Gregory lake, Seetha Eliya and much more....

Day 6: 4th Mar, 2015

The second day at Nuwara Eliya started on a cool note! The temperature was too low compared to the previous day. It was foggy and cold. The plan was to explore Nuwara Eliya. We had a breakfast of bread followed by some hot tea! The van and driver were ready to take us to all the places planned.

The first place we wanted to visit was Seetha Eliya which is supposed to be the place where Sita Mata was held captive as per Ramayana. It is a temple surrounded by trees and a small river flowing by its side, approximately 4-5kms from Nuwara Eliya market.

Temple at Seetha Eliya

We spent almost 2 hours at this beautiful place which provided peace and tranquillity. According to the Hindu mythology Ramayana, Sita Mata was held captive by King Ravan at a place called Ashoka Vatika and during her stay over there, Hanuman delivered her the ring which belonged to Lord Ram. The locals told us that it was supposedly at this place that all those events described took place. There are also some huge depressions on a giant rock which are believed to be the foot-prints of Hanuman. Also, since the soil color on the other side of the river is black, it is believed to be the part which Hanuman had set on fire.

Small river next to temple with the depressions

It was almost time for lunch by the time we were done admiring the place! We had lunch at Milano restaurant which is in the market area. Since there was not much option for vegetarians, we had Vegetable fried rice and Vegetable noodles. There is this sweet delicacy called Watalappan which is very famous in Sri Lanka and it was long pending in our must eat list! And I must admit it that a trip to Sri Lanka is incomplete without you tasting this dish!!

Done with our lunch, we were all charged to explore some more places. The next place on our list was Gregory lake. This lake is very well known among the tourists to Nuwara Eliya. There is a garden along the edges of the lake where you can take a stroll. I think the entrance fees for tourists is around 200 LKR.

Lake Gregory

The weather played a spoilsport here as it started to rain the minute we stepped out from our van. We got back in and were just waiting for the rain to subside as we were in no mood to skip a nice long walk along this beautiful lake. To our luck, half an hour later, the rains stopped. We took a walk around the lake, took some really beautiful pictures and had a lovely family time.

Fruit market

There is also a garden you can visit but we gave it a skip since it was a very rainy day. A hot tea was what was required in a place with dropping temperature! There is a fruit market near the main market where you get to see and taste different varieties of fruits. There are also many other attractions like Hakgala botanical gardens, Horton plains national park.Then we headed back to our hotel and were back to the town square for dinner. And it was the end of another day at Sri Lanka......

Ayubowan Sri Lanka....

It was in December 2014 that my family wanted to go for a long vacation. We went through a lot of options and finally chose to go to Ceylon. We started with all the search for good stays, travel, restaurants, places to visit and everything else. The best season seems to be from January to April and we chose to go in March. It was very exciting as we had just 2 months left for the vacation..:) We had booked the flights from makemytrip.com and it was SpiceJet on 28th Feb, 2015. Also Sri Lanka requires you to get an e-visa before you arrive at Sri Lanka. Its pretty much easy to get it done. You just need to log in to their website and follow the instructions. And be sure to use a credit card for the transaction.

We traveled for 10 days in total with 2 days in Chennai from 27th Feb to 8th Mar, 2015 visiting the cities Jayawardenapura, Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Unawatuna, Galle and Colombo. This post is a detailed account of our trip. The information provided here will be useful for those who plan a trip to Sri Lanka.

Day 1 and Day 2: 27th Feb, 2015 - 28th Feb, 2015

We were 7 of us including me, my husband, my parents, my brother and my husband's parents. The day finally arrived and we left from Bangalore to Chennai on 27th Feb, 2015. The flight was to depart from Chennai International Airport at 00:40 am. We reached Chennai at around 3:00 pm, had lunch and started for the airport. The local trains are a good transport in Chennai to reach the airport. Just opposite to the central station, is the Chennai Park station. Tickets cost you Rs. 7 per person and the destination station is Tambaram. We reached airport pretty early and had to wait there for a while before we could go in. At around 9:00 pm we were informed that the flight had been delayed due to bad weather and we were all a bit disappointed. But delays are a part of journeys..!! The flight was re-scheduled to 2:30 am. The check-ins and security check started. We were asked to fill in an embarkation form and submit it to the immigration officer at Chennai airport. The officer checked the form, asked us a few questions and stamped my passport. We boarded the flight and to my surprise it was a bombardier Q400.

When we landed at Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport it was 4:00 am. We had to fill in a disembarkation form and hand it over to the immigration officer along with our e-visa and passport. The officer asked a few questions and stamped the passport. We also got a free sim of Dialog from the immigration dept.

We had booked a rental van from Malkey - Rent a Car. You can contact them and share your itinerary and they will arrange a car/van for you. They also have self-driven cars. The driver was there to pick us up at 5:30 am. It was still too dark and probably all of us were too tired by a long journey we had from Bangalore. It din't take us longer than 10 mins to doze off..!! The airport is around 25kms from Colombo and it takes approximately an hour to reach Colombo.

We had booked Palm Nest home stay based on the reviews on Trip Advisor. We reached there by 7:00 am. The host was a lovely lady called Anomi and she received us with great warmth. Since the rooms were occupied by previous occupants, we thought of going out for breakfast and coming back by 12:00 noon. So we freshened up a bit and left for breakfast.

Palm Nest

The driver dropped us at a lake place in Jayawardenapura.  Jayawardenapura is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka. On the way we saw the various legislative buildings. We all were very excited to taste Sri Lankan cuisine and we ordered for Rice and Curry, Kurakkan roti. Rice and Curry is a famous dish in Sri Lanka which is readily available everywhere and it consists of white rice with a variety of different curries. Kurakkan roti is made of finger millet and coconut which looks like a small roti and comes with Coconut Sambol and dal. The sambol is usually made of coconut, some spices and maldivian fish but since we are vegeterians, we took sambol without fish. The rice and curry consisted of white rice, dal, sambol, sides made of jackfruit and some other things. I had read that the side dish made of jackfruit is a must have dish of Sri Lanka and it was amazing. I simply was in love with this cuisine which would satiate my appetite for the next 9 days.

We then left for a park called Vihara Mahadevi park. We got a bus near the restaurant and reached there by say 20 mins. Buses are very easy to find and get into in Sri Lanka as the drivers are very friendly and help you in every way possible. It is the oldest and the largest park of Colombo. The park is named after Queen Viharamahadevi, the mother of king Dutugamunu. The park includes a huge Buddha statue and a series of water fountains. We relaxed a bit in the park and headed back to the homestay. A good nap was what was needed by everyone after a long journey.

Near Vihara Mahadevi Park

In the evening we went for a small stroll around the area and visited a Buddhist temple. The temple was huge with some stupa like figures and a huge prayer hall. The prayer hall had a large Buddha statue covered by a curtain where people were praying. In front of the statue were a colourful variety of flowers offered by the devotees. After spending some time at the temple, we finally tasted Sri Lanka's famous dish Kottu during the dinner. And the first day at Sri Lanka came to and end....

Temple near Palm Nest

Sri Lanka's famous Vegetable Kottu