I spent three days in Sri Lanka. This was an adequate amount of time to see the Central Region. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to discover the southern region another time. Before I dive into the amazing trip we had I think it’s smart to start off with some history of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is located off of the southern coast of India. Its population is 70 percent Buddhist, and it is pretty evident. The whole island is adorned with Buddha shrines, some massive Buddha sculptures, and temples.
These are some pictures from Terminal 2 in Dubai International Airport… it was somewhat like we were already in a different land…
People were sleeping everywhere… I mean everywhere. Women were sitting in groups on the floor brewing coffee. They were able to go through all scanning with coffee kettles and other supplies.. it was like people came to the airport for picnics?
Anyway when you arrive in Sri Lanka they provide each visitor with a sim card for your phone, including free minutes and internet data. How nice is that?? Very nice of their government to make sure their visitors feel safe and have access to call someone in case of an emergency.
Considering this was one of our first adventures we were a little naive. We hired a driver for the full time in Sri Lanka. We really didn’t have enough time in the country, and we wanted to make sure we could see everything. I believe the driver was around three hundred USD, and he would take you anywhere you want to go.
We started our journey by heading to Pinawalla. I grabbed a fresh king coconut, and some delicious mangoes from a local vendor.
Pinawalla is home to an elephant orphanage, however I refused to go into the orphanage because I heard that the elephants were more here for show, and were treated badly. Meaning they were stabbed to move and chains hung around their necks and taught to do tricks for tourists. Not so much of an orphanage. I can’t tell you my experience because after reading that from someone’s blog I found off the internet, I refused to give money to support an organization that treated animals like that. So I told our driver thank you but no thank you..
Local Po Po
These were some elephants we saw while driving to Kandy…
Have a look around:
There are also Muslim, Hindu, and Christian people living in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is beautiful and the people are the friendliest, kindest, down to earth people I have ever encountered. Some have very little and yet they are so content and grateful. They all smile and wave and are happy to have you visit their country. Everyone likes to have their picture taken and the few that own cameras wanted pictures with us. They do not get a lot of western visitors. So their faces really light up when they saw us. Along the way we made a stop at The Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. This was really a magical place, and if you decide to visit Sri Lanka I highly suggest to stop and take a look. It had 4,000 species of plants!
Weird looking tree in the background.. I did yoga all over this lawn lolololol
The tree with the coconuts is the female… The picture below I’m pointing to the cones which is the male..
Take a look at this find!!
He was not scared of us at all.. he was like look LUNCH!!!!
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The most beautiful flower I have ever seen.
We met a group of students in the Garden. Their assignment was to find tourists visiting Sri Lanka, and commence a conversation with them.. They were trying to learn English. They were way too shy to approach us, so their teacher came over and introduced all of them. They were so happy to find us and they all wanted pictures one by one with me. It was really special and sweet. They are the sweetest people.
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