Blogs from Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 10

On our way to Kandy we passed through Matale and visited the Hindu temple – Sri Muthumariamman Thevasthanam. There is always someone on hand to show you around the temple (for a price of course) and this temple was very ornate and well supported by locals. Hidden away are five enormous and colorful ceremonial chariots which are pulled along by people during an annual festival. Shoes off – and this time an entrepreneural young man noted our western Tiva sandles and took them to safety in a cardboard box only to be disappointed when we took them back without payment – but many thanks as we thought they had been stolen….. We arrived in Kandy (still raining) with plenty of time to spend at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and attend the nightly cultural ... read more

Sri Lanka; Our last minute adventure! We chose to travel to Sri Lanka without knowing much about the country at all...we thought it would be fun to explore a different part of Asia and to discover a whole new culture. Despite having no real expectations of Sri Lanka we were still surprised when we arrived! We spent a few days on the outskirts of the capital city, Colombo in a place called Dehiwala. We soon discovered that we were pretty much the only white people in the whole suburb and its surroundings! We were stared at constantly and due to the lack of tourism it was often hard to get around...! At one point we attempted to get a local bus into the city centre, but soon had to give up! The destinations of the buses ... read more

After our last trip to Vietnam. We travelled Air Asia again for our trip to Sri Lanka. I have to admit that at first we were a little nervous flying to a country that has been under the radar compared to many other destinations. Day 1 - Colombo City - Galle Face Green, Crescat, Shalimar Hotel We arrived at the Bandaranaike Internaional Airport on Sunday July 1st. After thoroughly reading the travel books about arrival, as soon as we got there we headed off to the bank counters to exchange our dollars into a local rupees. Our exchange rate at the Bank was 1dollars =131. 76 rupees. After getting our local currency we didn't really know what to do next we stood there reading our travel book or as I call it our bible where it ... read more

The ladies left prior to our waking. Today was the day I had been preparing for, one of the main reasons I came to Sri Lanka, besides a spiritual retreat. Today was elephant fun day! I had my eyes set on the Millenium Elephant Foundation, a non profit housing elephants for educational and recreational purposes. A bigger sanctuary/national park was available, but I had read that it was less hands on. We walked toward downtown and met a tuk tuk driver on the way. We negotiated and hired him for the day for about 10 dollars. He was veryfriendly, as are most Sri Lankans. Our first stop was the FounDation. For 30 dollars, we were able to bathe, get showered by, and ride an elephant. Of course, we had to share the same elephant, which was ... read more

Well here we are again, finally. After a few cold months at home then a few lovely warm months lounging around Thailand our travels have kicked off again, and it’s somewhere we have both been looking forward to immensely, Sri Lanka. A lot of friends, including two very good ones, constantly wax lyrical about the joys and splendour of this country so we couldn’t wait to see for ourselves. A stupidly early flight from Bangkok taught us one thing new about the city, it is possible to avoid the traffic jams, you just have to drive around at 4am. We landed at Colombo airport mid-morning and after thinking, briefly, about the kind offers of taxis for the 40km journey into the city, “very, very cheap Sir, we’ll even stop at a bank so you can take ... read more