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Kandy
Our first day in Kandy would be a very cultural one. We did the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Temple of the Tooth Relic, taken around a gem museum and went for a tuk-tuk ride downhill! Given how tired the girls were getting with all the walking, when we arrived at Royal Botanic Gardens our guide suggested that we hire a golf car (with driver) to take us around. We took his advice, as it also…
Drive to Kandy
Early Sunday morning we left Pasikudah for the long drive over to Kandy, with a stop off en route to Dambulla Rock Cave Temple. After a while of driving, police cars were signalling for all traffic to pull over – then what seemed like a gazillion bicycles zoomed past. We were told that it was the SLT Speedup Sawariya, Sri Lanka’s longest cross-country cycle race! Our guide asked us if we’d like to see an…
Pasikudah
After a long drive and several cultural stop-offs, we arrived at Anilana Hotel late Sunday evening – just in time for the end of the dinner buffet. First impressions of the hotel were very impressive, looked like we’d got another super luxurious place; the lobby was big and open, the ceilings were 20ft high; our room had a mezzanine loft area with extra beds for the kids. It was the polar opposite of The…
Polonnaruwa – The Drive to Passekudah
Leaving the Mudhouse, we head towards the ancient capital of Polonnaruwa. Lydia felt much better, but wasn’t a 100% yet – she needed to catch up on sleep. On the road away from the Mudhouse, our guide spotted a “Starred Tortoise” crossing the road, he wanted to pull over to give us a closer look. [photogrid ids="2016313,2016314" captions="yes" columns="two" fullwidth="no" ] We arrived at Polonnaruwa, welcomed with a great reservoir – the largest lake in Sri Lanka,…
The Mudhouse
We were greeted by a large welcoming party, who unloaded the van and carried our luggage off down a dirt track into the forest. After saying bye to Geehan and Sanjeewa (our driver) we too were lead down the dirt track unsure where we were going. Two minutes later we were presented with our very own traditional wattle & daub "mud" house! Ines (a French Volunteer student) gave us a guided tour of the…
Cultural highlights – Mihintale and Anaradhapura
Leaving Sigiriya, we headed towards Anamaduwa for our stay at the eco-friendly Mudhouse. On our journey we stopped off at various cultural places. First stop was Mihintale, which we are told is the birthplace of Buddhism within Sri Lanka; (the story goes that King Devanampiyatissa was out hunting when he met Mahinda, the son of an Indian emperor, who converted him to Buddhism – for more info, see the Wikipedia page about Mihintale). We walked around…