SRI LANKA: ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS IN PERADENIYA

On Day 6 of our Sri Lanka Adventure, we had planned a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens, a stop suggested by our guide. I was excited, but Bob was actually not all that thrilled about it. Let's just say it greatly exceeded both of our expectations.

Before we left our hotel, and being in a "botanical mood," we did take notice of a tree that especially caught our attention because of its awesome name:

It's unlike any tree I've ever seen, with flowers and fruits popping out of the trunk:

It is very unique, and the flowers are so beautiful:

So, on to the botanical garden. Located in Peradeniya, a suburb of Kandy, it covers147 acres and has over 4,000 species of plants. We've been to some incredible gardens around the world, such as Kirstenbosch Garden in South Africa,  Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, the gardens in Versailles, the Los Angeles Arboretum, the Huntington Library, and others. We rank this garden right up there with the best of them.

One of the things the Royal Gardens is known for is its collection of over 300 orchid species. We followed Sanjay's advice and went to the orchid house first.  WOW. Nothing more can be said.

Just outside the orchid greenhouse is a garden of bougainvillea bushes in shades of pink, coral, white, purple, and red:

Not far away, a beautiful young lady in a gorgeous dress was the subject of a photo shoot:

The gardens were originally designed for the royalty of Kandy in the 14th century, but when the British dethroned the last king of Kandy in 1815, they turned the park into a botanical garden.

The sidewalk-laced park is a wonderful place for a lengthy stroll:

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the cooler morning temperature. We watched this troop of macaque monkeys playing on the sidewalk and in the trees for at least half an hour. All together there were at least 50 monkeys, perhaps more, and they weren't shy, letting us come quite close:

This one is eating a piece of jackfruit:

  

Well, time to see the rest of the gardens, which are also known for their wide assortment of trees, both endemic to Sri Lanka and not:

Check out the roots of this mahogany tree from Honduras:

I particularly love these fiery blooms on the Rose of Venezuela tree:

I didn't get the name of this interesting tree with its bundle of speckled leaves hanging down like a bunch of over-ripe bananas:

Aw, cute. This looks like a chipmunk, but it is an Indian palm squirrel:

This guy was staked to a tree and was busy mowing the lawn:

All of the sudden, we noticed a large black bird flying overhead:

As we moved closer, we saw another and another until the sky was filled with black birds:

Except they weren't black birds; they were bats--Indian flying foxes, to be more specific, one of the largest bats in the world. We could see hundreds in the sky, and there was an ongoing cacophony as they called out and chattered with each other.

It was what Bob and I call a National Geographic moment--something so dramatic, so spectacular, that it is hard to believe we are experiencing it rather than watching it on a TV nature show.

In addition, thousands were hanging upside-down by their claws in the trees:

The Royal Botanical Gardens has possibly the largest population of flying fox bats in the world. One source says there are 24,000 there. Amazingly, the ground was not covered in guano. Do the workers wash the sidewalks every evening, and what about the lawn? We didn't see anyone cleaning up while we were there, and I didn't have the "white goo" experience I had the day before walking around Kandy Lake.

Bob was positively giddy with excitement. He pulled out his big, BIG lens and spent what felt like the next two hours taking pictures (although my notes say 45 minutes).  The next three close-up photos are his:

Look at its head and you can see why it is called a flying fox

And just for comparison:

Soooooo creepy.

Once I finally dragged Bob away from the bats, we spent another hour walking around the park and admiring the incredible variety of plant life and landscaping:

The intrepid explorer himself:

Doesn't this look like a Hollywood (Bollywood?) movie set? It's almost too beautiful to be real!

We came upon a picturesque lake:

About two-thirds of the surface was covered with water lilies:

In addition to the orchids and flying fox population, the park is known for its collection of various types of bamboo. This one, for example, is ptychosperma macarthurii, or the Macarthur palm, and is found only in a few places in Australia and New Guinea (and here in Sri Lanka's Royal Botanical Gardens):

The monkeys were all over another type of bamboo, pinanga kuhlii, that has hanging fruit and is from Java and Malaysia:

Which brings us back to the macaque monkeys. We ran into a few more before we headed to the exit. These two look like a married couple in the middle of a spat:

An attempt at reconciliation . . .

. . . but then back to their own corners:

A few other macaques were chasing each other up and down this "talipot palm," an indigenous tree:

One more fun feature in the botanical gardens is a "grass collection":

Dozens of different types of grass are planted in wedge-shaped plots in a circular depression. Each is labeled with its name and country of origin.

More cool trees:

We actually got a little lost on the way to the exit. The signage didn't help:

And by the way, in general, Google translate didn't work very well for me in Sri Lanka. I've used it in other countries with other languages, so I'm not sure what the problem was.