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| banana seller |
Two weeks after our trip to the
Philippines I was off travelling again, this time to meet a friend in Sri Lanka. There are no direct flights from Seoul, so I had to travel there via
Singapore.
As I was travelling with a friend who writes guide-books, we were lucky enough to be invited to stay in 9 different hotels over a two-week period, gradually working our way down the south-west coast. One of the first hotels we stayed in was the
Mount Lavinia, just south of the capital
Colombo. This is the view we had from our room :
The hotel has an interesting story, as it was originally a country mansion built by the island's second Governor,
Sir Thomas Maitland, in 1806. When he fell in love with a beautiful mestizo dancer, Lovinia Aponsuwa, he lodged her not far away and an underground tunnel - which apparently still exists - connected her humble dwellings with the governor's mansion so that they could pursue their clandestine romance.
There is a railway station just next to the hotel, and Colombo is not far away by train.
Here are some street scenes from Colombo:
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| Jami-Ul Alfar mosque, Colombo |
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| Cargills department store, Colombo |
Further down the coast at
Kalutara we stayed at the
Kani Lanka resort:
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| hauling in the fishing net |
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| Gangtok Vihara dagoba, Kalutara |
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| mosque, Kalutara |
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| temple, Kalutara |
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| lighthouse, Berawala |
Here is one of the ubiquitous
tuk-tuks, normally seen on the roads, but exceptionally in this case on the beach!
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| tuk-tuk |
This area suffered many losses during the 2004 tsunami. I dedicate this memorial to the 1270 train passengers who lost their lives that day.
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| Tsunami victims memorial |
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| Tsunami victims memorial |
Our following stoop down the coast was the UNESCO-inscribed town of
Galle, staying in
The Fortress hotel - much more luxurious than its name sounds!
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| Galle |
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| playing cricket |
There were many fishing stilts in the sea just in front of the hotel. The fishermen perch, holding onto the stilt with one hand and fishing with a rod in the other hand.
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| fishing stilts |
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| fishing stilts |
We then moved onto another Barberyn Ayurvedic hotel, the
Beach Resort, from where we visited
Dondra, which has two important temples and a
lighthouse at Sri Lanka's most southerly point.
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| temple, Dondra |
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| temple, Dondra |
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| temple, Dondra |
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| Dondra Head lighthouse |
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| Sri Lanka's most southerly point, near Dondra |
We also visited Weherahena temple which houses an enormous Buddha statue as well as scenes from Buddha's life.
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| monk, Weherahena temple |
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| Weherahena temple |
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| Weherahena temple |
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Weherahena temple
|
Afterwards we headed inland to Ella in the hill country for one night:
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| rice paddies |
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| plantations of Ceylon tea |
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| tea pickers |
before taking the train to
Kandy.
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| on the train |
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| tea plantations & pickers seen from the train |
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| on the train, looking back |
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| Temple of the Tooth |
One of the striking architectural features of Sri Lankan temples are the moonstones, which are semi-circular carved stone slabs.
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| Moonstone |
Inside the temple of the tooth:
We then took another train down from Kandy to Colombo, and from Colombo to Wadduwa, where we stayed at the lovely
Blue Water Resort.
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| Kandy to Colombo train |
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| from the train |
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| Wadduwa |
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| kingfisher/kingfisher-type bird |
Recommended reading:
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