Srilanks -3

Overnight we stayed at Hotel Kandy on 02/09/10

Here in Kandy we saw the Gem Museum

& in the evenine saw a beautiful Cukltural show -Kandyan Dancing Fire walking -a wonderful ! hour programme

Next morning we left for Dambula & Sigiriya

Dambula

here visited nthe CaveTemple dates back to the 1st centurythese caves sheltered the KingWalagamba for 14 yearsof Exile from Anaradhapura when he regained the throne he built the most Magnificent Rock temple to be found non the IslandIn the 1st cave is the recumbent image ofof the Budha 47feet cut out from the rock There are images of deities associated withBudhism -all around Frescoes on the ceiling dates back to15th -18th century In the 2nd cave the largest & finest of all there 150 life size statues of Gods from the Bhudhist religionalong with Numerous images of Buddha himself The cieling is also covered with frescos which depict great events in the life ofBuddha &landmarks in the life of the Sinhala people

to be contd---

SRILANKA [contd]

The Hotel Blue Oceanic at Negabo was on the beach & old but comfortable Hotel

Next morning we left by road to Nuwaraeliya -called little England full of tea gardens Gardens & English style houses this was the retreat for the British when they occupied Ceylon we went through beautiful landscaped saw the Widest waterfall of Srilanka =St Clair& also the Devon waterfalls

We made a stop at a tea kiosk Driving through Kithugala the oscar winning Movie ''Bridge on the River Kwai'' was filmed in this place

we did not see the actual place as it was interior

We checked in at St Andrews Hotel -A lovely Hotel with a panoramic view & beautiful well kept gardens & green Lawns

Next we visited ''SEETHALAYA'' the place Seetha was kept by the King Ravana under the Ashoka tree

here we saw the place where Seetha used to sit The river passing through Also the foot step of Hanuman when he landed in this place looking for Seetha

the temple was beautiful with statues of Seetha Rama Laxmana & Hanuman

from here we passed Gregory Lake & Victoria Gardens

KANDY

After breakfast we left Nuwaraeliya for Kandy On the way we visited the Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya -A huge bothanical garden with ever so many trees & plants -herbs Bamboo Lake with Lotus & Orchid house etc Here we saw ''Twin coconot tree'' with 2 coconuts on each branch they were Huge coconuts & takes about 5 years to mature This is the largest seed in the world & brought from Sechelles Island

In the afternoon we visited the ''tooth relic ''temple -tooth of lord Budha kept in a Golden It was very beautiful & the holiest of the Holy Places for the Bhudhist

SHRILANKA

At last I was travelling to my birthplace = Colombo my dream of about 60yrs we left on 3oth August from Bangalore by Srilanka Air & reached Negombo in about 2 hours We were met by a representative of Jet wings tour company & taken to our Hotel by the sea it was a comfortable Hotel & we loved sitting on the beach the best we were taken around Negambo by AC toyota -very comfortable

We did some shopping bread fruits cheese & lo& behold I foundGAL SIYAMBALA'' which i had tasted as a kid in colmbo this made my day -Imagine tasting it after about 60yrs Also had Mabgusteen to hearts content through out out stay in Srilanka-Ceylon as it was known before

Next day we left by road by the same vehicle for Nuwaraeliya -up country as it is called the highest place in SrilankaIt was quite cool surrounded by Tea gardens We were surprised to know that the tea gardens belonged to TATA though the brand name was kept the same & the name of the tea estate We visited one tea estate Labukelee where we were taken around & given the best tea i have ever tasted

To be continued------