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I've got a chance to visit Sri Lanka when I represented
Ngee Ann Polytechnic in a micromouse competition back in
September 1995. This is also my first attempt in handling
an SLR camera (a borrowed Canon EOS 1000 with a standard
35-70mm zoom lens). The week of figuring out the camera's
various functions soon lead to my interests in photography.
  
We arrive on the night of September 3rd in Colombo,
the capital city of Sri Lanka. It took us quite a while
before we found our driver sent by the event organizer.
After a short ride to the Sri Lanka Foundation Institude,
we discovered that the original accomodations planned was
not available. After some hassles, we eventually got transfer
to a hotel for the night.
 In
the following days, we were mostly busy preparing for the
competition. In the midst of the preparation, the host had
brought us on a tour around the campus in their university.
On the second last day, we were brought on a tour to various
locations. These includes a turtle hatchery where newborn
turtles are being cared for until they are ready to be released
back to the ocean. Also visited is the beach at Hikkaduwa
where glass-bottomed boats is available for seeing the coral
reefs around the area.
We left Sri Lanka on the 9th of September. Security
at the airport was tight. Body search, in addition to the
usual metal detectors, are conducted even before entry to
the airport. More confusions are created while we are checking
in our baggages when our micromouse is being suspected for
a bomb. It's only after we had turn it on and let it run
around a little that they agreed it was indeed harmless.
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