Dambulla Village Tour & Temples

 

The Dambulla Village Tour is an immersive cultural experience in Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle, highlighting traditional rural life. The tour features a scenic bullock cart ride (cart drawn by oxen), a traditional catamaran boat trip, chena cultivation visits (slash-and-burn cultivation), and a home-cooked Sri Lankan lunch. (Google)

Hurulu Eco Park Sri Lanka

 

Hurulu Eco Park in Habarana, Sri Lanka, is a prominent 10,000-hectare biosphere reserve, famous for hosting jeep safaris that offer intimate, often less-crowded sightings of wild Sri Lankan elephants. As a crucial dry-zone habitat, it provides a crucial, year-round alternative to neighboring parks like Minneriya and Kaudulla. (Google)

Sigiriya Lion Rock Sri Lanka

Sigiriya Lion Rock is a 5th-century ancient rock fortress and palace complex in central Sri Lanka, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and often called the "eighth wonder of the world". It features a 200-meter-high granite monolith topped with ruins, featuring landscaped gardens, ancient frescoes, and colossal carved lion paws. (Google)

Habarana Cultural Centre Dance Show

 

The Habarana Cultural Centre hosts a nightly 1-hour show featuring traditional Sri Lankan Kandyan dancing, drumming, and vibrant, acrobatic, and fire performances. Held in a 700-seat, eco-friendly theatre with a natural grass roof, the show features over 35 performers, including skilled female dancers, and offers an authentic cultural experience near Sigiriya. (Google)

Dambulla Cave Rock Temple Sri Lanka

 

The Dambulla Cave Temple (or Golden Rock Temple) is a 1st-century B.C. UNESCO World Heritage site in Sri Lanka, renowned as the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in the country. Located on a 160-meter high rock, it features five main caves adorned with over 150 Buddha statues, intricate paintings, and 2,100 square meters of murals. (Google)

Navam Maha Perahera in Colombo Sri Lanka

 

We see one of the most important Buddhist temples in Colombo from our apartment. We're fortunate to be close enough to walk just a little bit to see a major festival procession. I took about 700 photos, but I've picked out about 200 to share some images of the entire procession.

Mal Perahera (Flower Procession) in Colombo Sri Lanka

 

I thought this procession was practice for the big Navam Maha Perahera since they did it all through the week. It was actually Mal Perahera. This was a unique sight to unexpectably stumble upon while walking home from work.

Ella to Mirissa Sri Lanka

 

We started the day in the cool mountains of Ella. Our trip concluded with a lovely beach sunset in Mirissa. It could have been remarkably hotter, but it was an overcast day with some rain. It didn't end up being that drastic of a change in environments on this tropical island nation.

Train to Ella Sri Lanka

 

That's some other people hanging out at the open door of the train, but it shows a good overview of a magical train ride. We kept hearing about taking a scenic segment of the train line to Ella. This was probably the best day of our trip to the mountain interior of Sri Lanka. It was a great way to start the first day of the new year. We're fortunate to live in this beautiful country.

 

Year's End at World's End - Horton Plains National Park Sri Lanka

 

We spent the last day of the year at the end of the world. We went before dawn to the Horton Plains National Park to arrive when it opened and hike out to the Mini World's End and Greater World End's overlooks before they were obscured by clouds. We succeeded for one by not the other.

Kandy to Nuwara Eliya Sri Lanka

 

This continues our trip through central Sri Lanka. We started with the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. We toured a tea factory and had a tea tasting in the heart of tea country. The day ended in Nuwara Eliya.

Trip to Kandy Sri Lanka

 

We hired a tour company to take us around the popular parts of Sri Lanka for a week. We started by heading to Kandy in the central mountain area for the first night. We saw an elephant sanctuary along the way and a traditional dance show on arrival in Kandy. The amazing view above was from our room after a long day of driving and seeing stuff.

Colombo Buddhist Temples

 

If you pay to enter the Seema Malaka Buddhist Temple on Biera Lake then you can use your ticket to visit the nearby Gangaramaya Temple which is also interesting. We also visited the Aśōkārāma Temple in another part of the city. I'm told it's a more typical temple. I've collected pictures of both here to compare the two.