narascameraroll for 2023 (Honoring my Last WWW)

Ah, WWW … an iconic trip. Where MYP 1-DP 1 go away from Colombo for one week to experience Sri Lanka. As DP 1s, we get to join the MYP 5s and join 1/4 WWW micro-trips (Down South, Highlands, Jaffna, and Biking).

Last year, I did the iconic hiking trip, Highlands whilst this year, I got the honor to join Down South and it was 10/10 to say the least.

Figure 1: Map of Where We Went (Google Map credits: Shinara)

In honor of the ‘no phones’ rule, you just know I had to bring my Canon IXUS to bring back @narascameraroll, my photgraphy Instagram account. Photography is one of my biggest interests at the moment (just for fun), so I decided to contribute to that.

The Eccentric Dog (Day 1)

Figure 1: Thisali looking away (photo credits: narascameraroll})

Our first stop was a temple. We had to climb many steps to get to the top and be able to see the beautiful view (you can tell I love views). The religious side of Sri Lanka was shown more during this stop and I’m sure many people liked that.

We also saw many monkeys (including one eating one of the flowers given to the temple).

Figure 2: Monkey eating flower (photo credits: narascameraroll)

We were kind of scared because these are the type of monkeys to attack you, so we had to be very careful when going up and looking at the monkeys (self awareness).

After viewing the temple, we went on another bus ride to Back and Beyond, the hotel where we were staying for 2 nights.

Our final activity was going to to turtle sanctuary, where we learnt about the different turtles in Sri Lanka and even saw many stars (no light pollution there !!).

We finally went to the beach where we saw a big turtle digging a hole … only digging a hole … so we didn’t get to see any turtles hacking, only their eggs. But in all honestly, it was really cool to see, just made us go past our curfew.

We Got Wet (Day 2)

We went to another temple after breakfast and we needed to climb another several stairs yet again to get to the top. We finally got to the top, where we had to take off our shoes for respect.

Figure 4: Thisali and I (photo credits: Aura Datta)

After looking around, it was time for us to go back down to continue our activities, but as we were going down, it started raining ! So we needed to frantically get out our raincoats and put on our shoes. Which made our books wet too

We got to the best part of the day: THE SAFARI ! I was in a jeep with Aura, Thisali, Lehansa, Mr Marlon, and Ms Franciose where we saw many aminals like crocodiles, peacocks, even a dead turtle (didn’t really age well after seeing a turtle yesterday …). It was very fun experiencing this as I’d say it’s one of my favorite things in this trip.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (Day 3)

Halfway though and we’re still surviving ! It was time for us to swap hotels, so we went on a long journey until we got the stopping point for buses and change to jeeps. Kids waved to us while we were going, which was very sweet. We finally made to The Rainforest Ecolodge as we settled down for a bit and drank tea (all fun and games until Dharani spilt my tea).

After this, we experienced fish therapy … where fish eat your dead skin. It was a really tickley experience as I was giggly for a while (Ms. Melinda witnessing this as someone who did this trip last year), but I got used to it after a while, and it was a really nice feeling after.

Highlands Flashbacks (Day 4)

LITERALLY LIKE HIGHLANDS. We did a 3 hour hike, 1.5 hours there and back, in order to go to the fish therapy spa again, which we could also go for a waterfall swim. We all helped each other during this hike (collaboration), whether it was giving each other a hand or encouraging the others. After a while, we got to the my favorite part: the bird viewing area.

Once we got to the rest point, some of us got to the top since we (mostly Hadiya) wanted to be explorers. It was worth it though because the view was stunning, but it was very hot.

We got back to the fish therapy spa, which was quite nostalgic even though we only went yesterday. Some of us went for a swim, but I didn’t because I didn’t feel like it … before you say anything, I went waterfall swimming in Highlands, so I won’t regret my decision.

I Hope My Camera is Okay After All Those Photos (Day 5)

Day 5. The last day of this trip. The last day of my last WWW. I’m sure we were all upset to leave, but wanting to go home and see our family again (and music, but that’s not the point).

We mainly spend the day packing and getting our bags up. I saw something cool while I was going to my room after breakfast: tea pickers. I didn’t see them during my stay until that time. It was cool to see even though I have seen tea pickers, especially that close up.

Figure: Spot Hadiya (photo credits: narascameraroll})

After saying goodbye to The Rainforest Ecolodge, we went the same route we went in day 3, except we stopped somewhere kind of close to OSC (50 minutes away), and had lunch there.

Very Emotional for Ms Shinara

As someone who’s been here since 7th grade, I truly can’t believe this is my last WWW, it feels like I’m growing up really fast.

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