Sri Lanka Trip(Part-1) Colombo

I landed along with my husband in Colombo Sri Lanka on June 02 2017 evening. We were received by a representative from Blue Lanka Tours company we had booked online . We had a very comfortable van which could seat 10 people waiting just for the two of us. First I thought it might be too much to use, such a big vehicle, but I enjoyed the vehicle later, because we had to drive almost 6 hour each day to get to a destination.

We stayed at Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. This is one of the oldest hotel in Sri Lanka built in the year 1864 by British Entrepreneurs.

 

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Galle Face Hotel

 

This a panoramic shot of the hotel with my iPhone 7plus.

The Traditional welcome at the hotel was very amazing, with a cold towel and a welcome drink and Man dressed up in traditional Sri Lanka attire saying ” AYUBOWAN!”. Which means “May you live longer and be healthy”.

 

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Traditional Welcome

 

The hotel looks and feels amazing, cozy.  Its very close to the ocean and you could hear  the ocean, while we had a morning Breakfast Buffet.

 

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Backyard of the Galle Face hotel

 

It was raining the previous day night and the morning its was cloudy.

 

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Beach view of Galle Face Hotel

 

After our breakfast we started driving towards Kandy and Sigiriya. On the way we decided to do little bit of site seeing in Colombo.

Site seeing while driving. There are lots of Lion statues in Sri Lanka.

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Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre

 

 

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Capital building in Colombo

 

 

Some places we stopped in Colombo are Independence hall and Buddha temple

 

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Statues of buddha at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

The Gangaramaya Temple has been built in the 1800.

 

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Statues of buddha at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

 

 

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Buddha’s hair kept in a small glass case on cotton

 

Independence hall in Colombo

 

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Independence hall in Colombo

 

 

 

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Independence square,Colombo

 

Independence Memorial hall is a national monument built in Sri Lanka for commemoration of independence from British rule.

After sightseeing in Colombo and realize we have to catch up if we have to get to Sigiriya and Kandy. The drive from Colombo was about 6 hours, since we had to take a lot of local roads to get to Kandy. When we had a rest stop close to Kandy we were still about 2 hours away, and the park at Sigiriya was to closing at 5pm. We planned to go to Dambulla cave temple in Kandy instead of Sigiriya.

If you read my post https://sugunag.com/2017/06/12/triumph , you will get to read about Dambulla caves.

I will be putting together few more parts for covering Sri Lanka tour.