I always wanted to visit uncommon travel destinations but always find planning trips to these places very challenging. It is easier to go to countries where there are trains that make it convenient to move from one tourist attraction to another. That said, I always end up with big city tours over nature trails and beaches. So I was glad our company decided to go to Sri Lanka a few months ago. I have always been intrigued by Sri Lankan architecture when I was in design school. Its architecture – we were taught – is the embodiment of the seamless integration of outdoor and indoor spaces. I always wanted to see that. So when HR asked who wanted to go, I was the first to raise a hand. 🙂
Sri Lanka was truly beautiful. The food (the part that I always remember) was very different and warming; which I enjoyed very much. The people were equally warm and welcoming. Our trip however was short and as always – organized by a travel company. So as expected, we traveled for hours between destinations; spending only a few moments in popular spots of the places we go to. We stayed in 4 hotels during our 5-day stay here. But these were the best hotels; some of which were designed by a famous architect in the country. The beauty of the architecture alone provided comfort and compensated for the fatigue caused by sitting too long inside the bus. The highlight of the trip was a safari with a guaranteed sighting of a big herd of elephants but saw only 3 small elephants. The guide took us to a “popular” spot with dirt roads already created to accommodate safari jeeps. I suspect the frequent sighting of tourists spooked the elephants; forcing these animals to move to the wild. We were expecting some kind of explanation but the guide was unapologetic but obviously embarrassed. 🙂
The photo above was taken while I was climbing my way to the top of Sigiriya Rock Fortress. I am thankful for my earlier marathon trainings as it really helped in challenging activities like this. A lot of my colleagues (some are same age as I am and some even younger) almost passed out and decided to stop halfway. I love observation decks and high places so I made it a point to reach the top. The climb was difficult enough but the view from above was extremely rewarding.
A few facts about Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka is a tropical paradise located below the southern tip of the Indian continent. Formerly called Ceylon and renowned as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean”, it offers a diversity of landscapes in a relatively small area. It is famous for its vast tea plantations shrouded in mist, golden beaches, cave temples, ancient ruins, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and of course our favorite elephant safari. 🙂 This compact Indian Ocean paradise blends rich cultural heritage with amazing biodiversity; making it a unique destination for adventure seekers and travelers.
I was actually expecting a more relaxed pace in this trip considering the attractions were more related to nature and cultural heritage. But because we only had 5 days, we had to scurry through the country and stick to our itinerary. Despite the rush, I still managed to take some decent photos and we did cover a lot of interesting destinations. Obviously, we spent a lot of our time outdoors which made this experience totally different from my previous ramblings. There was no shopping except on our last day when some colleagues requested to be taken to a city mall so they could buy gemstones. We ate mostly in local villages -beside nature and paddy fields – where food was prepared and cooked in front of us – perhaps the part of the trip that I enjoyed the most. The hotels were the best and did exemplify buildings that bring nature in – the integration of the indoors with the outdoors as mentioned earlier.
I share below the beautiful places we visited and more photos I took from this hurried but wonderful trip. For each of the photo galleries below, you can click on any of the images to activate the photo carousel.
Horathapola Coconut Village: A vast estate covered with coconut trees in all directions. We were taken to a bungalow where the host served us an exquisite meal made from heirloom ingredients. Most of the food was organic and made with coconut of course – the estate’s specialty. I just realized I didn’t take any photo of the food we ate during this trip; so I apologize for that. 🙂
Dambulla Cave Temples: Also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site perched on top a massive rock. It has five caves that house 150 statues of Buddha and has wall paintings that date back to over 2,000 years. The caves are dimly lit; creating feelings of awe and tranquility.
Habarana Village: This village gave us a glimpse of Sri Lanka’s rural heritage. We were welcomed here by friendly locals who performed a traditional dance and fire breathing exhibitions. We saw traditional homes and authentic daily life in this countryside. We also ate beside nature and lush paddy fields where food was freshly prepared and cooked in front of us.
Sigiriya Rock Fortress: This is another UNESCO World Heritage site. Also known as “The Lion Rock”, this 200-meter high rock used to have a king’s palace at its summit. Wars transformed this site from fortress to a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century before it was mysteriously abandoned. There is a meticulously landscaped royal garden at the top of the Fortress. From there, you can climb to the summit where only ruins of the former royal palace remain.
Pedro Estates Tea Plantation: We were taken to a factory where all the important processes to convert tea leaves to black tea happen. The machinery used is of traditional British design and some machines are as old as 100 years. The tour of the factory ended with a visit to an adjacent shop where some of us were encouraged to buy different flavors of packaged tea leaves.
Finally, I include below snapshots of the beautiful hotels we stayed in and some views of the areas around each of these hotels. We stayed in these 4 hotels: Jetwing Blue in Negombo (facing Negombo Beach), Heritance Kandalama in Dambullah (my architectural favorite), Ayugiri Wellness Resort (for a relaxing massage), and the Grand Hotel Nuwara Eliya (the grandest of them all). I am not getting paid to promote these places, but I believe you should check them out if you or your company need to do some serious hotel hopping. 🙂
So there you go; my account on our short but wonderful trip to this beautiful country. See you in my next post. Cheers!!! 🙂
From Lines to Lenses 