Travel and Experience: 2012

Thursday 5 July 2012

NUWARA ELIYA, A BEAUTIFUL HILL STATION-

Nuwara Eliya is a favourite hill station in Sri Lanka. It is located in the central province at a height of about 1870 meters above the sea level. After three days stay in Kandy our next destination was the popular hill station Nuwara Eliya.It was a pleasant trip and in route we found several tea estates with scattered tea plantation .The experience of cloudy weather and sudden rains made it more memorable.

After taking input from www.TripAdvisor.com, we decided to stay in Grand Hotel (www.grandhotelnuwaraeliya.com ) which is centrally located in Nuwara Eliya, adjacent to the Nuwara Eliya Golf Course.

Nuwara Eliya as on now, was founded by Britishers, that is why it is also called “Little England”. All around Nuwara Eliya, there are a number of buildings influenced by British architecture which includes the Grand Hotel also. The town is set against beautiful backdrops of mountains, valleys, waterfalls and Tea Plantation. The beauty of the lake is also worth mentioning. We also got an opportunity to visit Macwoods Tea Factory (www.macwoods.com) where we found the staff very courteous and cooperative. They willingly took us to their plant and showed the different steps of Tea manufacturing. My tourist guide also told us that Macwoods Tea Factory is the first tea factory in Sri Lanka, which has been awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification. We found our Adidas Running Shoes very comfortable while covering the hilly tracks of Nuwara Eliya.

During my visit to Nuwara Eliya, we also visited the Ashok Vatika, a very important religious place for Hindus. This is the place where Ravana, the king of Lanka kept Mata Sita after her abduction. Even now an old temple, known as “Seetha Eliya Sri Seethai Amman Temple” is located here. The foot prints of Hanumanji, can also be seen very near the temple. We could not resist but to capture the beautiful events in my Fujifilm Fine pix Digital Camera.

Some of the photographs of Nuwara Eliya, which I could save in my Compaq Presario Lap Top, are as follows-

GRAND HOTEL

SEETHA ELIYA

LAKE VIEW

MACWOODS TEA GARDENS

VICTORIA PARK

Thursday 14 June 2012

KANDY, THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF SRI LANKA-

KANDY, THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF SRI LANKA-

Kandy, the hill capital and a vibrant city of Sri Lanka, is located about 124 kms from Colombo. It is not only a beautiful hill station, but also a cultural heritage with lot of commercial activities. We took input from www.tripadvisor.com and our stay in Mahaweli Reach Hotel (www.mahaweli.com) was itself a pleasant experience.

Although almost every tourist visiting Sri Lanka visits Kandy but due to existence of Tooth Temple dedicated to Lord Buddha, a lot of devotees from Japan, Korea and South Eastern countries assemble hear. Kandy is a city with temple shrines and monasteries, keeping alive the Buddhist traditions. Ever since Buddha’s tooth was brought to Sri Lanka hidden in Orrisans Princess (Now Odhisa, India) hair, the relic has grown in repute and holiness in Sri Lanka.

For nature lovers, Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya may be a paradise, which is in itself spread over 147 acres in extent. My tourist guide told me that previously it was a pleasure garden of the kings of Gampola and Kandy and now there are more than 5000 species of trees and plant in this garden.

Kandy is also a busy commercial city with a number of hotels, restaurants and shops. During our stay in Kandy we visited gem and jeweller workshop, where the owner showed us the cutting of precious and semi precious stones as well as making of the jewelry according to customised pattern. He also told me that Sri Lanka is specially known for its high grade sapphire. We also took an opportunity to visit a wood and mask factory. Wooden mask with its so many bright colours, were really very impressive.We found our adidas running shoes very helpful while covering hilly tracks of Kandy.

A visit to the cultural show in Kandy was a memorable event and it helped us to understand the old traditions of Sri Lanka. During our stay in Kandy, we got a brief opportunity to attend a marriage ceremony also. It was a great view to see the performance of drummers and dancers accompanying the marriage procession.We could not resist but to capture the beautiful events in my Fujifilm Fine Pix Digital Camera.

Some of the photographs of Kandy which I could save in my Compaq Presario Laptop, are as follows.

A VIEW FROM HOTEL WINDOW

A VIEW OF KANDY

MARRIAGE PROCESSION

MARRIAGE PROCESSION

TOOTH TEMPLE

DRUMMERS SHOWING CULTURAL PERFORMANCE

Friday 18 May 2012

BENTOTA,A BEAUTIFUL BEACH TOWN

Bentota, a beautiful beach town in Sri Lanka

Last month I got an opportunity to visit Bentota, Sri Lanka. As per arrangements made by our tour operator and the input we got from www.tripadvisor.com, we stayed in hotel Club Bentota (www.clubbentota.com), which has been set on area of about 80,000 sq. meters filled with palms and tropical trees.

Bentota is a beautiful beach town located in the western shore of Sri Lanka and is about 64 km south of Colombo, the capital city. There are several white sand beaches and mesmerising lagoons. This lovely destination has excellent tourist infrastructure, very good hotels and ample facilities of water sports, para sail, windsurf, beach volleyball etc.

In this beach town two rivers namely river Bentota and river Maduganga meets the Indian Ocean, at two different places.

A boat safari ride in mangroves of Maduganga, with its so many islands, is a lifetime experience. Tourists may also visit these islands according to their interest.The largest island is called Ma doowa, and as told by my boatman, about 300 families still live within this island. The Kothduwa temple dedicated to Lord Buddha, is located in the most visited Kothduwa Island. Cinnamon Island is another very popular place to visit, where peeling of cinnamon and preparation of cinnamon oil is demonstrated to the curious tourists. The process of making rope from the coconut shells (brown fibre)is also demonstrated here.During this boat safari, visitors may also see different types of reptiles and birds such as monitor lizard & kingfishers.Boat trips can also arranged along the Bentota river.We could not resist but to capture the scenic beauty in my Fuji film Fine Pix Digital Camera.

Another interesting place to visit is turtle hatchery ,which is about 8 kms from central Bentota.Turtle hatchery, dedicated to conservation and welfare of turtles and located at the sea shore, is also worth seeing. They pay local fisherman for the turtle eggs they recover from beach, afterwards they hatch them. Ultimately new born baby turtles are released in to the sea.

Following are some of the photographs of Bentota, which I could save in my Compaq Presario Laptop.