2017_12_30 MORE TEA COUNTRY

A late morning today.  We were to meet for breakfast at 8:00 - some extra rest for most.  I even slept until around 6:00.

We were told that we could not uses our bus today and that we would be transported in 2 smaller vans.  Our new drivers “Lucky” and “the other guy” were waiting for us.  There was a bit of mixup about bagged lunches for us - not ready when we finished and would be ready in “ two minutes”.  Several two minutes later we were on the road.  

Horton's Plains Towers front entrance.

Nice small lake along the way

This is the highest altitude train station in Sri Lanka

Stopped for this view back where we had come from.

We went on a pretty scenic route up up and up more until we reached Horton Plains National Park.  Along the way be passed many villagers and the train station that is at the highest altitude in Sri Lanka.


When we got there a hour and a half later we saw why we could not use the bus.  I have never seen a more chaotic parking area.  We got 
parked and were ready to walk.

The Park has a circular loop path that normally should take 3 to 3.5 hours.  A lot of up and down and quite a few rocky parts along the way.  We saw a couple of Sambar deer before we parked the vans.  They are much larger that I thought. We saw a few Bear monkeys and white faced monkeys as well along the way. 

Fog rolling in created an eerie look in the trees.

We were told that by 9:00 fog would roll in an block your view at World’s End which has a 880 meter cliff.  That’s over 2400 feet.  Well, they were right and we saw nothing which was fine with Richie (fear of heights).

Taking a bit of a break

Continuing on the loop we reached Baker’s Falls which were quite 
impressive. Paul Shore-Suslowitz image.

After another 3.5 k were were back at the carpark.  We ate our packed lunches and headed home.

Sambar deer and a raven on the way out.

Back in Nuwara Eliya we found the Golf Club, founded in 1889.

 View from the clubhouse.

Richie and Bobi are in there trying to buy some dress shirts for Dr. Blood. That didn't work out sadly.

They were able to buy some stuff at the pharmacy.

Rich and Gayle went to the Grand Hotel for high tea and we went into the town for a while.  We stopped at the golf club which was founded in 1889 and Richie tried to buy a shirt.  That didn’t work out but they got some stuff at a local pharmacy.

We went to dinner at 8:30 at the Grand Thai Restaurant in the Grand Hotel.  Very nice buffet and now for some sleep.  Breakfast at 8:30 tommow so again more sleep.

2017_12_29 TEA COUNTRY

Panoramic view from the third floor terrace

Another view of the nearby river

Market right below Dazzling Villas.  

Breakfast on the 2nd floor terrace.

We got to sleep in a bit this morning after a nice night’s rest at Dazzling Villas in Kandy.  Breakfast at 9:00 and a 10:00 departure for the tea country.  Not too much walking today - scenic views from our bus.  First stop will be at a old tea factory that is now the Ceylon Tea Museum.

After a tour at the Ceylon Tea Factory we went to a functioning Tea factory and basically got the same information all over again.  Here we saw the same machines we learned about actually running.  We also learned quite bit about tea and what it takes to fill the Lipton tea bag.

After a LONG bus ride with stops to view a waterfall and buy bananas and little oranges we finally arrived at the town of  Nuwara Eliya (New England) a town built by the English.  Although we only had to travel about 50 miles it took forever as we went way up in elevation to about 6,000 feet on winding s curves.

Waterfall along the way.  We stopped for snacks and the view.  Bobi Steingart image.

Banana and orange stop along the way.  Our bus driver Karu is on the right in the white shirt.

Market in Nuwara Eliya

We bought great street food from this vendor.

The Pink Post Office with horse tending to the grasses.

Very British looking mailbox at the Pink Post Office.

We did a real short tour of another market looked around a bit and checked in at The Horton Towers where we will have a two night stay!  Gives us time to have some laundry cleaned.

After we checked in we walked thru local tea fields to a Indian reataurant where we had a nice meal.

Here we all are enjoying Indian food.  Our driver Karu and guide Maddu are at the front of this image.

2017_12_28 SIGIRYIA LION ROCK AND DAMBULLA CAVE TEMPLE

We had a really action packed day 2 in Sri Lanka.

Up pretty early (again) and had a wonderful buffet breakfast at The Cinnamon Lodge. Afterwards our luggage was loaded into a really nice Nissan Bus.  Connie and I met our guide Maddu and driver Karu for the first time.  The Rediker’s and Steingart’s already had met them when they transported them to The Cinnamon Lodge yesterday.

  

Our first stop was Sigiriya Lion Rock.  Sigi means lion and riya rock in Sinhalese.  This place is a large rock that was thrust upwards out of the earth by volcanic activity thousands of years ago.  Much like Ayers Rock in Australia, it appears in the middle of  flat rice fields.  It looks quite stunning as you approach it.

The first King of this area used the rock as a palace.  Actually 2
palaces, one atop the rock for the rainy season and another summer palace at ground level.  Water was plentiful during the rainy season but not so easily obtained during the dry summer months.

The 8 of us ready to climb to the top of Sigiriya Rock

A moat surrounded the area.  Water came down from the top of the rock thru irrigation systems and flowed into the moats.

Pools on the lower grounds used by the 500 concubines of the King.  He had one wife and the concubines which were a measure of his wealth. They had no names but were numbered from 1 to ......

Heading towards the rock. Paul SS image.

Our guide for the day at the Park told us that we would climb 2,000 steps to get to the top.  The first half way up was on marble stairs 
that were quarried 30 miles away transported to the rock and carved into the rock. 

The frescos were protected from the elements by this terra cotta "mirror wall".

At the half way mark we were able to see frescoes carved into the rock wall that were images of the King’s comcubines (bare breasted).  I found these image on the internet.  No photos of the frescoes were allowed at the site.

Many other such frescoes were defaced by Buddhist monks after 
they took over once the King moved the capitol city elsewhere.

The naked women offended them and they removed them as best 
they could.  The remaining frescos were very hard to get to back 
then and they survived.

You can see the lions feet on either side of where we were to walk up.

The second half of the way up was on metal stairs that seemed to never end.  Eventually we got to the top and walked around on the 3.9 acre surface.  Wonderful views were available and we spent 
about a half hour resting and enjoying the view.

Buddha image in the distance from the top. 

Looking back down to the pools below where we started.

There were monkeys everywhere up there and along the way up.
They are fearless and are always on the lookout for anything left unattended.

The up and down took us 3 hours - not so bad as the estimate in guide biiks was 45 minutes up and another 45 down.

We next went to the Dambulla CaveTemple which had up walk up 
more stairs to get to the top of another large rock.  At the top were 5 Buddhist Temples carved in caves.  Totally stunning!  Suffice it to say I enjoyed them immensely.

Heading up to the cave temples.

5 temples in a row.

Reclining Buddha image

Feet of the reclining Buddha image

My favorite image

Incredible detail painted on to the ceilings

Back into the bus for yet another drive to the city of Kandy (a large city) with it’s attendant traffic jams.  We drove up to to a high viewing spot after battling extreme traffic.  We eventually spent some time at a huge market before heading over to the Tooth Palace.  We spent a bunch of time there before leaving and arriving at our rooms for the night.  

View of the large man made lake from above

Tons of birds were really loud down by the market

Inside the market

Connie bought cinnamon and pepper from this stall.

Inside The Temple of the Tooth Relic

Buddha image and elephant tusks at a major altar.  This is a very famous temple and many make pilgrimages here.

We are staying at what is basically a B & B called Dazzling Villas.  4 rooms with a common area for dining.  Seems really nice.

2017_12_27 FIRST FULL DAY IN SRI LANKA

Traveling to Sri Lanka was pretty much a LONG DAY “yesterday’ and into the early morning hours today (Wednesday).

Left Chicago early evening on Christmas day ans arrived in Doha, Qatar after a 12.5 hour flight.  We than had a layover for a couple of hours and continued on to Colombo. Sri Lanka.  We arrived at 4:00a.m.

Our driver was waiting for us and we got to our room and into bed around 5:00.  We arrived at A Resort Like No Other and a staff member showed us to our room.  I awoke the next morning with cramps in both legs (probably from the long time in the air) and decided to get up. I walked around taking some pictures and had a pot of tea while I waited for Connie’s alarm to go off.

After we met up with our friends Paul and Larainne Shore-Suslowitz in the morning we had breakfast and the same driver came to take us to The Cinnamom Lodge where we will be staying tonight.

We actually arrived a few minutes after the other two couples in our ‘group’ the Redikers and the Steingarts and the adventure was ready to begin!

After we checked in we went a few minutes away to Minneyira Narional Park where we saw a lot of wildlife.  Mostly elephants!  There were a LOT of jeeps taking tourists deep into the Park to a open area that surrounded a large lake.  This is where we saw MANY elephants and a ton of birds.  Connie and I were so glad to experience elephants in the wild.  Towards the end of the day we stopped to stretch our legs and climbed up an observation tower that loked out over the lake.  Rick spotted what I thought were dirt mounds pretty far off in the distance.  It turned out the ‘dirt mounds were a bunch of elephants gathering together for the night!

As we started back to the gate area to leave a jeep in front of us began backing up.  A LARGE male elephant was walking down the trail right towards us.  He walked off the trail and a bit farther we encountered another group of elephants also on the trail.  Our drived revved his engine and they too went off the trail towards the other elephants at the lake.

Back to the hotel and a great private dinner outside by the pool. A very nice meal with many different types of seafood prepared on a grill.  We could choose whatever we wanted to eat.  Too many types of fish to mention but the tuna steaks were especially great.

Time for sleep as I am running on 2 hours sleep.

More to follow.

RESORT LIKE NO OTHER

Here's where we will be sleeping after we arrive from a LONG day's flights starting 12/25 and arriving 2:00a.m. on the 27th (Sri Lanka time).  

Chicago to Doha, Qatar.

2 hour (or so layover).

Doha to Colombo, Sri Lanka (4 hours).

Also playing with colors.  I think I like this instead of the blue from the first post.  For whatever reason I can't seem to get it to use black?

https://www.resortlikenoother.org

2017_12_25 OFF TO SRI LANKA!

OFF TO SRI LANKA!

We will begin this year's big adventure next Monday (Christmas Day) flying to Sri Lanka.

Our first flight will take us to Doha, Qatar (13 hours and 10 minutes).  After a couple hour layover we continue forward to Colombo, Sri Lanka - a mere 4 hours.  We are scheduled to arrive around 2:00a.m. on Tuesday morning the 27th their time.

Transport has been arranged to A Resort Like No Other (Great name by the way).  Connie is glad to know that we will be able to grab some rest before waking up that morning.

After a breakfast where we will meet Paul and Laraiane Shore-Suslowitz ( they arrived a couple of hours ahead of us the night before) in the morning for breakfast.  

After breakfast we will be transported to meet up with the other two couples and start the real adventure.  Rich and Gayle Rediker and Richie and Bobi Steingart will be waiting for us after their most excellent adventure to date.  I am sure we will have a lot to catch up on regarding the wedding they attended in Thailand!

More to follow.........