Safari, Swimming and Sipping in Sri Lanka

Egypt will have to wait as the Arabian Canadians are experiencing a new adventure in Sri Lanka (SL). Boarding the plane in Jeddah in the early evening, Cheryl shed her abaya and it will reappear upon our return on the 11^th of February.  Our night flight touched down just outside Colombo (SL’s capital) at Bandaranaike International airport, at 4:30 am.

Given we had less than 18 hours to book a holiday; we didn’t have all the details worked out at departure time. One of those details was how we were going to get to Nuwara Eliya in the wee hours of the morning. Ahh, God is so good! We negotiated a price for a driver and car for our four day tour through the SL Mountains and then back to the beach. Nana (our driver) was promptly hailed and we were on our way.

Through the rain drizzle, we experienced ‘rush hour’ travel as the local folks and children were preparing for their day (Wednesday February 2). Children were in starched white uniforms, some with ties, white socks and white sneakers; a British tradition. The scenery was new to us and very beautiful – so green and lush; unlike Saudi. Because of traffic volume and road conditions, it took us a full six hours to drive the 150 kms. To Newara Eliya. We really appreciate Vancouver Island’s new

Inland Hwy.

where we cover this distance in a much shorter time. There is no way to describe how people drive here. The roads are very narrow and filled with busses, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks, people, and stray dogs. Nana was outstanding in getting us to all our destinations with only a few near misses!

Nuwara Eliya offered us an old English hotel, Saint Andrew, located in the high country. This mountainous area with acres and acres of tea plants, tea factories and little villages along the way was fascinating to view.  The tea factory tour gave us more insight into the making of tea. Watching the workers on the steep hillsides with baskets harvesting tea leaves, gives us a greater appreciation for our afternoon cup of tea.

acres and acres of well cultivated tea plants

As our trip carried on towards Kandy, we saw the SL entrepreneurial spirit is alive and flourishing. Small stands along the side of the road sell everything from local fruits and vegetables, to rice and colossal yellow coconuts, and even the kitchen sink if one should need one! All the vendors stand at the front of their shop and beckon you towards their wares with a friendly smile and a welcome wave. 

Once in Kandy, we visited the gem museum. The mining techniques are staggering and still very primitive. Everything is done manually, using the natural resources such as bamboo to support the shaft and ferns to stop the seepage in the mine shaft. They mine many gems; sapphires of three different kinds, rubies, and garnets to name a few. Their prize gem is the star sapphire, which is only found in SL. Although Cheryl was excited about all the sparkling gems, one of her best purchases of the day was a bottle of Yellow Tail Chardonnay and a wine glass to boot! She also found her first pair of shoes in the same mall as the wine store.

Winding up the collapsing mountain side because of all the rain, Nana skilfully found us our second hotel. The Tourmaline was a beautiful hotel which overlooked the city of Kandy. Our room was modern, large and comfortable with a spectacular view of the mountainside.

Walking in Mother Earth’s bountiful nature is always pleasant. The botanical garden in Kandy was a wonderful respite from our two days of driving. Not only did we enjoy the beautiful vegetation from all over SL and Asia, we also witnessed some amazing bats. These bats were huge! Their wingspan was just under a metre and they were flying, resting and eating during daylight hours. It was fun to capture a photo!

After the botanical gardens, we had a traditional massage. VERY INTERESTING! Note to self; look at premises and ask more questions prior to payment! We are sure it was a traditional massage, just not our tradition.

Our evening afforded us a chance to witness a time-honoured cultural dance show. This included the welcome dance, dance of the cobra (yuck), the mask dance and the finale being the fire dance. Next, we joined the very large crowd and walked to the Temple of the Tooth where we all respectfully entered barefoot, even though it was still raining! This is a Buddhist temple where we saw kilograms and kilograms of sculpted gold and a library with books as old as 1600 years. All was well guarded by monks in their orange attire and a host of security personnel.

Taking a chance, we asked Nana to take us to one of his favourite restaurants in Kandy. Indeed a local favourite, as we had the best fried rice we have eaten in years!

We named heading to the beach, Plants, Mammals and Reptiles. Our first stop was a herb garden where Sumeervi was passionate about how plants can heal our aches and pains. He was pleasantly surprised when we agreed with him! We learned much about herbal medicines. Sumeervi was so sweet and told Glenn he couldn’t help him grown his hair back because he was past the golden age of 40! This was one of our favourite stops to date.

Living large always challenges us and often reaps rewards. Enormous elephants were our next adventure! Believing we were getting a tour of the museum and able to photograph some of the elephants, we were surprised not only at how close we were to the elephants, but to find ourselves riding an elephant!  Have you ever ridden an elephant? Oh my, it’s a long way to the ground!  We found these huge creatures to be very intelligent and extremely gentle when we were feeding them by hand a short time later. An experience we will always remember!

Our last stop before the beach was a turtle hatchery and hospital. Here we met another passionate young man on a mission to save these magnificent creatures. Our timing was excellent as we were able to dig new hatchlings from the sand, and transfer them into the water tank. With our guide’s encouragement, we each held a yearly turtle. First reptile Cheryl has ever held and she still lives!

Albino turtle with black markings; simply stunning! This turtle will never be released because the sharks would have her eaten in a moment.



don't panic and drop the turtle Mrs.!



Reaching our destination at Neela’s Beach and Guesthouse, we said a fond farewell to our friendly driver of four days, Nana. We have reached the beach . . . . . . . SL Canadian adventure to be continued another day.