Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage Sri lanka

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage(PEO)

PEO, a place we really enjoyed and never forget. PEO is situated in the Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka, which is about 87km away from Colombo. Pinnawala is about 3 km from Rambukkana junction on Colombo-Kandy road.

Elephants are so fascinating. There are elephants with babies, two pregnant elephants, a humongous Bull. These are all Asian elephants. The orphanage starts at 8:30am daily for the visitors. At about 10am this bunch of elephants starts walking towards Ma-Oya where they refresh with their daily bathing. Ma-Oya provides the water for drinking and bathing for these elephants. The elephant bathing at Ma-Oya provides a picturesque scene every morning and evening. Most of the visitors enjoy this scene every day while 84 elephants have their bath in this picturesque river according to their own rhythm.

There are loads of tourists here, rightfully so. The official tourist shop sells paper items made from Elephant Dung - one of the more unusual souvenirs we've seen in our travels.

Sri Lanka University Games

9th Sri Lanka University Games 2007
2nd Nov 2007 to 11th Nov 2007, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka More Pictures

More than 5,000 participants from 13 universities will take part in the 9th University Games Festival, starting 2nd November at University of Kelaniya.Around 28 events under 19 different categories of sports and the events will be held at 10 different places, including the University of Kelaniya, Sugathadasa Stadium, Royal College and the sports grounds of the National Youth Centre.

The logo of the SLUG is in the shape of the letter “U”. It was selected from a competition. The letter “U” was selected, because the Kelani River flows in the shape of the letter “U” when it passes Kelaniya. And the letter “U” symbolizes the whole university system. It is green, to represent the greenish lawns of the grounds and the 13 balls represent the 13 universities who take part in the SLUG.

Oriole is the mascot of this year’s sports festival. It was in the Olympic Games in 1968, in Mexico that a pet was used as a mascot and it was used to control anti-Olympic ideas stirred up by student revolts and to spread good will among people.

It is for the first time that a mascot is being used in a SLUG. Oriole was chosen as the mascot because it is familiar to all Sri Lankans and also because of the close affinity it has with the area of Kelaniya in the Selalihini Sandeshaya.

Oriole is an eye catching bird because of its shining body and golden neck and legs. It was selected as the mascot of the year because the oriole is the ideal pet which represents the ethics and principles of the university games.