“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
Confucius
It was my first such a long trip in my life, first journey to Asia and it was the the time when my dream to see the ocean came true. I was dreaming about it for some years and waiting it so badly. And didn’t expect that it would happen so unexpected and so far. This trip we didn’t plan for a long time. It was a cold November and I just felt I need a vacation because I couldn’t work effectively any more. So we just bought a tour to Sri Lanka on
Saturday and there was a flight on Monday from Kiev. We needed about 10 hours to get to Kiev from my city. That was really a fast gathering! We had two flights with transit in Dubai. 11 hours in the air in general and about 3 hours in Dubai. Wow! That was long! With all my love to fly it was a time I enjoyed the trip a lot. What can be better to sit near the window in the plane and enjoy the most beautiful views in the world, watching fluffy skies and Earth so far under the plane, mountains, rivers… Landscapes were so different, we had passed some time zones and that was amazing!
What I like is the difference in weather. I had to change winter coat, hat, shoes to summer t-shirt and jeans. That is amazing! I hate to wear a lot of clothes – it always takes a lot of time which I could spend on more important things. So when we finally arrived it was like we were in the other reality! It was so unusual humidity and so warm! We had a transfer from the airport to the hotel. The road took some hours by mini-bus. The view I saw from the window was really something I’ve never seen in my life – I even saw wild monkeys near the road, small taxi-kebs called “tuk-tuk”, rice fields and such a beautiful nature around. We have 
chosen the hotel on almost the most southern part of Sri Lanka – it wasn’t touristic city, only some hotels, no shops for tourists, small local village close and boundless coast… That was exactly what I needed to find an inspiration, to rest from the city noise, to breath a really fresh air and to see such an amazing world so far from cold this time and elegant Europe. Everything was so different. When we have arrived to the hotel, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The hotel was on the first line of one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen and there were no people around! So peaceful and such a perfect sand! We had to wait some hours before check in so there was a room where we could change and I couldn’t wait to go to swim! Of course I was the first one who went to swim! Water is my element! There were some people swimming in there 
and I was enjoying the water, so warm and pleasant but in some mins I suddenly found out that two lifeguards grabbed me and dragged me to the beach. I didn’t understand what did just happen. Only after they said that the water in the Indian ocean isn’t the same as in the sea where I used to swim. It was extremely dangerous and I didn’t understand but the underwater stream carried me far into the ocean and in some minutes I was already very far from the beach. They saved my life and I was so scared so I still have a fear of big waves. But the saddest part was that those lifeguards asked us for money for saving my life. Of course we gave them money but for me it was wild. Because in my mind people do these things for free, helping people… So on the first some hours on that amazing island I faced with the beauty and dangerous side of it. So where do you travel, you need to be careful and don’t think you can handle everything especially something new for your culture.
On next articles I’ll tell you about the culture, sights, people, cities, ocean and other interesting things about this unbelievable country.
