SRI LANKA: RAVANA FALLS AND THE UDAWALAWE ELEPHANT TRANSIT HOME

RAVANA FALLS:

After leaving our hilltop hotel in Ella, we headed down to lower (and hotter) elevations. Our first stop was at 85-foot-tall Ravana Falls just outside of Ella. We were visiting during the dry season, so they were somewhat reduced from their peak but still quite impressive:

Two tourists were swimming in the pool at the base of the main falls, even though a sign warned "Avoid Bathing" and "Do Not Climb The Rock":

Looking back towards the main road from the falls:

A tourist shopping spot occupies a wide spot in the road near the falls parking area. Note the Pepsi billboard on the right. I think Pepsi is running ahead of Coke in Sri Lanka:

SRI LANKA: FROM KANDY TO ELLA--HOTELS, A POST OFFICE, A FARMERS MARKET, AND A HINDU TEMPLE

All of the hotels we stayed in were Sri Lankan hotels--not American chains. Lanka Trackers (our guide Sanjay's company) selected them for us, and we had a very positive experience in all of them. None of them were typical urban tourist hotels. They were each set back from the road and had an "ecotourism" feel.

For example, we stayed in the four-star Hotel Tree of Life about 9 miles from Kandy. The price included dinner and breakfast, and we had a completely detached "cottage" for our room (on the left below). Our cottage was a few minutes walk from the main building where we checked in and ate our meals, and it was a lovely walk:

Our large room backed up to the forest that surrounds the grounds. The pictures below are the views through the back door and then from the balcony:

The check-in/restaurant building doesn't look that glamorous . . . 

. . . but I loved the decor:

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.

SRI LANKA, KANDY: CULTURAL DANCERS AND THE TEMPLE OF THE TOOTH

Kandy, located in about the exact center of Sri Lanka, is one of the larger cities in the country. It is situated in the hills where most of the country's famous tea is grown. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in part because it was the last capital of the Sinhala kings, who ruled until the British occupation in 1815.

Our guide Sanjay dropped us off at Kandy Lake, a man-made lake built in 1807 in the center of the city. It has a circumference of about two miles, and we strolled around about half of it.

There is a nice sidewalk along the lake shore:

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and we noted trees with a bountiful crop of jackfruit:

But even more than jackfruit, the trees were full of nesting black-crowned night herons:

There were hundreds of nests, each with a pair of birds sitting in it:

SRI LANKA: THE GOLDEN TEMPLE AND THE CAVE TEMPLES OF DAMBULLA

It wasn't until I started writing this post that I realized that the next two sites we visited were related to each other.

First, we drove past this big, upside-down bell-shaped stupa, and I asked to stop. For some reason, Bob wasn't interested, so Sanjay pulled over and let me run across the street to take a few photos.  

I'm not sure how I feel about this figure over the entrance. It looks like an animal (maybe a lion?) with either a very long tongue or one throwing up:

I entered the complex through this gate. When the main writing is English, you know it is a tourist site:

The structures are very new, especially by Sri Lankan standards. They were built in 2000 with mostly Japanese donations.

Behind the stupa is an enormous Buddha sitting cross-legged on what looks like the fun house at an amusement park entrance:

SRI LANKA: HENRY'S BATIKS AND A HOME VISIT

On our third morning in Sri Lanka, we began the day with an excellent breakfast buffet at our hotel. It had lots of Sri Lankan options, which is what I ate. I noticed that most of the people in the dining room seemed to be focused on the western-style food, which baffles me. Why eat what you can eat at home when you can try out the local foods? Crazy.

Our first stop was a batik "factory."

Batik work is not a native craft, but rather was brought to the island from Indonesia. However, it has become one of the Sri Lanka's most popular tourist souvenirs.

Our guide (in the purple dress) described the process of designing original patterns and then using wax resist methods to create the beautiful cloths:

SRI LANKA: MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK

Our perceptive guide Sanjay picked up on the fact that I have a thing for elephants and quickly arranged an extemporaneous trip to Minneriya National Park, the best place in Sri Lanka to see elephants. In fact, it is supposed to be the largest known gathering place of Asian elephants in the world.

Late afternoon is a good time to see elephants in the park because they come to the lake to drink. Apparently we weren't the only ones who wanted to watch the elephants imbibe. Luckily, a limited number of vehicles is allowed in the park. Unluckily, many of them were in front of us:

There were things to look at while we waited for the gates to open, such as this tree with really long pods--too long to be vanilla beans, but I'm not sure what else they would be:

I like this termite mound, the Frank Gehry version as compared to the ones we saw in southern Africa:

Then there was this fun sign. First of all, don't you love their writing? Everything is based on a circle. I like the advice "Do Not Fire" (you would expect a gun in the picture), "Do Not Shout" with the trumpet, and "Do Not Alight the Vehicle," something they are very, very, VERY strict about: