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Some members left early for shopping while the others proceeded to the beach. After reaching back our Hotel, we had a
sumptuous dinner .. On 2nd morning, after breakfast, a city tour was arranged for us by two air conditioned coaches which
included visit to a Hindu and Buddhist temple. After lunch, many of our members returned to the hotel to get prepared for
participating in the evening parade. All men were dressed in black pants and white shirts and the ladies wore different
colours of sarees. We joined the parade with members from other districts of our multiple. An A La Carte Dinner was
arranged for all of us. at our Hotel that night.We had the company of some foreigners also and a music was also arranged to
entertain us during dinner. On the 3rd, early morning, we checked out from the hotel to proceed to Kandy, a wonderful
journey up the hillside. On the way, we could visit an elephant orphanage at Pinnawala which is the home for the world's
largest herd of captive elephants.. This place is open to the tourists and the income from the tourist is used for the
maintenance of elephants. The elephants taking bath in the river is an amazing sight which one cannot miss. Next, we
proceeded to Susantha Spice & Herbal Garden, had a nice afternoon walk and gathered information about the spices and
herbs. We learnt an interesting fact that cinnamon originated in Sri Lanka. After that, we visited Embilmeegama Tea
Factory and Tea Promotion Centre and witnessed the processing of tea under different stages and also relished a cup of hot
tea without milk. For information, Sri Lanka is the one of the world's largest tea exporters and Ceylon tea is very famous
for its quality. We were shown different types of tea and some of our members purchased the same. The evening visit was
to the Botanical Garden. We had a nice walk round the garden. Then we had an occasion to witness a cultural programme
in which a few traditional dances of Sri Lanka were performed by professional artists..
The temple of Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in Kandy and we had the opportunity to visit the shining temple.
After that, we were taken to the Hill Top, the resort up the hill. A relishing dinner was arranged in the Hotel and we spend
a wonderful night in the Resort.
Probably due to its proximity to South India, the cuisine of
Sri Lanka has an influence, quite distinct. Rice was served
on many an occasion while spicy curries are their favourite
dishes for lunch and dinner. Some of the Sri Lankan dishes
have much resemblance to Kerala cuisine and because of
similar geographical and agricultural features with Kerala,
coconut is a very important ingredient used in cooking.
Hence our entire group, including vegetarians, enjoyed the
food during the entire tour.
All of us enjoyed the stay in Colombo and Kandy and on
4th morning, after the breakfast, we all packed up and
proceeded to the Colombo International Airport to board
the flight to Kochi in the afternoon. We all reached back
safely at Kochi by 3.30 p.m On behalf of all of you, I take
this opportunity to congratulate Lion Sreekumar, District
Chairperson,ISAAME for arranging this tour in a
meticulous manner and making it a very pleasurable one.
A very wonderful experience indeed for all the members
of District 318E to take some time off from our daily
schedule and "CELEBRATE LIONISM" through this
international tour.
Lion Meenakshi Varadarajan
District Newsletter Editor

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