Tien and Paul's Travels: Sri Lanka - 2019

KANDY

Kandy is known as a hill city of Sri Lanka and a capital city of the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. We home stayed at a guest house on the hillside with the view of the beaurtiful Kandy Lake and the Sacred City of Kandy down below. The owner of the guest house volunteered to be our guide for the afternoon when we arrived. He showed us the short cut and fastest way to get down to the lake from the house. Just a short walk around the lake was the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic, a UNESCO world heritage site and the city cultural center where we watched the tradition Kandyan dance.

View of Kandy Lake and City from the hill

Little island in the middle of the lake

Kandy Lake - Temple of the Tooth in the background

Kandy Lake at sunset

Kandy Lake

Temple of the Tooth, most sacred place of worship in the Buddhist world.

Temple of the Tooth Relic - There is a grand procession and festival held here every year. The sacred tooth relic is carried around the streets of Kandy City to honor it.

Guarding the room that houses the Tooth Relic

Inside Temple of The Tooth-Waiting in line to view The Tooth

The Tooth kept in this tiny room

Room that houses the precious Crystal Buddha statue

Cutural Dance - Dancer walking on fire

Another performance with fire

Temple of the Gadaladenia

Buddha statue in main chamber

Main chamber - Gadaladenia Temple

Fresco painting in a chamber

Carving statues on chamber's wall

Lankatilaka Vihara Temple

PINNAWALA ELEPHANT ORPHANGE

While in Kandy we managed to visit a well known elephant orphanage in the village of Pinnawala, about 110 km from Kandy. Pinnawala has the largest herd of captive elephant in the world. It has nursery and captive breeding ground for wild Asian elephants. At the time of our visit, there were about 70 elephants living in the orphanage. The Houston zoo adopted a few elephants from this orphanage over the years.

So happy to spot the durian stand by the road 😄

Me too 😅. Parera did not allow durian to be transported in his van. So, we had to eat the fruit at the stand before getting back in the van. Yummy! Definitely a wonderful fruit snack!