The Word On Travel – A Word From The Three Sisters

Utah Road Trip Day 3

Moab, Utah, to Springdale, Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

After Windows we headed over to the Delicate Arch. The hike up to Delicate Arch was marked as strenuous but also seemed to be the most popular hike because the parking lot was crowded. Although, we were a little apprehensive we decided to give it a try. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! The first bit of the hike was mild and was paved. This changed quickly enough and we had to climb up the face of a rock. This part was strenuous and tiring, especially for our mom and dad. They were very slow and rested every five seconds! Our dad allowed us athletes to go ahead and we quickly lost sight of them. We eventually made it to the top of the rock and expected to see the delicate arch. But we quickly realized that there was even more hiking to do. We continued walking and climbing for ten more minutes and had to navigate a small ledge on the side of a huge rock. It was a little scary being on a ledge where you could see the steep drop but we eventually made it to the end. We waited around 20 minutes at the end before our mom and dad eventually caught up to us. We sat looking at the arch, taking pictures, and had a snack before heading back down. It was a little easier this time because we were going downhill, but it was still challenging to navigate the steep descent. On our way up and down, we saw many families who were dragging small kids. Clearly, they didn’t know what they were getting into either.

Day three of our trip! We woke up at around 5:45 in the morning ready for a day of hiking at Arches National Park. Simran and I quickly got dressed and went down to the lobby of our hotel to get some breakfast for the whole family while Kiran slept in. Again, the breakfast was to-go and we ate in our rooms to keep away from people. We always wore a mask. We had planned to leave our hotel at around 6:40 A.M. to get to the park by 7:00 because we had heard the park would be crowded during Thanksgiving. As usual our family was late and we didn’t end up leaving the hotel until 7:15. All of us were a little worried that the park would be crowded but thankfully we made it early enough and not many people had arrived yet. The first hike we went on was called the Balanced Rock and it was more of a simple walk than hike. The three rock formations were really beautiful and we got some good pictures. Next, we headed over to Windows the second hike that we had planned for the day. We started off on a paved trail and then decided to take the primitive trail which was not paved and was off the beaten path. The trail was marked cairns which are piles of rocks that the park rangers had put out to mark the trail and to help hikers stay on track. This part of the trail was fun and beautiful and we all really enjoyed it. The hike was moderate, not too tiring, but not too easy either. We got some great pictures of the view and some cute pictures of the family as well.

All three of us at Delicate Arch!
(Images by the Jayasinghe Family)

The Delicate Arch hike took us around 3 hours. About 2 hours to go up and 1 hour to come down. Once we made it back down, we just rested in our car drinking water, eating, and resting our tired feet. We all sat there for around 15 minutes before deciding to move on to the next trail, the Devils Garden. There were two trails that we could take. The primitive trail, which would take around 7 hours, or the double o trail, which was pretty short and only around 2 miles. Obviously, we took the 2 mile one. We were extremely tired and barely had any physical strength left after our strenuous hike up Delicate Arch. Only my sisters, me, and my dad went on the Devils Garden trail because our mom was too tired and didn’t feel up to going. She rested in the car. The four of us took some pictures of the beautiful nature and quickly did the hike as we were all tired and we wanted to get back to our hotel. On our way back to our hotel our mom wanted to stop at the gift shop at the Visitor’s Center. The three kids stayed in the car. Once our mom had finished shopping we got some drinks at the Starbucks located inside the City Market (which believe it or not is the only Starbucks in Moab!) and then went back to our hotel to rest. We relaxed in our hotel room and watched some movies before going to pick up some dinner.

On our way to get dinner we also stopped to visit some friends from our swim team who had come to Moab. This was a complete surprise. Our parents and Simran wanted Mediterranean food but Kiran and I wanted pizza, so we ended up getting both. We got pizza from Domino’s and got Mediterranean food from Sultan Mediterranean Grill. After we drove back to our hotel room we lounged while eating before eventually deciding to go to sleep because we were all very tired.

Utah Road Trip Day 2

St. George to Moab Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

On the second day of our trip the plan was to drive from St. George to Moab to visit Arches National Park. The plan was to spend two nights in Moab. We woke up at around 7:30 and grabbed some breakfast that the hotel provided to go, and ate in our room to stay away from people. Because of COVID, the hotel breakfast was very limited and mainly had items that people could take to go. After breakfast we packed up our things and after mom taking a ridiculous amount of pictures, started our drive. Before we got onto the freeway we stopped at a gas station to grab some drinks and get a converter to charge our electronic devices in the car using a cigarette lighter power outlet. We started driving north on Interstate 15 to get onto the I-70 East. A little while into our drive we saw snow scattered on the ground and coating the mountains in the distance. As Californians we never see snow so we got extremely excited and demanded that we stop at the nearest rest stop. We got some wonderful pictures but underestimated how cold it would be and ended up only staying there for a couple of minutes because we were freezing to death. Of course no one thought of taking out our winter jackets from the back of the car. We continued driving for a long while, listening to music and talking. Although the scenery was beautiful the drive was long and boring.

View from the overlook on I-15!
(Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We stopped at an overlook on I-15 to stretch our legs. This time we did put on our thick winter jackets. The view was stunning and we took a lot of pictures and walked around for a bit. Back on the road, we stopped at a Love’s, (a gas station with a built in store,) to get some gas and grab some snacks. Then it was straight on to Moab.

When we arrived at Moab at around 4:45 the first thing we did was go to the Visitor’s Center at Arches National Park. It was closing in ten minutes so we ran in to get some advice on what to do at the park. We talked to a park ranger for about fifteen minutes, who gave us some maps and told us that the park never closes, and that we could come and go whenever we wanted. That was some good advice. Before going to our hotel, we stopped at the City Market to buy food and snacks for the next day’s hikes at Arches National Park. We headed to the hotel, (Hampton Inn) checked in, and just relaxed in our hotel room watching The Christmas Prince.

An hour later at about 9 P.M. and halfway into our movie, my sisters, me, and our dad left the hotel to go to Arches National Park to stargaze. This area is considered to be an international dark sky park. This is a place recognized for the quality of its night skies. To read more about this, you can visit the website at darksky.org. We had read that the night sky at Moab is really beautiful and we wanted to see what it was like. The drive in the park at night was a little scary. It was pitch black and there were no streetlights. We drove up to the Balanced Rock parking lot, parked, and looked at the night sky. It was beautiful, but sadly Kiran could barely see the stars because of her terrible eyesight. There were a good number of stars in the sky but I think it was less than what we could have seen because of the bright moon. Perhaps we could have gone up a little bit earlier when the moon was a little bit lower on the horizon. Our dad and Simran took pictures and we hung around for about half an hour looking at the stars before heading back to the hotel. We finished The Christmas Prince before going to bed and resting for the long day of hiking ahead of us.

Utah Road Trip Day 1

San Diego, California, St. George, Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

For the week of November 23rd-29th, my family decided to go on a road trip to Utah to visit three national parks. Because of COVID, we had been cooped up in our house for the past 8 months, and needed to get out of the house. Visiting national parks seemed like the safest thing to do as we would be outside, and could stay away from people. On Monday we drove from San Diego California to St. George Utah. The drive was supposed to be around six hours so we planned to leave early in the morning to get to St. George at a good time. However, our dad forgot to pick up our rental car the day before because he had mixed up the pick-up times and didn’t have the car to leave as early as we had planned. We rented our van from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Escondido. We were a bit disappointed in the service. They took more than an hour to clean and prepare our car and even then it wasn’t completely clean. When dad brought the car home, we packed and set out at 10 A.M., almost 4-5 hours than we had planned.

An hour and a half into the drive we stopped at a Macy’s at the Mall of Victorville to stretch our legs. We got Starbucks, hung around for a little bit while our mom shopped, and then got back on the road. A little while later, we stopped again at the Outlets at Barstow. Our parents shopped and looked around, while my sisters and I stayed in the car watching a Christmas movie (Noelle) on our laptops. Once we got back on the road, we continued driving and stopped a couple of times at rest stops to stretch our legs, and eventually made it to our hotel at around 8 P.M.. The hotel (at Hampton Inn and Suites in St. George) was nice and looked like it had been built recently. We got two separate rooms, parents in one, kids in another, which made it even nicer. The room was very spacious and clean. Once we settled in, our dad brought us dinner from Arby’s, and we ate and relaxed in the room.

The Huntington Library

by Svara Jayasinghe

On the weekend of the 24th-25th of August, my family and I drove to Pasadena for the weekend. On Saturday (24th), we decided to do a little sight-seeing at the Huntington Library. The Huntington Library, is a museum that consists of many different buildings including gift shops, art exhibits, rose gardens, etc. Its official name is The Huntington, Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Most of the land the library is situated on used to be the home of Henry and Arabella Huntington. The European Art Gallery, part of the Huntington Library, used to be the mansion that Henry and Arabella lived in.

Henry E. Huntington was born February 27th, 1850. Henry was an American railroad baron, who owned the Pacific Electric Railway. He also enjoyed collecting art and rare books. He and his second wife, Arabella, developed most of Los Angeles. Before Henry and Arabella died, they both signed papers to turn over their property to the city, to become a public museum. They left specific instructions in their wills so that the property would be preserved and maintained the way they envisioned. Henry died on May 23 1927, and Arabella died on September 16th, 1924. Their estate was then turned into what is now, The Huntington Library.

by Kiran Jayasinghe

We made our first stop at the Huntington library. The library includes a giant collection of books that were all bought and kept by Henry Huntington. The library also houses several exhibits, such as one of the first printed Gutenberg Bibles. We also took a look at the contract Henry and Arabella Huntington signed to make the library into a public attraction.

Then we walked to the Huntington Art Gallery, which was originally the Huntington family mansion. Huntington’s full collection of art includes 36,000 different pieces, including artistic objects, photographs, and paintings. The mansion had been converted to house over 1,200 pieces of European paintings, including the original The Blue Boy painting that is currently being restored. While displaying several paintings, the house was also kept in its original layout. We got to see the Huntington’s dining room and reading room in the same way the Huntington’s used it!

by Simran Jayasinghe

Rose Gardens at the Huntington Library! (Image by the Jayasinghe family.)

After viewing all the artwork, we walked to the Rose Gardens, as we had made a reservation earlier that day, at the Rose Garden Tea Room. The Huntingtons had planted a large collection of different types of roses, and some other flowers on the grounds of their estate, with walkways, fountains, and benches here and there making it a great place to stop and take a photo or two! The rose gardens seem to wrap around the small shop that is the Rose Garden Tea Room. We spent our tea time in the little tea room, relaxing and spending time together. We all drank multiple cups of tea, and had sweet and savory scones, cucumber, salmon, and egg sandwiches, and delicious desserts! After we had finished, we strolled back through the gardens, our dad stopping to take pictures of random flowers every now and then, back to the entrance to the grounds before they locked us in! We spent some time browsing around the gift shop located at the main entrance, before we walked off to our car, having spent a relaxing and fun evening together at The Huntington Library!

Tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room! (Image by the Jayasinghe family.)

To visit The Huntington’s Website, click here.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 11-14

by Simran Jayasinghe

At Minnehaha! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Dining hall! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Our grandfather had wanted us to get a more rural view of Sri Lanka, so we stayed at Minnehaha for the last couple days of our trip. Minnehaha was a house or bungalow, like an Airbnb, just off Dedduwa Lake, near a town called Benthota, about an hour drive south of Colombo. Our grandfather had booked all the rooms in the bungalow, which had been converted to be a guest house. Our grandparents stayed in one room, our parents stayed in another, and Kiran, Svara, and I shared a room together! The rooms had air-conditioning, and the bungalow had an outdoor pool, a great view of the lake, and, most importantly, free wifi!

On a walk! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Enjoying the pool! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We relaxed, away from all civilization, for the next three days. We played in the pool, played cards, and went on walks with our grandfather. The most exciting part was the food! All of the meals were delicious and were served to us by the guest house staff. It felt very fancy, and the food was plentiful. After a relaxing few days, we packed up and spent one night at our grandfather’s house. Then, we mentally prepared for the long and tiring flight home, before boarding our plane home! After our layover in Korea, where we freshened up and prepared for the next thirteen hours of death. We landed at L.A.X. on the second of January, thankful to be home! As much as I loved the trip, a 24 hour flight was not my idea of paradise!

Our speedo pose in Sri Lanka! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Click here to visit Minnehaha’s website to find out more, or book a room!

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 7-10

by Kiran Jayasinghe

The Hilton in Colombo! (image by the Jayasinghe family)

We relocated to the Hilton on the 25th. The Hilton was less ‘grand’ than the Cinnamon Grand, but the hotel was still great. The service was also exceptional. We had dinner through room service, and since it was Christmas, it came with bonbons, which was a nice touch.

Our food plus the bonbons from the Hilton (image by the Jayasinghe family)

On the 26th we visited the Old Dutch Hospital, which was a hospital built by the Dutch in 1681, that was recently converted into a mall. We enjoyed some chocolate biscuit pudding and shopped for souvenirs. Simran was still sick, so our grandfather took her to the hospital where he worked, to get a blood test done to make sure she didn’t have any serious virus, like Dengue fever or malaria. On the 27th, it was finally our birthday. Unfortunately, it was also finally my turn to get sick. I had such good luck! Right on my birthday, too. We lounged in bed for most of the day in hopes that we would feel better, but eventually we had to get up to go celebrate with family friends.

Several platters of finger foods! (image by the Jayasinghe family)

Our parents had made plans to celebrate with high tea at the Gallface hotel. The hotel had set up a table for about 30, overlooking the beach. They served us several platters of sandwiches and cakes, and of course, Ceylon tea. Everything looked delicious!

Us, our family and friends, and two delicious cakes (image by the Jayasinghe family)

The table set for 30 (image by the Jayasinghe family)

Afterwards, they brought out two chocolate birthday cakes with a giant sparking candle for each of us.

Two delicious cakes plus two giant sparklers (image by the Jayasinghe family)

The view from our table (image by the Jayasinghe family)

Although I didn’t enjoy the high tea because I was sick, it was a great experience. On the 28th we checked out of the hotel and took a three-hour drive to Minnehaha, where we would be staying for the next three days. We got there in time for dinner, picked our rooms, and had a relaxing night for once.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 4-6

by Simran Jayasinghe

At the Cinnamon Grand! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Dinner at the Kingsbury Hotel! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Dinner with relatives! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Days 4-6 of our Sri Lanka Trip (December 22-24th) were spent at the Cinnamon Grande Colombo. Unfortunately, our family got sick during this time. Our dad got sick around Day 4, and then Svara, and then, our mother, and finally, me. Whenever someone in our family gets sick, it triggers a sort of chain effect and then, we are done for! We all had high fevers and just wanted to sleep! We spent those days meeting most of our relatives that lived in Sri Lanka. Our mom organized a dinner at the buffet in the Kingsbury hotel, where we met a lot of our relatives. Meeting all our relatives was interesting, and the food was delicious. We also ran some errands, and visited places that our parents remembered from when they were children. Kiran, Svara, and I also made sure that we had at least one day to just relax and play in the pool. I was still sick at the time, however, so Kiran and Svara got to play in the pool and I relaxed on a chair listening to music and pitying myself. We ordered food from the poolside cafe and relaxed.

Fun in the pool! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Food by the pool! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 3

by Kiran Jayasinghe

We woke up late in the morning. We had all slept in, wanting to catch up on the sleep we had missed in the past few days. Our first order of business once we woke up, was food. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel buffet again. This time, the three kids (us), had breakfast alone while Mom relaxed in the hotel room and Dad worked out in the gym. We had a similar breakfast as the day before, eating hoppers, eggs, toast, sausages, and pastries with our milk tea.

The Cinnamon Grand! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We met up in our hotel room again before we decided to run a few errands. We went to a couple of jewelry shops to look for some gifts, and items for ourselves, which took a long time. We also had to search for a replacement the back of my earring, which I had lost some time ago. These earrings happened to be from Sri Lanka (my grandparents bought them for me), so we went to the shop that the earrings were from and dropped them off to get a replacement made.

Then we went to lunch at our grandpa’s house before we went to swim. We had traditional Sri Lankan food, including rice, and several fish and potato curries. After lunch, we headed back to our hotel to relax for a while.

We had decided that we would try swimming with Killer Whale Aquatics for one practice, just to see how different it was from our practices back home, so we headed to their home pool after relaxing. Svara was not old enough to be in that particular group, so Simran and I tried it out by ourselves. By the end, we had decided that it was…interesting. Our first mistake was on the very first lap that we swam. Most swimmers circle swim as to not crash into each other. Swimmers stay on one side of the lane, depending on which direction they’re swimming in. In America, we usually circle swim always staying on the right side of the lane. In Sri Lanka, however, they swim staying on the left, as it is with several other countries. We got in the water and started swimming, on the right, as usual. The coach blew his whistle over and over, so we stopped swimming, just to realize that we were swimming on the wrong side of the lane! After executing several other mistakes like this, the practice went by in a flash, and we had learned many new things in our short visit.

Killer Whale Aquatics! (video by the Jayasinghe family)

After swimming, we went back to the hotel, only to quickly change, and get back in the car to visit our mom’s cousin on her dad’s side. We were still very tired, and after having some some food there, and talking a little bit, we drove back to the hotel and slept after another tiring day of vacation.

To see the previous day of our trip, click here.

To see the next day of our trip, click here.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 2

By Svara Jayasinghe

At Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s cousin! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We arrived at the Bandaranaike International airport near Colombo, Sri Lanka, at 4:00 A.M. We got off the plane, and met our mom’s cousin (our uncle, sort of) who holds a high position in the police force. They were our “escorts” which meant we would get to skip the lines. After we had met, we headed onto security. Security checked our passports and visa’s but stumbled upon a mistake. They had gotten my birth date wrong. The police escorted my dad to immigration to get the problem fixed.

At the Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s other cousins! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

Our next stop was getting our check-in luggage. We went downstairs and waited near the conveyor belt for our luggage. Once we had collected our suitcases, we went over to a money exchange store and exchanged some of our U.S. dollars into Sri Lankan rupees. We were almost out of the airport, when we had to meet two more of our mom’s cousins. We all had a quick greeting, then went outside. There was a police jeep and a car that would be taking us to our hotel. We loaded our things into the jeep, then got inside the car. It was about a half hour drive to the hotel, and we got to experience Sri Lankan driving.

At first, on the road leaving the airport, the driving was what we were used to. However, as soon as we got off of the highway, we were exposed to the terror of driving in Sri Lanka. Cars didn’t stay inside the lanes, they just drove anywhere they wanted to! Sometimes they even went over the lane with one half of the car in one lane, and the other half in another lane! It was crazy! People honked and went between cars with only one inch between each other. But the mind blowing thing was that we didn’t see any car crashes! All that people are focused about is getting to the place they need to go and not crashing. It works out in its own way.

Cinnamon Grand Colombo! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

When we arrived at our hotel, which was the Cinnamon Grand, we got out of the car and unloaded our luggage. We said goodbye and went inside the hotel to check-in. The lobby was amazing! It was very beautiful and modern. Once we had checked in, one of the employees showed us to our room. We got into the elevator, and went up to level 5. On the way, an employee told us what level breakfast was on and that breakfast was from 6:00 A.M.-10:00 A.M. When we got to our room, we quickly explored it and found out that it was amazing! We had two adjoining rooms, one for our parents, and one for us. In our parent’s room, there was one king bed, and in our room there were two queen beds, one for Kiran and one for Simran. I would be sleeping on a rollaway bed, which I was fine with. We were all so tired, that we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. We slept for a few hours and then woke up at around 7:00 A.M. Since we had been on a plane for 7 hours from Seoul, South Korea, and since then we hadn’t taken a shower, we decided to freshen up a little bit. We brushed our teeth, took a shower, and brushed our hair. After that, we lounged a little more, then got ready to go to breakfast.

Breakfast at the Cinnamon Grand! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We arrived at breakfast and told a staff member our room number so they could put our bill on our room. We then took a long look at the breakfast buffet. The food line stretched from one side of the room to almost the other side of the room, and boy, was that room big! We grabbed plates and served ourselves food. I ate the usual: scrambled eggs, sausage, and baked beans. I sat down at our table and my dad reminded me that since we were in Sri Lanka, we had to eat some Sri Lankan food. I then served myself some egg hoppers, string hoppers, and a Sri Lankan candy called juggery.

After we were done eating our delicious breakfast, we went back upstairs to our room and rested for another half an hour. When we were done resting we got ready to visit a couple of relatives houses. Our first stop was our grandma’s younger sister on our mom’s side, (our mom’s aunt). We stopped there for about half an hour and talked. When it was time to head off to the next house, we got into the van and drove off. Our next stop was our grandma’s younger sister on our dad’s side, (our dad’s aunt). At their house we met our dad’s aunt and uncle, our dad’s cousin, and our dad’s cousins son, (our second cousin on our dad’s side). We ended up staying there about forty to fifty minutes and in that time we gave presents, talked, and played with our second cousin, (Vihas). When it was time to go, we took our dad’s aunt’s family with us, to our next stop, which, was our grandparents house on our dad’s side. When we had all somehow managed to fit in the van, we drove off towards our next destination.

When we got to our grandparents house, we all piled out of the car and greeted our grandpa and said “hi” to our grandma, who has Alzheimer’s disease. We sat and talked and ended up staying for lunch. After some time had passed, my dad’s aunt’s family left. We hung around for a little longer, talking. When it was time to go we got back into the van and drove back to the hotel, where we rested for another hour. After we were done resting, we freshened up for a little bit, then headed down to the lobby where we met our mom’s cousins (the same ones that we had met earlier at the airport). They had brought Akenya, who is another one of our second cousins except on our mom’s side. We sat down, got drinks, and talked. It would have been a fun time if we hadn’t been so tired. Since we were exhausted from the plane ride, it would take a long time to get fully rested, and we accidentally started falling asleep in our chairs!

After about forty minutes, my mom’s cousins left and we went to dinner with our grandparents, to a restaurant called Chutney’s, located inside of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. By then the three of us were so exhausted that we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer and started falling asleep in our chairs for a long period of time. After some time, my dad took us back upstairs to our room so that we could sleep. He went back downstairs to finish dinner with our grandfather, and we slept peacefully. We got in bed, and we were all asleep as soon as the lights went off.

To see the previous day of our trip, click here.

To see the next day of our trip, click here.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 1

by Simran Jayasinghe

Today we are embarking on the wonderful trip to the beautiful island of Sri Lanka! Or at least this is what we told ourselves before we hopped onto our plane, for the next 22 hours. It was the 18th of December, and we were just about out the door and ready to go international!

At the Los Angeles International Airport!
(Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We woke up early that Tuesday morning, excited and ready to take the long journey to Sri Lanka. Kiran, Svara and I were jazzed up and excited, but our parents, having taken this flight before, advised us wisely that it was no party. Even with what they told us, we didn’t take them seriously and continued to be jumping beans. Boy, were we mistaken. We drove to the Los Angeles International Airport which took about two hours. When we arrived at the airport, we were still excited and not especially exhausted by the long drive we had just endured. We said goodbye to our grandparents, who had accompanied us to the airport. Everyone said their goodbyes and we walked to our terminal.

We would be flying on Korean Airlines for the first time. The airline had good reviews, but we did not know what to expect. None of the airlines that we usually fly on have flights to Sri Lanka, and Kiran, Svara and I had never been on an international flight except for when we were two. When we got to the baggage check-in desk, we were told that there was a problem on Dad’s ticket! He was actually put in a different flight. We ended up standing there for a long time waiting for the airline to correct the mistake.

While we were waiting, we had plenty of time to check out the screens behind the check-in desk. These featured a video of the first-class seats. Our dad had told us that we would be flying on the biggest passenger plane there is. Nicknamed the ‘whale’, our plane had two decks of passengers and could seat 500 people. Passengers flying premium or flying first class would sit on the upper deck. Those passengers would get private cubicles with remote control walls, and seats that converted into beds. Our dad took the liberty of reminding us that those seats would be where mom and dad were sitting if they did not have kids! After a short wait, the problem with the tickets got fixed and we checked in our baggage. Whenever we travel on a plane, we always have weight problems with the suitcases that belong to our parents. Especially this trip, we had to take a suitcase with just presents for our relatives. When we weighed our bags, a couple suitcases were overweight, but the person who was helping us said she would let them slide and sent us on our way.

We now hurried to the security checkpoint. We put our things on the conveyor belt and made sure all liquids and electronics were out of our bags. Afterwards, we went through the hectic process of putting everything back into the carry-on bags and making sure everything was still in our bags and checked that we did not lose anything. Then we hurried to the gate. Our mom poked around in some of the shops on the way to the gate. Somewhere along the way we realized that we had not had breakfast and we grabbed a bite to eat from a cafe on the way to the gate.

We made it with about ten minutes to spare. Soon, the premier passengers started boarding. A couple minutes after they boarded the top deck, or first class passengers, they started the line for us to board. We found our seats and realized that we had been given the bassinet seats. This meant that there were no people in front of the three of our seats. This was devastating information. Our seats meant that we could not keep our carry-ons by our feet. This was far from ideal, as we had packed our carry-ons as our survival packs with all the books and electronics that would have helped us survive the horrendously long flight. After settling in to our seats and figuring out how things would work, we buckled up and got ready to fly. We took off around 11:30, and soon after we were served our first meal about two hours into the flight. This would be lunch. After that our dad took our carry-ons down from the overhead bins, where the flight attendants had stored them, and we got out our electronics. I plugged in my phone and listened to some music to drown out everything else. Over the next few hours, I read some iBooks that I had downloaded, listened to music, and attempted to watch a movie. None of the movie selections that they provided were entertaining, and most of them were not age-appropriate, so I didn’t end up watching any movies on the flight. Kiran, Svara, and I got to experience the deliciousness that is airplane food, for the first time. They almost always had beef, chicken, and fish options. Sometimes there was a Korean rice dish option, but we usually stuck to what we knew. The last thing any of us wanted, was a stomach upset. After what seemed like more than ten hours, we were all miserable, and I turned around to ask our parents in the seats behind us, how much time we had left. They looked at each other and told us that we had a staggering nine hours left! It had only been four hours and we were dead.

At the Incheon Airport in Korea! Getting ready for our next flight. (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

By the time we finally touched down at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea, we were all miserable. Sleeping on planes has never come easily to me or my sisters, and we did not sleep at all on the whole flight. We had a five hour layover in Korea, and all we wanted to do was to sleep. Incheon Airport has a Transit Hotel, where you could get a room for as little as six hours. Our dad payed for a hotel room and we all traipsed in. We dropped our bags and we were out! We slept for a couple hours and then we got ready to leave. It never feels good if you have to stay in the same, sweaty clothes for long periods of time, so we took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. We then proceeded to the nearest Starbucks like zombies. We were surprised at how different the Starbucks was! After a double chocolate creme frappuccino, I was still not ready to have seven more hours on a plane. But the universe never listens to what I want, so we boarded our flight to Sri Lanka!

We had better seating this time, and none of us had to have the exit row seats. Somehow this flight was more miserable than the thirteen hour flight. Knowing that this was the second flight was more grueling. This flight was also during nighttime so that was horrible. Since I couldn’t sleep, I put on my headphones, played some music, closed my eyes, and pretended that I was asleep. For some reason, my internal clock was very messed up. Since there was no WiFi on the plane, I did not know what time it was because my phone was still on California time. My thought process was more like, “Oh, there’s the food cart. I wonder which meal this is supposed to be.” The flight felt like way more than seven hours. Trying to pass the time was like looking at the clock every time one minute went by. Dehydration was my problem. I did not have a water bottle with me as we could not take outside water bottles on the plane. I would have thrown up if not for the countless little cups of water I asked for from the flight attendant. Slowly, the hours went by and by the end, I could not stand to look at the inside of another plane.

At the Bandaranaike International Airport with our mom’s cousin! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We landed at Bandaranaike International Airport, at 4:00 am. The airport was about 40 minutes from Columbo. Kiran, Svara, and I were very tired, but excited that we were finally off of the plane and on solid ground. We were looking forward to the hotel and the rest of our trip. Our journey had come to an end.

To see the post on the next day of our trip, click here.