TRIP TO SRILANKA
SEVEN WONDERFUL DAYS AT SRILANKA
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The Lankites on the go |
We were a set of six close relations started on this trip to SriLanka. It had twin agenda.
Getting a peep into our neighbouring country and getting to see the prize spots there and also spending time with ones own people is a pleasure by itself.
Day -1 Dec 12th
This day was reaching Srilanka from our home grounds. Seven of them from Mumbai - Kannan, Thangu, Geeta, Murali and Lakshmi
Self Rama from Chennai.
We reached SriLanka in the wee hrs of the night on 12th and by the time we checked in our hotel FAIR VIEW in Colombo it was 2.00 pm at night,after one hr drive from airport to city ( 40 km)
Day - 2 - Dec 13th
Today's target was Galle about 130 kms from
Colombo - a Portuguese colonial town of 17th century close to the sea coast.
But enroute we halted at no.of scenic places.
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| RAMA - GEETA- THANGU - LAKSHMI -The foursom |
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| KANNAN & MURALI - The twosom |
2. From there we moved to Turtle farm , 10 minute drive from the beach. Its an interesting Turtle farming where variety of turtle are hatched and left back into the sea after nurturing them for a while.
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| Teeatee with the Turtle |
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| Hi` to Turtle |
4.Then our hunt was to get a good vegetarian food, it was always a challenge as most of the Srilankan food is non-veg and sea food.
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| Lord Krishna in Lanka |
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| With Lord Krishna |
Finally we managed to find a good Indian vegetarian restaurant. The next uphill task was to get good quality curds . However with Murlis maneuvering skills and luck we invariably were able to locate these two combination though it involved quite a bit hunting every lunch time.
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| Mudhu river Beckoning |
5.After Lunch it was drive to Madhu river. It is in south west of Sri lanka, at a place where it expands like a lake a very interesting cruise along the river was arranged . The river surrounded by mangroves and small islands where the ride included cinnamon tea in one of the islands and ride cutting through mangroves , it was very interesting
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| Siping the Cinnamon tea in the middle of river island |
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| Through the mangroves - braving it up |
In A row6. It was a long haul day . We then drove to Galle - the sea facing Portuguese town and went to sea the fort there close to the sea.
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| Courting at Galle fort |
GALLE FORT VIEWS |
| CLOSE TO GALLE BEACH |
Day -3 - Dec 14th
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| IN SEARCH OF THE WHALE |
elusive whales.
AT MIRISSA - BOAT CRUISE IN THE OCEAN FOR SPOTTING WHALES - SAILORS ON BOARD We were in sea for more than 4 hrs and were successful in spotting the whale 4 to 5 times . We were also lucky in seeing some giant turtles.
In all it was an exciting cruise with the sea breeze on our face and the blue waters all around and the excitement of spotting the whales.
After the exciting cruise.then it was a long drive to Nuwara Eilya about 240 kms away . We had our breakfast packed from the hotel . However as we were served breakfast in the cruise too, we saved the one given in the hotel for lunch and thus could avoid an hunting for food en route.
2.En route we had a stop at Rawana falls , Ravana is supposed to have hidden Sita behind the falls in the forest, a medium sized water fall where we got down to walk over the rocks and enjoy the water at the water front.
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| WHERE RAVANA STOOD ONCE - |
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| AT THE FOOT OF THE FALLS |
3.Also went to Asoka vatika, where Seeta was supposed to be kept in captivity during the Ramayana period. There was also a place where Sita devi was given the ring of Rama by Lord Hanuman.
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| AT SITAS ASHOKA VATI |
4.Nuwara Eliya is a hilly place surrounded by tea
gardens in the central province of Sri Lanka.
A picturesque location.We checked into the hotel Thuruliya lodge.
Day 4- Dec 15th
From Nuwara eliya the jouney was to Kandy , a bustling town in central Srilanka about 100 kms from that point. The two and half hr journey took us the whole day as we were sheduled to see the interesting places in between.
1. The first halt was at the lush tea gardens along with inspection of tea making in an old colonial time tea factory and the well stocked tea shop where a hot cuppa was served to us and we went around shopping variety of tea.
AT THE TEA GARDENS
2.Then drove to Hanuman temple , a huge Hanuman statue, a well kept temple made by Chinmaya mission in a hillock.
HANUMAN KI JAI -TEMPLE BY CHINMAYA MISSION
In Kandy had food in an authentic Indian restaurant , thali meals and relished the same
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| FROM KANDY HOTEL |
3.After that in was a straight drive to Kandy to Hotel Oak ray, situated in a semi hillock facing very good scenery.
4. After resting in the hotel for a while we dressed in Sunday best to see the one hour cultural show at the
Kandyan Arts & Cultural centre.
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| CULTURALLY |
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| FIRE EATERS |
The show was spectacular attended by many foreign tourist too in an auditorium and the finale 
FIRE WALKERS
was a open air fire walking which really took our breath away seeing the dare devilry of the young lads.
Day - 5 - Dec 16th
The travel was from Kandy to Dambulla, a 2hr and 40 minute drive.
1.In Kandy the hotel in a hillock brought out our exploratory instinct, Geeta discovered a `manjadi tree near by and we spend good time `picking the manjadis to bring it back home.
The breakfast was good , thanks to Murali and his fine instructions to the cook the previous day itself.
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| TOOTH RELIC TEMPLE |
2. The first halt was at Tooth relic temple of Buddha.
It is a huge temple made specially to preserve the tooth of Lord Buddha brought from India in 3rd Century B.C. by a princess who came to marry a Srilankan prince.
The tooth kept right at the top of the tomb. Kannan did a wise decision not to climb all the steps and saved himself, while we all did climb laboriously only to find the tooth will be put on darshan at particular time of the day. Any way we got satisfied we were somewhere close to the tooth and climbed down.
3. Next was the Gem museum and factory , along with an audio visual show of Gem extraction.
We all lost our moorings , seeing the gem and made a beeline on gem shopping, sizing down the vaults.
It was a nice experience , In India too we felt we should do such kind of tourism and show case our
resources to earn good foreign exchange.
4.Next halt was to the Batick shop, they demonstrated the batik making and here too shopping was on the cards.
5.All the shopping got us hungry and we found a good open air joint , made sure the vegetarian and curds are present in the menu and had a go for it.
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| SPICE GARDEN |
7. Next we went to the famous Dambulla rock cave temple , a UNESCO heritage.
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| AT THE CAVE TEMPLE |
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| A GOODBYE DANCE AT THE WATER RESORT |
8. The halt was at a most scenic resort , in front of a water front called Grand Kalundawa water front resort
Day -6th - Dec 17th
Today's travel was from Dambulla , very close to Sigriya and go further to the hinter land the Anuradhapuram, a very ancient city having buddhists monuments , the forest and mountainous lands of beautiful Sigriya country side. about 75 kms distance, but it took us a long time to reach Anuradhauram with packed sight seeing along way.
1. We did not have a heart to leave the water front of Sigriya which was a very pleasant wooded resort. The breakfast was served right along the water front.
we found Murali . Geeta and Lakshmi having a good time in the morning hrs at the `machan build on bamboo still, .
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| AT THE MACHHAN |
2. We had to hire two autos calld `tick tick there and go along the mud roads to see the view points at Sigriya. The ambience is good with mud roads and bicycle on hire to go around the wilderness.
The meaning of Sigriya being `singg - Lion giri - mountain. It was an interesting look around
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| SIGRIYA'S SCENIC SCENE |
3. Next we were taken to numerous Buddhist sites kept very clean , some of them as huge as pyramids in Egypt.
Anuradah puram founded in 4th century, is considered a sacred city perhaps like Benaras to Indians . The difference being its clean upkeep.
We finally came to a hotel called LONDON PALACE , the palace was so much like kerala , the hotel was actually a huge house having well appointed bedrooms.
In fact Sri lanka is really geared for tourist. Every hotel was well kept keeping to the international standards. No wonder it attracts so many foreign tourists.
Day - 7th - Dec 18th
Left London palace in good time as we had to catch up with a long travel back to Colombo about 210 kms and en route visit Pinnawela elephant orphanage camp.
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| TELLING HI TO THE ELEPHANT |
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| FEEDING THE ORPHANS! |
Anuradhapuram to Colombo was a good build up for the elephants and nice tourism attracting place.
All the tourists were to do was to look at the elephants and feed them fruits , milk etc as most of them were very young.However the area was sprawling and we could all walk around enjoying the atmosphere.
We also took turns feeding them fruits.
2. After the elephant `deko we had to rush to Colombo as not to miss the shopping at `pettah bazaar.
The place was crowded like our Bombay Kalpadevi/crawford markets. We felt at home and did shopping for people at home as textiles in Srilanka are supposed to be cheap and export quality.
We then retired to a good posh joint in Colombo.
Day - 8th Dec 19th
It was Colombo deko day as we had yet to see the capital city.
Colombo matches with any international city with skyscrapers, traffic jams, flyovers etc. But the general feeling is fine , not filthy or too much of over crowding. Being close to the sea all along we could see the clear see as we were moving around Colombo.
The day we first went to my Almamatter , The Colombo institute where I had received my first Acupuncture diploma. Though we located the place somewhat close to the hotel , unfortunately we could not enter in as it was recently shifted to a new place
2.The it was a quick `deko of Colombo secretariat, Buddha statue in front, Beira lake, a hindu temple, some more shopping , as a last binge every one indulged in god jewellery, proving we are Indians!,
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| COLOMBO TEMPLE |
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| Add caption |
Nice Rama..why u didn't visit Kadirkamam
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