Welcome to Paradise!

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I was awoken after only a few hours of sleep by a loud rumbling noise that intensified before fading off into the distance. I figured there was no use in sleeping (I was overseas!!) so I went outside to see Sri Lanka by day. Our hotel was located close to the beach providing a view of tropical palms, white sand and waves crashing onto the beach. It was a stunning view. Yet looking across in the other direction you could see poverty with run down buildings and piles of rubbish. The rumbling noise that awoke me was a train and it wasn't long before I saw another. I couldn't believe how full the train was, people were even hanging out of the doors as they seemed carefree to the dangers it may pose.

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Making my way downstairs I enjoyed my first breakfast overseas. There is one thing I will always remember from this breakfast and that is how unbelievably good the tropical fruit tasted!! The pineapple and bananas were sensational, so full of flavour and nothing like I had tasted back in Australia. Despite it still being quite early I was feeling the humidity and had a quick dip in the pool to cool off. This was followed by our group meeting where we all got to know each other a little prior to the start of our journey.

By mid afternoon we were all ready to roll ... We hitched a ride on the tour bus for about an hour to get away from the traffic and during this time I learnt a lot about the Sri Lankan culture thanks to our extremely passionate tour guide, Daniel. I had never seen somebody with so much energy and love for their country and I have yet to see it since. He declared that he would ensure we all had an amazing experience and would leave feeling like Sri Lanka was a wonderful country ... he is a man of his word.

Before getting on our bikes Kath (Intrepid leader) made us warm up in a big circle. It must have been amusing for the locals to see a group of crazy Westerners in bright green tops and lycra shorts go through a stretching routine!! We definately got some unusual looks!

Today was a short ride of only 30km, which included a boat ride across a river and a little off track cycling. I was loving it ... We were immediately exposed to two things. One, how Sri Lanka was nothing short of a tropical paradise with the lush and colourful surroundings. And two, how the Sri Lankan people were sooo friendly with grettings coming from all directions, sometimes you could not even see the people!

Tonight we stayed on the beach where most of us enjoyed a dip in the ocean. I got talking to some locals on the beach about the cricket where they tried to inform me one of them played for Sri Lanka in the past... Quite amusing really, they were very friendly though. As we chatted away the sun set on the horizon emitting powerful pinks and reds showing that a warm day was expected tomorrow. Surprisingly everybody was off to bed nice and early which I couldn't really understand ... it was 09:30 and we were overseas!! Hello!! I think everyone was a little aprehensive about tomorrows ride whilst I was too pumped about being overseas to care!