I decided to go to Sri Lanka in 2012 when my good friend Vanessa was living and working in the Maldives. I really wanted to visit with her and see the Maldives and we decided to take a week and explore Sri Lanka first. She was working at a hotel and most of the employees were originally from Sri Lanka so she had lots of information, connections and was ready or a week away from work.
It was a crazy day at work when I was trying to leave. It was Friday, May 18th and Facebook was going public that day. I was working in the Private Wealth Division at Goldman Sachs and Goldman was the lead on the IPO. So I went to work early that morning, watched the frenzy of the IPO that morning and left when the markets closed and went right to the airport to head to Sri Lanka. Exciting and fun last day at the office for sure.
So after flying from Los Angeles to Dubai to Sri Lanka…it took about 2 days with the layovers and such and I finally arrived on Sunday, May 20th. I had some Hilton points from all my business travel so I booked a free night at the Hilton Colombo hotel which was right in the heart of the capital and I waited for Vanessa to arrive from the Maldives.
View from hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka
There isn’t much to do in the capital and we were limited on time and really wanted to get out and see the country. So we had arranged a private driver to drive us for the week and he was there Monday morning and we were off to the next largest city of Kandy. There was so much traffic leaving the city center, it made Los Angeles look like nothing. We were stopped on the highway so often, we saw this pushcart vendor pass us many times walking along side the cars.
This was taken on the highway…and this man was walking in the “fast passing lane” pushing his banana cart. traffic is that bad so it’s not that dangerous (by Sri Lanka standards)
On the three hour drive to Kandy, we passed many coconut stands and decided to stop for a break as it was quite hot and they looked good.
King Coconuts with a light water like liquid. Very refreshing on a hot day.
One of the many king Coconut stands along the highway
This little boy was helping his family with the coconut sales.
Cute little Sri Lankan boy at the coconut stand
We continued on our way to Kandy and wanted to stop at the The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. This orphanage was established by the Sri Lankan Department of Wildlife Conservation in 1975 for feeding and providing care and sanctuary to orphaned baby elephants that were found in the wild. In 2012, there were 78 elephants living there and we were lucky to get to visit, learn and see them. Visitors to the park can view the care and daily routine of the elephants, such as bottle feeding of elephant calves, feeding of all other elephants, and bathing in the Ma Oya (River).
So many elephants and babies
One of the older male elephants at Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage
Bottle feeding the young elephants at Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage – they drank at least 10 liters of milk
Bath time in the river – the elephants are taken here twice a day to bathe and it was great to watch
Once we left the orphanage, we crossed the street to an area with some stores and places to eat. We came across stores that made paper products from dung. We went into one store that and got to watch the process and it was actually pretty amazing how much goes into it. I guess this is the best recycling business.
Enjoying lunch while the elephants bathed with Vanessa
We continued driving from the elephant orphanage to the city of Kandy.
View from hill in city of Kandy, the second largest (and old capital) of Sri Lanka.
The next day, we went to visit the Dambulla Royal Rock Temple. This area is about 90 miles east from Colombo and 45 miles away from the City of Kandy. So you need a driver/car to get there. Dambulla is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains. There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. Major attractions are spread over five caves, which contain statues and paintings that we went to look at. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, three statues of Sri Lankan kings and four statues of gods and goddesses.
Dambulla Royal Rock Temple – 5 separate rooms built into the rock
Giant Budda at entrance to Dambulla Royal Rock Temple. Next was a steep climb to the top where the temples were.
This was the largest room in the temple – there were over 150 Buddas in the 5 rooms
Reclining Budda in one room
Symbolic monks outside the temple
Sigiriya – said to be a possible site for Royal residence. We were told it should take 2 hours to climb and it was very hot when we started.
The final climb to the top – super windy and a test of will. It was much scarier than it looks here
At the base of the lion head – there are two lion paws on my sides
View from the top of Sigiriya. It was a breathtaking view on all sides.
The walk to get to the base of Sigiriya before we started to climb. These were the royal gardens
At the top of Sigiriya
So after a long, hot day hiking to the top, we were returning to Kandy to relax a bit at the Suisse Hotel. During the trip, we spent two nights in Kandy and were able to explore the surrounding around during the time. The morning we left, we stopped at the Temple of The Relic Tooth. The relic came to be regarded as a symbolic representation of the living Buddha and it is on this basis that there grew up a series of offerings, rituals, and ceremonies.
At the Temple of The Relic Tooth in Kandy. One of the most religious temples in Sri Lanka.
On May 23rd, we departed Kandy in an all day drive to get to Galle. Along the way, we were going to be fortunate to drive through all the famous Sri Lankan tea plantations so we were looking forward to stopping for a tour.
All the hills in the hill country are perfectly manicured like this and it’s all tea plants.
This is one of many Tea Factories in Nuwara Eliya (known as the hill country). This is where most of the world’s tea is processed and then the large tea companies purchase at auction in Colombo.
Locals picking tea and stuffing it over head into bags – it’s gotta be heavy
Close up of the tea plants
After driving all day through the countryside, we finally arrived in Galle for dinner and were lucky to see some traditional Sri Lankan dancing as well.
Local Sri Lankan dancing. The colorful masks are very important in to the country and used in all dance and also to protect in the home.
On May 24th, we spent the day exploring Galle, a seaside town.
We saw many wedding couples during our week and were part of the paparzzi for the couple
View from hotel in Galle – southern part of island
Inside the Galle Fort – the buildings had a lot charm but were quite weathered. The fort walls protected the buildings during the Tsunami in 2004.
Famous lighthouse in the Galle Fort
We went to visit Unawatuna Beach. This is a quiet horseshoe beach and much of this beach and town were wiped out in the 2004 Tsunami and are still being rebuilt – mostly from foreign generosity.
Unawatuna beach – really nice sand and water
Memorial built after 2004 Tsunami
We finally left Galle and headed north to the beachside town of Bentota to relax for the final two days. We read out a turtle hatchery and wanted to make sure to support the effort. The Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery is an institute dedicated to the protection and safeguarding sea turtles. They also look after injured, wounded and sick turtles in and around the island. A large part of the work of the hatchery includes collecting eggs from nests on the beach and reburying them in the hatchery where they can hatch in safety. Later these hatchlings are released back to their habitat. We were hoping to release some but based on the days we were there, we wouldn’t be able to as it was going to be at least four or five more days till they expected the next hatching and positive wind/tide conditions.
We are holding one day old turtles – so cute!
This is a one day old baby turtle that was hatched at a turtle hatchery. There are many turtle hatcheries that save turtle eggs from poachers (that make turtle omelets).
The pool of all the one day old turtles (about 80). These turtles will be released into the wild when they are either three or four days old (pending weather conditions)
The turtle hatchery incubates eggs until they are ready to hatch. Each group is marked with incubation dates, number of eggs and which turtle variety if known.
A rare albino turtle that is being cared for at hatchery as it’s too sick to survive in wild.
Our Bentota Villa with the beautiful French Penny flowers
Final stay in Bentota Beach at a small boutique hotel. Amazing relaxing time at the end of Sri Lanka. We were the only guests our first night.
We found a lovely day spa and went for the day. They even sent the private tuk tuk to pick us up.
Vanessa and me in the Tuk Tuk right back to our hotel
Tuk Tuks are everywhere in Sri Lanka. This was a brand new one that we took back from a spa day.
Bentota beach was a lovely place to walk around at. We just had to cross the train tracks from our hotel to get to the beach.
Along Bentota beach
Sri Lankan Cricket on the beach
Out for a final walk on Bentota Beach before we left the country
Sri Lanka Beer
Sri Lanka Beer
At the time we were there in 2012…the country was going through a major development to improve the train system, build a super highway (from Colombo down to Bentota and Galle) and also increase roads. So I’m sure in the coming years it will be easier and faster to get around. We spent a lot of time in transit, but that was the best we could do in 2012.
On Saturday May 26, we left Benota beach and started the few hour drive back to Colombo. Sadly it was time to leave Sri Lanka as it was a quick but lovely visit….yet we were about to head to the Maldives which was something I was looking forward to for a long time.
Logistics:
Colombo: Hilton Colombo Residence – 200 Union Place Colombo, 02 Sri Lanka
Phone: 94-11-5344644
Kandy: Suisse Hotel, Kandy – 30 Sangarajah Mawatha
+94 81 2233024-5, www.hotelsuisse.lk
Galle: Jetwing Lghthouse Hotel, Galle, Dadelle
+94 91 2223744 – www.jetwinghotels.com/jetwinglighthouse
$175 US with breakfast
Bentota: Paradise Road Villa Bentota, 138/18 -138/22 Galle Road
+94 34 2275311 – www.paradiseroadhotel/villabentota