Its Destination Colombo - a trip report [Part 3]
And here comes the last part of the trip report. I will put our budget and expenditure details at the end so that it is easier for others to plan with a rough idea.
After moving out of Botanical Garden in Kandy, we reached the Tooth Relic Temple. It is one of the most holiest Buddha temples in the world and is famous abroad as well. There is a small Lake adjacent to the Temple and we had a small boat ride. It was just a 15 mins ride and costs 1500 LKR. Though a little expensive the ride gave a magnificent view of the hills surrounding Kandy.
Boat Ride in the Lake adjacent to Tooth Relic Temple
After the Boat Ride we went inside the Tooth Relic Buddha Temple. There is shoe stand near the place where foreigners need to purchase the entrance tickets. We kept our shoes near the main entrance gate not knowing about the Shoe stand and one of us lost the shoes !! So use the shoe stand near the ticket counter. The ticket costs 500 LKR for citizens of SAARC nations and 1000 LKR for citizens from other countries. Sri Lankans can enter for free. Please check the temple timing and schedule the trip. It opens at 9:30AM and closes at around 11:30 in the morning and again opens in the evening. There is a museum in the same building that has the temple. It is a three floor building which showcases the remains of the Sri Lankan Rulers and many ancient Buddha statues, writings. There is a pizza hut outlet near the exit door. The cost of the pizzas are inline with the Indian outlets. We tried Veg varieties. That is all we saw at Kandy and started to leave for Nuwara Eliya, a hill station with lots and lots of tea plantations and Seetha Rama Temple.
Nuwara Eliya is just 70KM from Kandy. But it took us around 4 hours to reach the place. The route had a number of twists and turns. I can hardly imagine a 10m stretch without a turn. But the entire route is scenic. I could remember the trip to Kulu-manali in my 4th year during undergrad. The peaks and the valleys give you a soothing and relaxing atmosphere. The entire route was like this - on side you see big mountains and valleys next to the road, and on the other you find lush green tea estates. I was told that the Tea produced in Lanka is mostly exported and is world famous. We stopped at a 150 year Scottish tea factory for a break. The attendant explained the entire process of how the final powder is produced from the raw tea leaves. Most of the process was done manually during olden days and now they have machines imported from Calcutta for some of the stages. Amazed to see a machine that separates the tea grains based on the color !! Also we were surprised to see some tea varieties that cost around 10000 INR per KG. You read it right. 10000 per KG. It is called White Tea made from the tea leaves that are dried for very long and finally looks like silver stubs. We bought some other varieties which would usually not be available in the market. At around 4PM in the evening we could see clouds capping the mountains and our final leg of journey was through these clouds. It was an amazing and awesome experience. The driver told us that the presidents holiday house is in Nuwara Eliya. There is a big golf course and stud farm next to the presidents holiday house. We reached the temple at around 5:30 PM in the evening. Though a very small temple it is well maintained and connected to the city. You will find Tamil priests doing the regular poojas. We went for small walk in the city center. The bus stand is small and dirty because of the rains.We found vadas being prepared on the road side and they tasted same as they would in Andhra. We started back to Negambo from there. Don't ask me what happened before we reached the hotel. I was fully tired of clicking and strolling and fell asleep. The seats in our cab are comfortable though not the best !! Had a nice and sound sleep in the hotel that night.
The last day was not as exciting as the previous days. We checked out at around 11:30 AM from the hotel. The breakfast was good and we had dosas with coconut chutney in the menu that day. The hotel manager asked us to book trough their website directly from the next time as they would provide discount on the room pricing [they would basically give us the commission they pay to booking.com]. We stopped in Negambo city center for some shopping. We found a gift center where we could buy some souvenirs. we reached airport by 2 PM. Our kingfisher flight was scheduled for departure at 3:30 PM. It was on schedule and we had our meals on-board. We didn't get enough time to explore sri lankan food on day three. I dont want to elaborate on the experience at Chennai. It was the most horrible weather that i have ever experienced [worst even compared to Pilani and Suwon]. We reached Bangalore by around 5:15 AM in the morning.
Here are our budget details for those who wanted to plan with a rough idea
- KSRTC Bus Tickets - 1300 INR[to and fro]
- Spice Jet [Chennai to Colombo] - 2765 INR
- Kingfisher [Colombo to Chennai] - 4100INR
- Hotel [3 days including breakfast]- 5737 INR
- Cab [3 days including driver,fuel and rent] - 50 USD per head
- Entrance Fees [Botanical Garden and Temple] - 1500 LKR
- Food and Misc - 2000 INR
A few observations
- You will find Tata's and Ashok Leylands every where
- The Lankans might have opened the market to Jap. You will Toyota and Nissan models from carriage trucks to high end SUV's
- Girls wear a traditional Red Saree for marriage
- Chicken tastes a little weird
- They have a very good traffic sense [I saw them crossing roads only on zebra crossing]
- You will find a lot of churches [very old and famous]
- The roads are clean, i don't know if that fits only to the places that we visited
A few pics related to the journey path described above
View from the main entrance - Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Near the main Entrance
Inside the Temple[1/3]
Inside the Temple[2/3]
Inside the Temple[3/3]
Road to Nuwara Eliya [1/2]
Road to Nuwara Eliya [2/2]
Tea Gardens en-route Nuwara Eliya
150 Year old Tea factory
Tea variants. Silver Tips are the costliest 10000 INR per kg
Near the stud farm at Nuwara Eliya
Seetha Rama Temple at Nuwara Eliya
Jojo
June 12, 2011 at 9:36:00 PM PDT
Excellent description, Vikram. I think you have to visit European countries and give the same output. You will do good, sure. Congrats