Now that we had landed in Colombo, the excitement within us was brimming over. Even though we did not have a concrete plan or an itinerary, we managed to cover quite a bit in the 6.5 days we were there in Sri lanka.... Here is a quick jist of all that we did and places we went to,
- Land in Colombo afternoon 2.45pm
- Stayed the night in Colombo at Lafala Hotel
- Dinner at Yaal restaurant on Welawatte beach road [ good veg food] next morning left for Dumbula & Siguriya- long drive ahead.
- Saw 2 temples and climbed 1/4 way up Siguriya [very hot and after a point there is only a ladder.. about 2000 steps up are few cave temples]
- Then drove to KGalle [ to a friend's house]
- Moved ahead to Pinawala elephant orphanage [ spent about 3.5 hrs here.. lunch was packed by friend]
- Do some shopping at Laksala inside the elephant orphanage [it is a govt store and very very good - masks, mugs, tee shirts etc]
- Headed to Nuwara elliya [ stopped at a strawberry farm enroute for a half hour, and bought a box of yumm strawberries]
- Halted that night at Nuwara Elliay- Midky hotel
- Next morning drove out towards Yala, stopped enroute to see the Sita temple[ where she walked thru fire] and reached Yala around 2
- Hopped on a safari truck for the safari - took about 3 hrs in total [ cost of safari jeep- 5000LKR and safari itself was another 5000 LKR]
- Drove towards Kataragama and stayed at a hotel called Rasoja [very new and basic, but good]- again worked out to about 50$ incl breakfast -no wifi
- Morning 9am went to Kataragama temple- spent 4 hours here, saw puja and had prashad.. also walked to the Buddist temple within the complex [ about a km away]
- Drove down towards Unwatuna- stopped at Hummanaya to see the Blow hole - it is on top of a cliff, short trek but worth it], there is also a beautiful beach below.
- We stayed that night in Unawatuna [ on a brand new property literally above the ocean]- will recall name of place and share!
- Morning drove towards Galle- stopped at a Turtle sanctuary [ entry 500LKR per person] and then explored Galle fort area a bit, walked around and finally drove to Madu river [ like pitchavaram, we did a 3hr river cruise, hopped off at cinnamon island, explored the place, bought cinnamon] , held a baby crocodile, there is also a fish spa if you are interested[200LKR]
- Had lunch at the resto there and drove to Colombo straight. Reached around evening 7.
- Checked into the most awesome place[ you should check this place out- Colombo haven, run by a couple who treated us like their kids and fed us amazing veg food. The galle face beach is about 20mins walk from here . there is also an ice cream place in front- carnival ice cream
- Last day, we left to House of fashion - did some shopping[ v nice place] and headed to airport.
Now that you know all that we did, wait for the experiences to come in the subsequent posts... :-))
Summary seems interesting. Looking forward to all those lovely experiences.
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