Earlier part of the Sri Lanka Trip involves sightseeing in Bentota, Weligama, Ella and Nuwara Eliya.
Day 5:
We left Nuwara Eliya after having breakfast at our hotel. After 30 minutes of driving towards Kandy, we arrived at Damro Labookellie Tea Centre and Tea garden.
The tea factory here is actually running and the management offers complimentary 15 minute guided tour around the factory.
We learned about various stages of processing of tea as well as about different varieties of tea.
Finally we were treated with a variety of fine Ceylon tea. We ended up buying a good amount of tea from the gift shop to take for folks back home.
Next we continued our journey towards Kandy. 7 Km from Damro we arrived at Ramboda Falls. Our driver instructed us to take the Ramoda Falls Hotel shuttle down the steep road to the hotel. After paying access fee for the falls at the reception, we made our way down the elevator and walked to the falls.
We continued our journey towards Kandy.
We arrived at Kandy just past 2 PM. After freshening up at our hotel, we drove to Bahiravokanda Vihara Buddha statue. There are a lot of stairs, but once you are up there, you get a nice view of the city of Kandy.
We walked by the Kandy Lake to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It was too late and we decided to not go in.
Day 6:
We left our hotel in Kandy and drove towards Colombo. Colombo is about 115 km from Kandy and the drive normally takes 3 hours. On the way we stopped at a spice garden. Sri Lanka is famous for its tea and its spices. These spice gardens line up the road between Kandy and Colombo. They are kinda touristy but we were in no rush to reach Colombo so decided to stop at one of them.
We got a guided tour of the garden followed by a marketing pitch on the uses of various spices and lotions. It was a “low pressure” pitch and we only bought 2 small vials of vanilla extract.
We reached Colombo late afternoon. We were staying at the Hilton Colombo Residences for 1 night. After freshening up we went out sightseeing. First stop, Galle Face Green.
We watched the beautiful sunset and then walked the promenade where various food stalls served local delicacies to the visitors.
Day 7:
Our first stop was one of the most important Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, the Gangaramaya Temple.
There are many interesting Buddha statues throughout the temple and it can easily take 2-3 hours to see them all.
After spending about 2 hours at the temple, we drove to Independence square, commemorating independence from the British in 1948.
We drove around the city catching some more landmarks like the Lotus Tower and Altair Building.
After driving around for an hour we drove back to the hotel.