Kandy
I’m ashamed to say that the seven of us who went to Lanka this time chose the easiest mode, until Merissa had a driver to send, and the hotel we chose was also more expensive. The three girls had to find a hotel by themselves by bus and train.
We flew in the early morning the night before and arrived at Langkawi airport at noon local time. We thought it would be very slow when we went through customs, but it was surprisingly fast.
After we left the airport, we found a driver and headed to Kandy, but most people actually stayed in Negombo, which is closer to the airport, for one night to rest.
When I arrived in Kandy, it was more than 5pm, so it took me a while to find a scheduled home stay. But surprisingly, the owner was super nice, giving us a separate two-story house for seven people to live in, and the food was super delicious!
The next day’s itinerary is mainly the famous Kandy Lake and the Buddha’s Tooth Temple.
The temple in Lanka has certain dress code requirements, pants should be above the knee, and shoes should be taken off to enter the temple, so you must remember to wear socks or bring a few pairs of socks for backup.
Buddha’s Tooth Temple is a large campus, the scenery is quite good, you can take a good stroll. To enter the temple, you have to buy a ticket of more than 1,000 rupees. The temple architecture is ancient and mostly wooden. Personally, I was most interested in the Buddhist paintings in the side halls, although I had seen them in my religion class, but this was the first time I saw Southern Theravada Buddhism. I was very impressed.
Kandy Lake is very close to Buddha’s Tooth Temple, so we spent the afternoon going around Kandy Lake. The Kandy Lake is generally very beautiful, in the center of Kandy, surrounded by very distinctive buildings. The Queen’s Hotel next to Kandy Lake is recommended by many guides and is said to be good for food and accommodation, but unfortunately we were too embarrassed to go and experience it.
Dinner was served at the home stay, and I have to say, the hostess’s cooking was superb! Breakfast is a typical English breakfast, dinner is a mix of English and local specialties, super delicious.
Check out in the morning of the third day. The total cost for the two nights plus two dinners was 6120 rupees.
Tea Factory
The tea factory is the transition between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.
I visited two tea factories in a row, one in Glenloh and one in Mackwoods. each factory was super crowded and many Chinese people were buying tea by the crates. But I did not buy in the tea factory, one is the price is a bit inflated, the second is the family is used to drink green tea, do not like tea bags, but more importantly, I only found in very few boxes of tea in the official logo of Sri Lanka tea. But the packaging is beautiful, not lost as a gift.
We left the tea factory in the afternoon and we arrived at Nuwol Eliya close to six o’clock.
Then I thought, my geography three view collapsed. The promised tropics are over 15 degrees all year round? Especially in the northern hemisphere in the summer! Although I saw a lot of tips before coming to say that Nuvolle Elijah is very cold, but I did not expect it to be so cold! I feel that the temperature at night is only about eight or nine degrees, and when it’s hot at noon, it’s only about 20 degrees. So, you must bring a jacket! Bring long pants!
The Grand hotel is located next to the Grand hotel, near Victora park and the post office, and has a long history. Every day at six o’clock in the afternoon, there is a long line of people waiting at the door before it opens.
We ate at the Grand Hotel for two nights in a row. The first night was inexperienced, very good, Indian taste, but there were a lot of dark dishes. It was really dark food. The Grand hotel averages about a thousand rupees per person, which is not too expensive.
The next day our trip was to the Horton Plains. Since we didn’t negotiate with the hotel the night before, we actually left the hotel for Horton Plains at noon. The driver we found to go to Horton Plains was superb. He was very familiar with Horton Plains and took us on the trails to see the better scenery and spread the knowledge of the flora and fauna of Horton Plains. The driver is a cooperative relationship with Single tree hotel where we stayed. The driver was 6500 rupees in total and the room cost was about 40 dollars for 2 days.
The view of Horton Plains is superb! Especially the end of the world, the scenery is breathtaking! Strongly recommended! The first thing you need to do is to get a ticket to the city, but it’s a lot more than a hundred rupees for local people, and 2500 rupees for foreign adults.
The third day of Nouvelle Elijah, we used to catch up. We did not visit Tissa during our trip, and Tissa was only used as a stopover to catch up with the road.
Here is the train in Sri Lanka. We didn’t buy a first class seat because we heard that we had to make a reservation. Second and third class seats didn’t seem that bad to me, and no one checked the tickets. It was super crowded and having a seat was rare. So instead of being in the carriage and bored and squeezing around with others, you can experience the thrill of sticking your feet out of the car and hanging on to the train at the door.
Tissa and Merissa
It was already night when we arrived in Tissa, so we rushed to check into the hotel and rested well.
After checking out the next morning, we left for Mirissa. Our driver dropped us off at Mirissa and then left with us to pick up another group of tourists from Colombo airport.
The main purpose of the trip to Merissa was whale watching, but I think it was a failure =_= I couldn’t see anything. The driver took us directly to the pier and bought tickets for the largest boat for 6,500 rupees. Then online shopping around found everywhere two or three thousand, but I do not know if the boat is the same.
The next day early in the morning will get up to the pier to watch whales, the ship will have breakfast to eat. I don’t really recommend whale watching anyway. I can’t see anything with my nearsighted eyes like mine and I hear people shouting around.
Galle
The whole city of Galle feels quite big, it is highly recommended to play for a few more days, we play for two days are not enough time, in fact, you can not go to Merissa directly to Galle.
We took a bus from Merissa to Galle, 1,900, you can talk about the price. When we arrived in Galle, we couldn’t wait to go to the fortress, and it felt superb! In the old city to eat lunch, the restaurant is to see lonely planet’s recommendations, only curry rice, anyway, the feeling is not very good, spicy. This reinforces the idea that we fried rice a wave of flow.
Here we recommend that after shopping the fortress out of the old city, walk forward about ten minutes you can see the train station. There is a small bazaar next to the train station where you can buy a lot of things, and there is a supermarket chain on top. We bought bread and noodles in the supermarket for dinner. I have to mention here that Sri Lankan noodles are quite delicious.
The next day early in the morning after eating breakfast and ready to go to the second brush fortress.
The trip was basically the same as yesterday, and it was almost noon after the fortress. Lunch is also recommended by lonely planet, a pizza restaurant near the exit of the fortress, feel good.
Galle Old Town
On the third day, I got up early in the morning to catch the train to Colombo, preparing for the last stop of my Sri Lanka tour!
Colombo
Colombo was the last stop of our trip. We went to Galle train station early in the morning to take the train to Colombo. When we took the train, there were surprisingly few people, and the train took about four or five hours. When we arrived at Colombo, there was the famous “sea train”, and the salty sea breeze came in through the door, which felt very comfortable.
Sea train
We arrived in Colombo around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. and took a taxi to the Galle face hotel we booked. by the way, we spent about one eighth of our trip on the Galle face hotel for two nights, which was about $100. The reason we booked this hotel was because our itinerary had to be adjusted a little at the beginning and this hotel was the only one that allowed us to change the dates.
The hotel is very expensive but worth the money, next to the galle face square, where many local citizens cool off in the evening, and where the young people of Colombo go on dates.
We had lunch at the food court outside Odel, next to the old town hall, and it was still fried rice. I don’t know what else to order except fried rice. I highly recommend the gelato place next door, it’s super good!
In Odel, there is a special tea shop that sells all kinds of tea, so if you want to buy tea back, you can buy it here, and there are various sizes and packages.
The shrong worn by the locals bought in Odel
Out of the supermarket, about five hundred meters ahead there is a large supermarket, where you can buy some milk and bread and other household goods. When we went there, we saw a Chinese tour group buying in a big bag, everyone bought at least one big carton box, we bought a few boxes of milk and a few packs of bread, compared to the shabby.
Roadside
The plan for the next day was to wander around Colombo city. We went to the Old Dutch Hospital, the museum, etc., had lunch in the Cinnamon Garden area, and afterwards went to the
