We got a chance to visit the Pearl of Indian Ocean, and it didn't disappoint us.
Our route: Colombo --> Ella --> Nuwara Elia --> Kandy --> Trincomalee --> Colombo
Here we are in front of the Colombo's National Museum.
A massive tree greeted us. Colombo is very different than many metropolitan capital cities. It has a lot of green space, hundreds of year old trees, lots of green spaces, traffic that moves, not overcrowded and very clean streets.
The golden chair of the previous king.
We also went to the Independence Square / Memorial Hall.
The traditional "I was here" photo.
Statue of Senanayake. The first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
The Arcade Clock Tower Building. The architecture of Sri Lanka is still very colonial, and they are fine with their colonial history. The other sub-continental countries want to get rid of their past, however Sri Lanka wants to use that to their advantage. I see a lot of British tourists visiting Sri Lanka, probably because it's more welcoming than India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple, was very beautiful, however very different than Thai temples.
Location:Gangaramaya Temple
The stupa was an extremely simple one, compared to rest of South East Asia.
And here we have the Greens and Cricket in Whites!
Victoria Memorial, a bit less flamboyant than the one in Calcutta.
We also saw the flag lowering ceremony on the Colombo Beach.
The Lotus Pod!
We were staying on this lovely quiet street. Green trees and blue skies!
From Colombo we made our way to Ella. The food, the weather and the sky had all changed.
We saw the famous bridge: Nine Arches Bridge
And also saw a passing train
We climbed more hills and had stunning views all around the hills of Central Sri Lanka.
We met some Indians and they were kind to click some photos.
We also saw the Ravana Waterfall. It's water from the spring on top of a massive hill.
Location: Ravana Waterfall
We then went to Nuwara Elia, from Ella.
Nuwara Elia's post office took us back to England.
The tea gardens at 1800 meters above sea level, with white clouds and blue skies was beautiful. the air is clear here and the the temperature is around 13 degC in the morning and 20 deg C through the day. Which place does it remind us off? ENGLAND! And so, it's called Little England.
We visited a tea garden and crossed Inverness, in Sri Lanka.
Damro Tea Factory.
It was foggy morning and one couldn't see the Labookellie sign.
We were served different types of tea and cakes on our visit.
We also went to Lovers Leap Waterfall.
The estate reminded me of Lake District in England.
Big trees and winding roads.
We also visited another waterfall, however to go there, we had to pass through lush green rice fields. It reminded us of Bali.
Next: Pallewela Waterfall
Sri Lankan scooter rental also allow tourists to hire and ride Scooter Rickshaws! It's quite annoying for the taxi drivers, because the tourists slow down the traffic.
We then went to Nuwara Elia, from Ella.
Enroute, we also crossed the Ashok Vatika, from the Hindu Mythological Ramayana Story. There is a Sita Mata Temple, where many Hindus across Sri Lanka visit and pray.
This is the garden, where Ravana (the demon king) kept Sita (the queen of Ayodhya) before Rama (the king of Ayodhya) rescued her from Ravana's clutches. This place also has a lot of monkeys, signifying the story that Hanuman (the monkey god) once visited Sita, when she was kept here. It's beautiful and is worth visiting.
The Sita Ma Temple also has a big mark on the hill, signifying the place where Hanuman landed and met Sita. It was very peaceful and the river water flowing near the temple was very thereputic.
The tea gardens at 1800 meters above sea level, with white clouds and blue skies was beautiful. the air is clear here and the the temperature is around 13 degC in the morning and 20 deg C through the day. Which place does it remind us off? ENGLAND! And so, it's called Little England.
Gregory Lake.
We visited a tea garden and crossed Inverness, in Sri Lanka.
The smell of fresh tea leaves, ummm lovely!
It was foggy morning and one couldn't see the Labookellie sign.
The fog cleared for a nice photo. Could one imagine, that one would wear jackets in Sri Lanka?
We were served different types of tea and cakes on our visit.
Big trees and winding roads.
Fountains greeted us.
The rose garden of The Grand Hotel.
We then went to Kandy and saw the temple where Buddha's tooth relic is kept.
A lone monk, after selling his Ferrari!
It was very beautiful and peaceful inside.
Lots of people were praying here.
There is also a museum along the temple.
Bless us Buddha photo.
Colonial Architecture is everywhere in Kandy.
Everyone does remind you of: Kandy is at 500 meters above sea level, and so the weather is nice.
If you are in Kandy, there are 2 things that you must do.
1. Visit the Dambulla cave for Buddha's statue & paintings
2. Visit the Lion Rock in Sigiriya Village
This was the view from Dambulla Cave, that's on a hill top.
The cave is carved from a rock, and has four chambers.
One of the cmabers has a Buddha Statue carved from the rock within the cave. This was not brought here, but as the cave was made, they made a Passing Buddha statue.
Because of the dampness and moisture, the paintings need regular care.
It was matchings outfit day!
From Dambulla Cave Temple, you can see the Sigiriya's Lion Rock.
It is stunning as we came closer to it.
The sun was beating down at 3:00 PM.
Now if you are scared of heights, this is not the rock to climb.
The views from the top are "voìla"!! You stop there and just take it all in.
And we also had a protector of the rock, Mr Doggo on top of the Lion Rock!
Trupti made sure we had everything secured, from the east to the west.
We realised, that we were in the middle of a national forest.
Some where not scared of heights, whist others were happy to click photos.
We came back and clicked some more photos.
You could see different gradients, colours & layers of the soil through millenia, that made this rock.
A video of our Sigiriya Lion Rock climb and descend.
We came back to Kandy later that evening and saw the Cenotaph, for the 1st World War. Everyone whose name was on this monument, were between the ages of 19 and 25 years. So unfortunate.
View from our guest house.
We were on our route to Trincomalee and stopped at Nalanda Gidige.
This is supposed to be the centre of Sri Lanka.
It's the only temple where Sri Lankans pray to Shiva, Parvati and Buddha under the same roof.
The beaches of Sri Lanka, finally! The Sri Lankan flag, we loved it.
Trincomalee has a huge Tamil Hindu population and a big Ravan statue in a Shiva Temple.
Another Hindu Temple
This was very different than many other Indian Hindu temples, with colourful statues and gothic interiors.
Clear blue evening skies & a huge blue temple.
Last day in Trincomalee and we went out onto the beach to see the sunrise.
On the last evening in Sri Lanka, when we came into our guest house in Colombo, we saw this procession passing in front of the house. What a lovely ending to our journey in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka and Lankans we loved every moment we spent there. 😍
