We woke up to a scenic view of Kandy. It looked really peaceful and serene in the morning. Far away on the top of the mountain you can actually see a huge Buddha statue. We can also hear Buddhist chanting from the Buddha Tooth Relic temple nearby. We got ready and left Holiday Inn to go to the Buddha Tooth Relic temple. See the pic below on how the view from our hotel room looked like. It was truly magical!
Some other sceneries while approaching the temple. See pics below.
As we reached the temple quite early, it was quiet and the atmosphere was very calm and serene. We couldn’t take much photos inside the temple and the museum (it was prohibited). The museum is called The Museum of World Buddhism and contains the artefacts and writeups of influence/spread of Buddhism through the different countries in the world.
After spending some time exploring the temple (there are many prayer halls where people just seat down and meditate quietly) and the museum we left the temple to a nearby Botanical Garden which is supposedly a tourists’ attraction in Kandy. It is called the Royal Botanical Garden (Peradeniya, Sri Lanka). True to the name the whole park is huge and majestic. You can see alot of couples around. It is ideal for long walks in the park.
After the visit to the park, we continued our road trip to Nurweliya. It is supposedly to be at the highest peak in Sri Lanka. The plan is travel through Nurweliya to Banderawela and spend the night there. And to continue our trip to nearby places of attraction in subsequent days. True enough on our way to Nurweliya, it became colder and colder. And of course the sceneries became more gorgeous too! Look at some of the pics taken from the roads.
We reached Banderawela at around 1am. We spent the night there. We were all tired from the long ride (~7 hours) from Kandy to Banderwela. But we were all excited for the next day where we will be exploring some places around Banderawela.
Stay Tuned!
David Webb's Scribbles 