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Waikkal Beach
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Dolphin Hoel Pool |
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Elephant Shower |
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Baby Elephant
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Elephant Ride
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Elephants Pinnewala |
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Our Bed With Flowers
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Julie, Mell n Mick |
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Sigiriya The lion’s Throat
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Shaun,Dave N Julie In A Tuk Tuk
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We have always wanted to visit Sri Lanka
(The Pearl of the Orient.) Before 1972 is was know as Ceylon.
With it being our (Pearl) 30th wedding anniversary, where
better to go than The Pearl of the Orient.
We booked our holiday with First Choice and up graded our
flight to Star Class Premier we had never flown first class
before it was worth the upgrade, with priority check in and
boarding first. We boarded the plane and had strawberries
and champagne, it was a comfortable flight.
We stayed at the Club Hotel Dolphin situated in Waikkal, a
small fishing village, which has a beautiful palm fringed
golden sandy beach, near Negombo on the Southwest coast of
Sri Lanka. The Club Hotel Dolphin is 40 minutes drive from
Katunayake Airport, the journey time that can easily be increased
according to the chaotic traffic. The hotel’s location is
quite remote, so there’s nowhere to go at night for evenings
out apart from the restaurant over the road called canal garden.
We ate at this restaurant a couple of time and on all occasions
it was very good, well worth going, by the side of the restaurant
is the gold centre, we had a look around and also visited
the workshop around the back. The evening entertainment in
the hotel was different but entertaining, as the hotel animation
team worked hard to put on shows at night although some of
the humour was a little strange.
Our stay was for 2 weeks on an all inclusive basis, the hotel
is extremely clean, all the staff, were very pleasant and
helpful people, the hotel has 2 swimming pools the large pool
is the largest swimming pool in Sri Lanka, with a bar and
there’s a snack bar close by where there were burgers and
chips, toasties and sandwiches, tea, coffee, and from 11am
to 2pm afternoon tea/coffee and cake was served, the other
pool is smaller, it’s known as the quite pool, here there
is a small bar serving tea, coffee, beer and snacks, it’s
also the location of the fine dinning restaurant.
The hotel has a large restaurant, which is very clean, there
was always plenty of choice, something good on the menu, breakfast
were very good with lots of choice, in the evenings dinner
was usually a theme night i.e. Chinese, Mexican, international,
barbeque, as well as lots of different curries rice’s, etc,
and a good selection of sweets, including a delicious hot
puddings. The waiters were always very helpful and attentive
although a little too quick to take the plates so don’t put
your cutlery down or they’ll take your plate
When we first arrived we got settled in our room and unpacked.
Our room overlooked the big pool and beach with great views
of the beach and Indian Ocean from the balcony, with the most
spectacular sunsets; it was very clean and comfortable, with
a TV with a few English Speaking channels, Inc, CNN or BBC
World News. The hotel also has bungalows, but we were in the
deluxe rooms in the main block.
Our room boy Salaman, was fantastic throughout our stay, he
couldn’t do enough for us, and he decorated our bed with fresh
flowers each day. On the day we celebrated our 30th wedding
anniversary he made an extra special effort embellishing our
bed with colourful flowers and palm leaves he also wrote in
flowers “Have A Happy Day” it looked absolutely fabulous,
also he had put sprays of flowers in the vases around the
room. We didn’t want to go to bed and spoil all his hard work
The night boys or as we called them the mozzie squad, came
in to turn down the beds put the mozzie nets over, and sprayed
for mozzies (fly repellent ) each night and they gave us flowers
or left them on the bed if we weren’t there.
After about an hour of arriving we went for a look around
the hotel and pools, we also went down to the beach, Julie
went and paddle in the sea, we met a beach boy John who was
very nice lad, he was trying to sell us trips on the sea and
river boats, tuk-tuk rides and cigarettes so we got some cigs
of him. We said we would see him tomorrow in the morning about
some trips out. We met a fellow called Edward he owns the
tesco shop on the beach he showed us his shop.
At around 8pm had some dinner and a couple of drinks in the
bar with Anne and Shaun who we met in the airport executive
lounge at Manchester, before going to bed for the night.
Next day we had breakfast, after breakfast we went down to
the pool and got some sun beds and towel from the pool attendant
he was very welcoming and chatty. We tipped a couple of hundred
rupees to him then, and every morning after that when we came
to the pool our sun beds were ready for us with towels and
umbrellas, we also tipped him and on a couple of other days
and when we were leaving as well. Julie wanted to go on the
beach and paddle as it’s not really safe to swim in the sea
there because of the currents; John came and found us as we
walked over to two catamarans, he asked did we want to go
on one to see the prawn fishermen fishing, so we did it was
a bit choppy at first but after a while it was calm it was
a very enjoyable trip with great views of the beaches and
hotel. We went to the Asda and Sainsbury shops to have a look
around and I ordered a handmade shirt and some trousers the
lady said they would be ready in 3 day the cost was about
£7-50 for both now that’s what I call value for money.
The welcome meeting was at 4-30 pm. We booked a couple of
2 day tours, with overnight stays in different hotels,
1st trip was the Kandy including the elephant museum, elephant
orphanage, tea plantation, Sigiriya rock fortress, botanical
gardens, spice garden, batik works, temple of the tooth, Buddhist
centre and cave paintings in Dambula.
2nd tour was Uda Walawe national park Elephant safari tour
going to see the wild animals, stick fishermen in Galle and
lots more, but later it was cancelled due to terrorist activity
in Galle the Tamil Tigers attacked and several marines died
on the 2nd day we were there, this is not the last we heard
of more attacks, next day we saw the Air force jets go over
the hotel, and carried out more raids on suspected rebel targets
in the east of the island after the attack on the naval base.
It’s a pity as we were really looking forward to this part
of our holiday.
We also booked for the fine dinning evening
We had our own chefs, waiter and barman who were all immaculately
dressed. Lucian the waiter was a star and looked after us
all night. The food was of the highest quality four course
meal it was absolutely fantastic, well worth the £20 each
Tours and Trips
1st trip Kandy tour as above was an early start 6-30 am.
The Millennium Elephant Foundation in Kegalle.
This site is the one of the few places in Sri Lanka where
visitors can wash, touch and ride the elephants, firstly we
visited the elephant museum which was very interesting looking
at the size of their teeth, and learning about bone structure
and much more and also the history of the foundation, we then
went on a short ride on an elephant and washed it in the stream,
later in our holiday we revisited there and had a longer ride
on a elephant through the village and paddy fields, then we
washed one again in the stream, where we then had a chance
to sit on its back and it gave us a shower blowing water on
us both from its trunk we were amazed how much its trunk actually
held we were drenched great fun, it was brilliant we then
had a shower which are provided, after a shower we went on
to Pinnewala elephant orphanage, which is only a short bus
ride away.
Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage
They say an elephant never forgets, but what happens when
an elephant is forgotten? In Sri Lanka, abandoned elephants
who cannot survive in the wild find refuge at the Elephant
Farm at Pinnewala (near Rambukkana).
Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage it is situated on the Colombo
Road. And is the World’s only Orphanage for Homeless Elephants
It houses about 70 or so, young and adult abandoned or orphaned
elephants which are trained for work but they can enjoy life
in the sanctuary. Also outcasts like Raja, an old blind elephant
who was wounded by hunters, lives on the farm, as does an
elephant rumoured that lost a leg to a landmine explosion.
The farm supports itself in part through tourism, which come
for a rare close-up view of the animals. The orphans arrive
from across the country, rescued from remote villages where
they have lost their mothers to quarry accidents, shootings”
Without the orphanage, most of them would be left to die or
be killed,” Like any nursery there is a fairly strict bathing
and feeding routine so it easy to plan your visit to be there
to see it,. People called mahouts feed, groom and care for
70 elephants on the farm. The babies drink milk warmed to
body temperature from super-size bottles, seven per feeding
they gulp it down like nobodies business a bottle full lasted
a few seconds. We then went down into the village to a riverside
restaurant were we waited for the 70 or so elephants come
down to the river to bathe, we expected them to come from
along the river, so you can imagine our surprise when they
came down the same street we did past the rows of shops it
was amazing to see them roaming free in the river even the
very small babies came there which were looked after by the
older elephants which washed them as they stood beneath them.
There are great photo opportunities there, again we so impressed
we revisited it later in our holiday.
Tea factory Nuwara Eliya
We then visited a tea factory that is about 30 minutes out
of Nuwara Eliya it was very interesting to see the process
for producing tea, and sample the tea it was only a short
visit and a bit disappointing as we expected to see the plantations
which we didn’t. From there we went to the botanical gardens
.
Royal Botanical Gardens Peradeniya
This is a huge and beautiful botanical garden park. The gardens
occupy a horse shoe shaped area around which the Mahaweli
River flows. as we strolled through the through the wide avenues
lined by coco de mer, royal palms trees, elephant foot trees
which really look like elephants feet and legs, as we walked
along we saw monkeys, a snake that fell from a tree then quickly
scurried back up and hundreds of fruit bat hanging in the
trees, they looked big as they flew from branch to branch
with a high pitched screeching noise. The Great Lawn in. the
garden is full of enormous trees like a giant ficus benjamina,
and we marvelled at the giant Javan, we then pottered through
the orchid house, where there the large varieties of beautiful
orchids are cultivated and the ever present lotus flowers.
We than continued our journey to Kandy.
Temple Tooth Kandy
Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) is over 400 years
old is Kandy’s most popular attraction, beautifully situated
on the edge of Kandy lake: is the White painted Buddhist Temple
of the Tooth. Legend has it that Buddha’s tooth is on display
in the inner sanctuary.
Before entering the temple we had to take off our shoes. As
there are many visitors and therefore many shoes, it’s best
to put your shoes in your bag that you can identify later,
you will also be searched thoroughly before entering.
The tooth is kept in a gold pagoda on the upper floor of the
Inner temple. Unfortunately, tourists are not allowed to see
the tooth, but you can see where it is housed.
In another part of the temple you can find the only Buddha
in the world made of crystal. If there is a monk on duty he
may allow you to have a quick peep.
Cultural show
The day was rounded off with a Cultural show, re-enacting
the traditional forms of Dance and Music of Sri Lanka. It
lasted about 1-30mins and was fantastically colourful and
skilful music, dancing and acrobatics.
The show finished off with a fire walking and breathing performance.
From there we went to the hotel citadel to spend the night.
Chaaya Hotel Citadel, Kandy
:
Chaaya Hotel Citadel is situated on the banks of the River
Mahaweli in secluded surroundings, offering guests a peaceful
retreat within easy access to the hustle of Kandy.
Our room terracotta floor tiles with twin beds, TV with International
Channels, mini bar, individual controlled air-conditioning,
it had pleasant river view looking red tiled balcony but has
tea and coffee making facilities. But hey we took our own
anyway. We had a really nice meal over looking the pool and
river, before going to bed, next day after breakfast, our
first visit was to Dambula to see the rock cave temple and
frescos.
Dambula cave temple and frescoes
Dambula forms part of the cultural triangle; of Anuradhapura,
Polonnaruva and Kandy.
There is strict control about visitors in the cave temple
which is a shame. Our guide told us of a story, of a foreign
man had his photo taken lying down with one of the lying Buddha
statues and then had it processed in Sri Lanka. Not the thing
to do. As having disrespected the temple he was promptly removed
from Sri Lanka. So everyone who visits must be taken round
by a guide and no photography is allowed, but people did take
photos. But there are post cards for sale.
Ignorance and stupidity apart, the cave system is actually
far bigger than the caves on view. In fact new cave systems
are still being discovered. They say it’s full of snakes and
so no one ventures into it. The main cave system close to
Dambula, which is a small village devoted mainly to English
tuition classes, is situated high upon a rock hill. From the
top we could see, on one side the Ritgala Mountains and on
the other, magnificent Sigiriya rock. All around are flat
plains, which is why it is extremely hot. The rock rises above
the surrounding plains and is reached by a path and steps
cut into the rock. It isn’t a difficult climb, more an upward
walk. The complex of caves open today makes an impressive
Buddhist temple. Inside the five main caves are many Buddha
and Deva images, painted on the walls and many Buddha statues.
As you enter the complex, you will pass through an arched
entrance. Just beyond this is a Hindu small shrine, There
were lots of monkeys all around the rock complex and will
steal, so be very careful the monkeys are strong and can be
very aggressive.
The first cave is the ‘Devaraja Lena’. This is the one with
the colossal Buddha in sleeping posture. It depicts the death
of the Lord Buddha and at his feet is a devout disciple. Three
other Buddha statues are seen at the head of the reclined
Buddha and another near his feet. They all date back to the
first century. The cave itself is almost all taken up by the
statues and its size, there’s also many paintings on the cave
walls. The second cave is much longer which gradually narrows
towards the back. There are approx sixty statues in the cave.
They are lying, seated and standing Buddha’s, also the gods;
Natha, Maitreya, Upulvan and Saman, the statues of the kings
Valagamba and Nissankmalla are also there.. The main Buddha
statue in the cave was directly in front of us as we entered
the cave. It is a life size, carved, standing Buddha underneath
an archway which depicts dragon like creatures. On the walls
are thousands of murals portraying events in the early history
of Buddhism and the history of Sri Lanka. The third cave,
"Maha Alut Viharaya" is also known as the new great
temple. It was built in the eighteenth century by one of the
last kings of the Candian territory, Kirti Sri Rajasinghe.
It is about ninety feet long and has two doorways. In its
centre is a seated Buddha figure, surrounded by fifty other
Buddha’s. On the ceiling are murals of thousands of Buddha’s.
The forth cave is small but beautiful, with Buddha figures
and a main seated Buddha. Our guide told us that recently
the cave was broken into and had artefacts stolen from it.
It was believed that this cave contained (hidden from view)
the jewellery of the queen of king Valagamba. There has been
somewhat of an outbreak of such crimes throughout Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan people love stories, gossip and folk tales and
many such robberies took place because of the stories of hidden
treasure. The fifth cave is the most modern. It has eleven
Buddha statues, with a colossal reclining Buddha as its central
figure. There are also five small standing Buddha figures
and five seated Buddha figures near the head and feet of the
reclining statue. Two of the seated Buddha statues have a
‘cobra hood’, over their heads. This depicts the enlightenment
of the Gautama Buddha. (It is believed that a cobra sheltered
the Buddha in his way.)
Sigiriya The lion’s throat
The stone fortress of Sigiriya is absolutely breathtaking,
in part a natural wonder, part constructional masterpiece,
and part palatial scene. We first saw it across the plains
from the fresco caves, it approx 370m high with dark stripes
and a green grass crown were you can just make out some remains
of the buildings.
Our guide told us that accepted history has it that Kassapa
I, who was a wicked and self-indulgent king, built the palace
in c477-485AD as a fortified pleasure palace to rival that
of the God of Wealth, and also as a hideaway from which he
could be safe from a half-brother who was his sworn enemy
since Kassapa, killed their father and took over the throne.
A visiting Wiseman read his fortune and told him that he would
die but not at his brother’s hands but, after Kassapa had
lived for 18 years in his fortress-palace, his brother finally
attacked. Descending the hill, Kassapa misguidedly believed
that his loyal supporters had abandoned him, and in despair
he fell on his sword.
As you arrive in the car park, there are swarms of guides
will approach you even though we already had a guide, (it
can be worthwhile taking up the services of someone a since
in our case a few people from our party who couldn’t make
the climb to top returned half way up and the man waited with
them till we returned. Make sure you’ve got some water with
you it’s a fairly hard, hot climb and anyone selling water
will overcharge you.
We crossed the dried up moat, we set off through the 5th century
water garden (a UNESCO-funded restoration, it has been a world
heritage site since 1998). Water was a very scarce and precious
commodity in this dry zone but it is cleverly channelled through
rocks, pipes and waterways to satisfy the bathing pools, fountains
and garden-irrigation, with pumps, believed to have been wind
powered, conducting water to the very summit.
Climbing from the base beneath the Cobra Hood Rock (which
is an overhanging rock decorated with flowers and paintings),
you start to climb through Elephant Gate towards the Fresco
Gallery. It’s as well not to rush a vertiginous climb up a
rickety British-made 1938 wrought-iron spiral staircase awaits
The magnificent frescos of bare-breasted water nymphs, were
commissioned for Kassapa to enjoy in private, some distance
from his wives, concubines or religious advisers ,none of
whom would have understood their merit. Sadly, his views were
not shared by the monks who succeeded Kassapa in occupation
and who did away with some of them, or by a religious man
who took a knife to the walls in 1967 and destroyed a number
of them describing them as blasphemous; now, only 21 of the
original 500 remain in tact and are unfortunately cordoned
off. You also aren’t allowed to photograph them with flash,
anyone breaking this rules is dealt with very fiercely so
don’t try, see our photos you can get a fairly good photo
or buy some postcards or a book from the people selling them,
we bought a book form a man for less that half that he originally
offered it to us for. All of a sudden we heard a massive loud
bang, our guide said it was nothing to worry about, although
later back at the hotel we heard what had happened, a suicide
bomber had drove a truck full of explosives into a naval convoy
and had killed 169 people we were very lucky as it was on
the same road we had just travelled along between Dambula
and Sigiriya.
From there, we went passed the “mirror wall” which is fashioned
with a blend of lime, honey and egg white and which still
maintains a slight. This led us up to the halfway point of
the Lion Terrace we had a chance of a breather and take some
photos, before tackling the long haul to the top. We then
entered the last staircase through the paws of an enormous
lion, sadly this is all that is left of him but this gives
you some idea of pure scale. the whole rock is named after
him, sinha = lion/” and giriya”= throat and became “Si-giriya”
and one can only believe that, when he was still intact, you
ascended through his paws and into his throat.
At the top, you realise why the effort has been worthwhile,
370m above the green plains, you can see not only a 360 degree
panoramic view to compete with the best but also the remains
of the fantastical palace which Kassapa commissioned for his
pleasure, there was a swimming pool (how did they got the
water up there, lets hope the above fore mentioned water channelling
techniques actually worked), also theres a granite throne,
and leisure areas for his concubines, with gardens and terraces.
Sari’s batiks
From Sigiriya we went about half a mile and visited a batik
studio it was very interesting to see the demonstrations,
we were familiar with the techniques as we have had a go ourselves
at home, Julie and the rest of our group also tried on a sari’s.
Spice gardens
At the Luckgrove spice garden at Matale, we enjoyed a conducted
tour of the garden of spices and herbs. It was a feast for
the senses: cocoa, vanilla, pineapple, cardamom, cinnamon,
pepper, nutmeg and ginger, a symphony of smell. Finally we
reached a clearing with a covered sit out and sat down to
hear more about spices and different oils that are produced
there.
“We offer Ayurvedic massages,” announced our guide. All of
a sudden, there was a startled silence, as about 10 men who
appeared from nowhere, jumped out of the bushes and informed
us that they were ready to offer their massage services!
My masseur gave me a neck and shoulder massage, he probably
knew I had a knot in my shoulder from the moment he first
touched it, he soon fixed that and I felt fantastic. A gratuity
is expected, but it’s worth it, others opted for a knee, leg
and neck massages. We’ve all had massage before, but it was
really nice, especially being surrounded by aromatic herbs
and foliage, breathing in the air that was dense with the
aroma of spice.
Tile factory and village visits
The 2nd day we were on holiday we went down to asda shop
and bought loads of bon bons (sweets) for our visit to meet
the local people and children from the village and school,
we had been collecting items, such as pens, pencils, paper,
clothes, from the day we booked our holiday so we took about
half a suitcase full with us to give away, anyway on our first
visit we walked down towards the village and as we expected
the children and people came out to meet us, Julie began getting
the item we had with us out and everyone just dived on the
bags trying to rip them out of her hands, Julie asked them
to line up so everyone got something, we found out that they
did this to most people and the people further into to the
village all missed out, but we saved half of what we took
that day making sure that the rest didn’t miss out, we then
carried on to the local school which was a lot calmer as we
asked if just one pupil could come and get the things off
us and take them back to share them out they were very grateful
, we carried on down further down past the school and towards
the small palm leaf houses, we were kindly invited into their
houses and offered a seat, we gave some more things to each
family, we said we would return later to see the families
again before we left for home , so our advice would be to,
miss the first part of the village out and give the things
to the more needy.
As we said we had another trip but this time we went in a
tuk tuk and also Sean a man we met came with us to give the
things he and his wife had brought with them, so he came with
us to the tile factory and wood yards, the people are very
poor and really appreciated everything one young girl was
washing her hair and Julie gave her some shampoo, she was
thrilled to bits with it, as was everyone else, we then went
back to the other village a local man who we met the first
time we went, saw us, he came running towards us he said he
thought we wouldn’t come back as we had promised, as so many
people say they will but don’t return, again we visited the
6 0r 7 little house and gave away the things we had saved
for them.
Negombo speed boat
We went on a speed boat with John from the beach to Negombo,
we went firstly to a ship wreck and then to coral reef, were
we met 2 men who were fishing, their boat or should I say
plank was made from 2 palm tree strung together, I wouldn’t
fancy, sailing on it they were a really long way form the
shore, they showed us the fish that they had caught, they
were very colourful and some were quite large, they then held
on to the boat and hitch-hiked a lift off us, back to Negombo,
at one point all their fish were washed off their boat and
we had to stop and wait for them to collect them up before
continuing on with them back to the harbour. John had a tuk
tuk waiting for us, the man showed us around the fish market
which absolutely stunk and we didn’t stay to long there, and
of course he took us to his friends shops were we bought some
tee shirts and other things. Then back to the hotel, Next
day it was time to go home
Hope you enjoyed reading what we got up to in Sri Lanka as
we had a wonderful time. Sri Lanka it truly is a beautiful
country. Maybe one day we’ll return. |
