Blogs from Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 6

We said goodbye to Dambulla and set off for Kandy the second largest city in Sri Lanka and the cultural capital. The lush scenery is lovely and we passed amazing Rain Trees that are hundreds of years old. I’ve never heard of them before and I loved them. We also saw Kapok Trees with their cottonwool flowers drifting through the air making a white carpet on the ground. On the way we stopped at some spice gardens where a sweet guy showed us all the different spices and how they grow. He told us how they could be used in cookery and medicine, all quite fascinating. He gave us a head massage with one of the creams they sell. Their shop was filled with so many tempting things and we all came out with brown paper ... read more

This morning I felt the need for some down time so the girls went off to see how people lived in Sri Lanka. They went on a boat on the lake, on an ox drawn cart and to a home where they saw how they cook and they tasted some food They told me all about it when they got back. They enjoyed their morning while I just pottered and chilled out. In the afternoon we drove through Dambullas busy market town full of warehouses piled high with fruit and vegetables that were to be exported and saw many lorries being loaded up. Upul took us to the caves at Dambulla Golden Temple. Sri Lanka seems to be full of clouds of white butterflies. He drove us half way up the hill where we met the ... 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

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” - Helen Keller 14th January There is nothing worse than your alarm clock not going off. The panic when you realise you slept in – whether you’ve got to catch a train, plane or be somewhere at a certain time. With an 8am departure scheduled for today to head into Dambulla to visit the Dambulla cave temples, a loud thudding at my door at 810am woke me from my slumber. My alarm had failed and everyone was waiting for me….. Rather impressively (even if I do say so myself, it took me 12 mins exactly to be ready and on the bus with Ella. That’s right – from both of us asleep to ready to climb another mountain in 12 minutes). Carlie had kindly got the hotel to ... read more

Woolly says – Our journey continued, the talk inside the car was all things elephant, until I pointed out that an elephant was a treat whereas a mammoth was for life, Jo sighed and patted me on the head. Our next destination was to see a tooth, I really had no idea why we wanted to see a tooth and my carer wasn’t giving anything away, I sat back and considered the fact that they might be taking me to a dentist, not a trip that I was happy to participate in. The road had started to climb, and the views of dense vegetation flashed past, I set about counting statues of Buddha but ran out of paws within seconds there were so many. As my ears started to pop with our elevation we pulled into ... read more