Blogs from Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 2

Our train to Colombo is at 3 pm, so we have breakfast before visiting the Temple of the Tooth. Breakfast is in fact a source of great excitement; there is cheese on the buffet. I have been craving cheese for some considerable time. We walk into town round Lake Kandy. It is the home of a huge amount of wildlife; so far we’ve seen birds, fish, turtles, monkeys, bats, chipmunks, even a huge monitor lizard. We reach the Temple where one of Buddha’s teeth is housed in a series of 6 gold caskets. The queue to view it is enormous, plus it’s full of devotees dressed in white. It feels wrong to impose on their pilgrimage to gawk, so we just wander round the edges. We enter a shrine which is rectangular and has Buddhas on ... read more

Sri Lanka 26. Dez. Flug von Wien Schwechat mit Qatar Airways über Doha, die Airline entpuppt sich als die Beste, die im Augenblick von Europa abfliegt. 27. Dezember 2017 Problemlose und rasche Einreiseformalitäten, Abholung vom Flughafen Colombo durch unseren netten jungen Guide Praget, einem Singhalesen, der aus Negombo stammt. Transfer zum altehrwürdigen, noblen Hotel Galle Face am Galle Face Strand im Süden von Colombo, einem beliebten Ausflugsziel mit Imbissbuden und einheimischen Strandleben. Das Meer lädt nicht zum Baden ein – wegen der Brandung und wegen der Wasserqualität, dafür gibt es aber ein riesiges (33m) warmes Salzwasserpool, wo wir uns beim Schwimmen von dem anstrengenden Flug erholen können. Es herrscht relativ starker Südwind(!), der allerdings nicht stört, da er etwas Abkühlung bringt. Interessanterweise kommen d... read more

Dnesni plan vydrzel asi do deseti dopoledne, kdy jsme zjistili, ze uz neni mozne rezervovat na zitra mista ve vlaku do Elly - vsechno predem rezeberou agentury, ktere to pak draze preprodavaji turistum. Za teto situace jsme se rozhodli nerozdelovat se a i tym snezenek se podiva k Adam's peak a tym machru na oplatku absolvuje ajurvedskou masaz. Tak trochu si myslim, ze na tom tym machru docela vydelal... V Kandy jsme jeste udelali vyletik kolem mistniho jezera, ktere tedy cistotou uplne neoplyva a vede kolem nej rusna silnice, ale na druhou stranu se tam povalovalo nekolik varanu (nebo co to bylo za hmyz) a cestou jsme dali obed v typickem mistnackem bufetu, kde to tedy melo tu spravnou prichut (mozna prichut zloutenky, ale kazdopadne autenticke zloutenky). Pak uz jsme se presunuli na masaz. Ta ma ... read more

Day 7: Monday 11 September- Kandy This morning, after we were taken to another Gem Museum & Shop which showed us how they mined gems, we visited the Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens. At one time, these beautiful botanical gardens were reserved exclusively for Kandyan royalty. Today even commoners are allowed into what are, at 60 hectares, the largest and most impressive botanic gardens in Sri Lanka. It was a beautiful garden with Orchid House, expansive lawns and manicured hedges, massive old trees from throughout the world and colonial buildings dotted throughout the park. We enjoyed a coffee at one of the restaurants in the gardens. The day was hot and humid again so it was lovely to sit in the cool. Fernando then took us through the very busy local fruit and vegetable market where we ... read more

Up early and leave at 6.30am to climb Lion Rock. Marie and Donna decided to stay at the bottom and look at the ruins and gardens there while Chris and I went to the top. A great walk up, mix of stone stairs, steel stairs hanging off sheer faces, a couple of spiral staircases. On the way up you pass through an area with a rock overhang and the back wall has the remain of a number of ancient paintings. The top was spectacular, 360deg views and because we were so early and made good time up there was only a handful of people there. Even managed to spot the girls down on the flat! After a quick look around the museum returned to hotel and breakfast and into another van for a ride to Kandy. ... read more