Last weekend became a traveling weekend unexpectedly. There was a website launching event as a part of the Elders Day celebration in Polgolla, Sri Lanka. This website was created by Mr. Anura Kasthoori who works with us partially attached to our lab. Since he is currently taking rest at home after a road accident he faced more than a month ago, he could not attend to this event. Therefore, Dr. Kasun asked me to participate to the ceremony on behalf of Mr. Kasthoori. Initially I had a plan to go to my home town in Matara in this weekend but due to this unexpected ceremony, I had to change my plans. Therefore, I decided to goto Polgolla with my wife to make this journey more interesting.
Last Saturday early morning, we started the journey from a van provided by the organizers of the ceremony who are a part of the Social Welfare Ministry. It was about 4.30am when we started from the university and we reached Polgolla before 8.00am. Even though the original agenda was to start the ceremony at 8.30am, it an extra 30minutes when it gets started. There was several interesting events in the ceremony such as distributing prizes and awards to some senior citizens and different musical and dancing performances. Since I was nervous about the launching of the website, I tested my laptops Internet connection and checked everything time to time until the website launching time arrives. Finally it came around 12.00pm and the website was launched by the hand of a minister of the parliament who attended to the ceremony.
At the end of the ceremony, the organizers distributed lunch packets to the attendees. Me and my wife collected our meal and came out of the conference hall. Even though we were offered to get transport facility to come back to Colombo in the same van we came in the morning, we refused since we decided to stay in Kandy till the next day. So, we took a bus from Polgolla to Kandy and then from the Kandy town, we took a taxi to get to a small hotel. Even though the place we found was not very good, we didn't have any option since we couldn't select and reserve a good hotel before we leave Colombo. So, we decided to manage with the limited things we had.
In the evening we walked from the hotel to the Temple of the Tooth. The walk was a little bit tiresome from the hotel to the temple but the nice view of the lake made us relaxed. We had dinner at a nearby Pizza Hut because I always love to enjoy pizza. It was about 9.00pm when we finish our dinner and start walking back to the hotel. I thought there would be crowd on the road but surprisingly the road around the lake was almost empty and looked not safe. So, we rushed to the hotel without waiting to see anything around. We couldn't visit any nearby places other than the Temple of the Tooth due to the limitations of time.
The next day early morning, which was a Sunday, we checked-out from the hotel and took a train from the Kandy railway station at 6.30am to Colombo Fort. I think this train journey was the most interesting part of this unexpected visit to Kandy. The sceneries of the mountains while traveling in the train made me so glad that we came there. We arrived to Colombo Fort railway station around 9.45 am without delays. It was a great unexpected journey.
At the end of the ceremony, the organizers distributed lunch packets to the attendees. Me and my wife collected our meal and came out of the conference hall. Even though we were offered to get transport facility to come back to Colombo in the same van we came in the morning, we refused since we decided to stay in Kandy till the next day. So, we took a bus from Polgolla to Kandy and then from the Kandy town, we took a taxi to get to a small hotel. Even though the place we found was not very good, we didn't have any option since we couldn't select and reserve a good hotel before we leave Colombo. So, we decided to manage with the limited things we had.
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