit an old abandoned house and the local market
- Dinner at the Thinnai 🙂
Thursday Day 4:
- Mr. Lockwood let people sleep in a bit more because people went bird watching pretty early
- Breakfast at the Thinnai 🙂
- Packed and leaving the Thinnai
- Lunch at some random restaurant
- Visit a park with a bunch of ruins (Matthew, Pep and I walk around, Matthew and I ran up a rock and then Matthew fell down and slipped
- Left the park and got to BoB (Back of Beyond) and had dinner.
Friday Day 5:
- Wake up at 5am (but I felt like crap so I stay back with Peter at BoB)
- Everyone comes back from Pidurangala around 8am
- Pack up and leave around 10-11 am
- Sat in the van with Peter and everyone else is on the bus
- Arrive back at OSC around 2:30pm
My feelings/feedback on the trip,
The Week Without Walls Jaffna trip is very fun and engaging, if you don’t mind the amount of temples you will visit. The temples are very beautiful and interesting though I believe there may have been to many. On Friday (last day of the trip) I was unfortunately sick and so was Peter, so we stayed back and rested for an extra three hours while the rest of the people went hiking up Pidurangala (I had a nice nap though 👍). Comparing this to my last WWW trip, I would say this is better in terms of how more laid back it is but if you’re looking for a bit more action then I wouldn’t recommend this one. Overall, I would at least try this trip out for one of your times on WWW.