What a lovely couple of weeks we had visiting family in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Great Easter BBQ and egg hunt courtesy of the Douthwaite’s and Gramma, complete with a dip in the pool. Like our first time through Kuala Lumpur, we were able to spend some time at a couple of primary schools with Ang.

Paul and the kids, including Sophie, gave presentations about themselves to a group of approximately 75 year 1 and year 3 students.

One of the best things about visiting the schools is meeting the students.

Our final night in Kuala Lumpur was spent with family and was highlighted by Chelsea, who seemed to be smiling from the time we arrived until the moment we left. Chelsea just finished another round of chemo a few days prior so it was such a blessing to see her natural demeanour before we departed.

Saying good-bye to Malaysia, we hopped on our four hour flight to Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka for me is paradise, though we did arrive in the middle of summer so Colombo was at its hottest, highs of around 32-34 daily. Our apartment was in a perfect location, close to Viharamhadevi Park, Race Course Mall, The National Museum and lovely little cafe’s like The Barefoot Cafe and shop.

Viharamahadevi Park (also known as Victoria Park) is a well used park in the heart of Colombo. It was one of our favorite stops in the middle of the afternoon to sit under a shade tree and escape from the heat of the day. Lydia loved spending time with the ducks, but there were loads of other sites to take in at this park.

Hordes of big Fruit Bats in the trees. I mean these suckers are huge…they put our little Swallow sized bats in Canada to shame. Luckily, they only eat fruit and never fly low to the ground. Sadly, we did see a baby bat that had fallen from the tree that would surely perish, but apart from hand raising it ourselves, there was nothing we could do. Our guide said the mother will never come down to save it. Sad for the little fellow, but no shortage of fruit bats let me tell you.

Ant nests in the trees. These ants don’t bite, but if you touch the nest, they all swarm to that location.

The Sala or Cannonball Tree is a beautiful tree that has great importance in the Buddhists community. It is believed that lord Buddha was born, enlightened and died under this type of tree. If you look closely at the flower, you will notice the very recognizable dome in the centre that is commonly used in many buddhist structures. The top half of the flower curves over to protect this dome from all the outside elements. We also found a Cinnamon Tree and every part of that tree smelled good enough to eat!

Of course no stay in Sri Lanka would be complete without watching a Cricket match by the Race Course Mall.

The National Museum was under renovation so many of the exhibit areas were closed, but what we were able to see was very cool. All the exhibits were written in English which was great for us, but unfortunately for us, it was not air-conditioned, so not the ideal location to hide from the heat like we were hoping.

The taxidermy portion of the museum was a little ghoulish, complete with a two-headed, four-footed goat.

Most of the exhibits in the taxidermy section appear to have been done in the 1960’s. It was like taking a step back in time.A fresh glass of house made Ginger Beer is a must if visiting The Barefoot Cafe in Colombo. The shop is filled with Sri Lankan made goods, but alas limited space kept purchases to a minimum again.

In jogjakarta it was the Becak, in Vietnam it was the Cyclo, now our new mode of transport is the Tuk Tuk.

After a few nights in Colombo we boarded a train to Kandy. Turns out we were travelling during the Sri Lankan New Year so the train was packed, but we did manage to score some tickets in first class. Even though it was assigned seating, it was complete mayhem when we boarded. All of our assigned seats were taken and the people occupying them down right refused to move. I noticed a man in street clothes at the back of the car that everyone appeared to be yelling at so I assumed he worked for the train. I showed him our tickets and explained that people were in our seats. He told me “they would simply have to move”. I said, “I know they had to, but they were not”, so he had a go at it. A bit more successful than us, he at least got 3 of the 4 seats back. Nobody had the heart to move the elderly lady in my spot so I sat in the seat beside her.

I love this sign at the Kandy Train Station.

Our place in Kandy was a perfect spot for us and it even came equipped with a family of monkeys. It was a two minute stroll to Kandy Lake and a lovely walk around the lake to the Sacred Tooth Temple.

No walk around the lake would be complete without a couple of Water Monitor sightings.

The Sacred Tooth Temple in Kandy is said to house an actual tooth of Lord Buddha. The Temple was very busy while we were visiting due to the Sri Lankan New Year, but we timed our visit between special ceremonies when it was less busy.

 

 

Flower offerings for Buddha.

Just as the Temple was busy due to the New Year, the town of Kandy was super quiet. Most of the shops were closed for the holiday with an additional one day of mourning for a revered Chief Prelate Buddhist Monk that had passed away mid April 2015. The streets were adorned with orange cloth in memoriam.

Another shout out to my pals at the Salvation Army.

It seems fire crackers are in order when celebrating the New Year in Sri Lanka so we got into the festivities and fired off a few of these bad boys ourselves.

Our favorite street food in Kandy was Veg Samosas and Naan wraps served in reused sheets of loose leaf paper. Looks like math homework to me.

Our big outing from Kandy was a 2 hour drive North to Sigiriya Rock. According to legend, King kasyapa built his palace on top of this rock and named the area the new capital of Sri Lanka in 477 – 495 CE. About half way up the rock the king had a giant lion gate built around the entrance. Today, the only remnants of the lion are the feet.

The climb to the top of Sigiriya after the Lion Gate.

The Frescoes or paintings at Sigiriya would have at one time covered a large portion of this rock, but have since been lost. There is still however, some paintings left on the ceiling of Cobra Hood Cave. All you have to do is climb a spiral metal staircase attached to the side of the rock to get to it. For two fellows afraid of heights that is no easy feat, but both would agree, well worth it.

At the base of the climb we came across a snake charmer.

After Kandy, we moved along to Nuwara Eliya and the famous Sri Lankan Tea Plantations. Along the three hour drive we stopped to see some beautiful sites.

A tour of the Glenloch Tea Factory. This was once a Scottish owned Tea Factory established in the 1800’s, but has since been turned over to the people of Sri Lanka.

A wee spot of tea to complete our visit.

We stopped to watch these guys collecting Avocado’s on the side of the road. What you don’t see is the guy way, way up in the tree. He picks the avo’s and tosses them down to the guy with the white material strapped to two sticks who then catches them. A couple misses…instant guacamole, but overall pretty affective. Paul said of all the jobs of the three guys down there, he’d take the one of the guy sitting on his bike texting.

The stunning Ramboda Falls and valley.

At the end of the steep climb we completed our drive in Nuwara Eliya at Misty Mountain Villas ( http://www.mistymountainvillas.com/ ). Upon arrival we were greeted with some lovely tea and ginger snap cookies.

We had a quiet, secluded sitting area with a great view of the town below. Reyal, our host and owner of Misty Mountain Villas was fabulous. He Made sure all our needs were met and arranged safe drivers for all our outings.

We all love Sri Lanka. Based on its natural beauty alone would be enough reason to visit this country, but the people are just so very lovely. I could not say enough wonderful things about Sri Lanka. We love, love, love it!

Over the next week we will visit some National Parks in the Southern portion of the Island and then head West for the fort town of Galle.