This has been more than year now on 26th September 2016, i messaged my friends saying “Tonight i will be traveling Sri Lanka for 6 days of EID holidays, i would kindly request you all to wishes us”. You got it right i was so excited as it was my first ever foreign trip apart from UAE. We took night flight, the flight was full with tourist. While landing we had to face lots of turbulence due to rain, lightning and thunder. You know its new place and how it feels. I thought to myself that “the adventure has just begun!!”. we landed in Colombo, the capital city of Island country. The airport welcomed us with “Ayubowan to the country of 20 million people”. Soon we purchased the Mobile SIM i must admit the network coverage was fantastic even on the highest peak. We met our guide Mr. Oscar holding our name plate. who accompanied us through out the tour.
First day our destination was Habarana Village on our way we stopped for breakfast. I am quite choosy when it comes to food specially non veg. My attention was captured by label ‘String hopper’ and i reluctantly opened the lid. It was steamed rice spaghetti a famous dish in Mangalore so soon i became comfortable with Sri Lankan dishes. we visited cave temple, Dambulla with huge Buddha statue over the mountain. We enjoyed the pleasant breeze and collected lovely lotus. I saw few ladies selling moon stones as we started to enquire one of the local passed by said “its fake don’t buy”, was amused to see to two different set of people.
After reaching Habarana at evening we had plans for Minneriya National park its a reserved park of Elephant. After seeing the open jeep i became speechless, i kept on asking our guide do we have any other option? Once we reached the spot it was astonishing to see nearly 100 jeep facing more than 200 wild Elephants.I was scared and my son was so cool and happy to see the herd of Elephants. That night we enjoyed dinner buffet, i made few as my favorties like mango chutney, brinjal fry, egg appam, kottu roti never missed it in rest of my tour.
Day 2 We witnessed Sri Lankan wedding in our hotel, the lady draped in saree its a different style compared to Indian and i got chance to click few pictures with them. We headed for Polonnaruwa the ancient city, on the way we stopped for Sigiriya-the rock fort where the King Kasyapa built palace on the top of this rock, it is also UNESCO listed world heritage site. We spotted blue water lily Sri Lankan national flower , water monitor and also relished locally grown corn later in the evening we relaxed in swimming pool, took some beautiful family pictures around the resort and night we stepped for live music.
Day 3 We started for Hunas falls through Kandy. On our way we visited ayurvedic factory or store. The guy demonstrated all his products, how naturally it is made and its benefits. later the product was there for sale, the packaging was cheap but it was very expensive. whenever i use it starts to itch a lot, i gave up after 2,3 times. So make smart decision before you buy anything here. Afterwards we entered a cloth dye factory where they use natural color. The process involves trace, dip in different colors until you get desired colors. It was nice to see how the color mixes and it takes almost a week to finish one design. We reached our destination at 8 pm it was already dark. we couldn’t explore much of our stay we were tired by full day journey
Day 4 We woke up to see breathtaking view from our balcony, had our breakfast and started to Nuwaraeliya. This was the GEM, nature at its best, the green mountains and fresh atmosphere filled with tranquility. If there is heaven it is this!!. we visited historical Ram, Hanuman temple which took us to childhood as we grew up listening to stories of Ramayan. We had delicious tea at blue field tea gardens where the lady guided us through different stages of tea making and we purchased tea from the factory. As we went uphill we saw the city called little England where the architect resembles to that of England, Arjun and me got chance for horse ride and beautiful Victoria park. on our way back we picked up guava, it was one of the kind, super delicious. I really had some of tasty fruits in Sri Lanka
Day 5 Morning we walked around the resort saw a hanging bridge over the lake, got the sight of Hunas falls but was not flowing full soon We started for Kandy. we visited Tooth temple, Gems store, wooden craft store. I was insisting our guide to take us for elephant ride i thought it must be kind of horse ride. Once we reached i was happy till i saw the Elephant on top of it which had a rope and rubber sheet nothing else for the support. I climbed first and grabbed the rope then Arjun later Rajesh in one hand he held Arjun in other he was holding me for support. Everything looked fine till the Elephant started to take steps we were scared it was swinging us. Just then it went over a narrow bridge which had stream we were terrified. Our guide knowing this took the camera and asking us to smile!!.It was just a 100m stretch but we are aware of every step as soon we reached we took a long breath. After us it was turn for a lady on elephant i was curious to see her reaction so stood there, it just took 2 steps she screamed “no way, cant go anymore please take me back”. I know the ride was scary. At night we reached Colombo. Our guide was happy to be back to his home town.
Day 6 Colombo is a metropolitan city. We relaxed in our hotel till evening. we visited Gangaramaya Temple, Independence memorial hall and witnessed yet another wonder of nature sunset at Galle beach.The street foods were so tempting. Opposite to the beach there was Magnificent Taj hotel. In the evening we got some time in swimming pool. Midnight it was time for us to say bye to Sri Lanka.
We had fabulous time in Sri Lanka. Its a beautiful and well maintained country. All these time i took many pictures with Abu Dhabi week but still didn’t get the courage to publish it.
Whenever my son spots bunch of trees he refers it to Sri Lanka. He still remembers most of the things we did there which makes us feel happy and satisfied as a parent. I hope its a good time for us to plan yet another vacation soon to cherish the Glory of the World.