Sri Lanka
 

   Today at Colombo

Adventure Tour

No. 300 E

Day 1 Stay in Colombo

At the Hotel Indra Regent, Colombo 3. Afternoon city tour. Colombo is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka with a population of 1,1 million. The Fort, in the very centre of the city, is where most of the colonial remnants, mainly from the British era are still to be found. Nearby Pettah is Colombo's busiest and most tradi-tional bazaar, a mosaic of human activities and architectural memories. Cinnamon Gardens is the most prestigious residential area.
 

Day 2 Colombo - Kandy

After breakfast you leave Colombo and the coast and drive along a busy high- way into the interior of the island, past paddy fields, palm groves and coconut plantations. In Pinnewela you visit the elephant orphanage, where about seventy elephants are well looked after, mostly young animals that have been found throughout the country sick and abandoned by their herd and brought to
Pinnewela. If you are lucky, you can watch the feeding or the daily bath in the river of the jumbos.

After this visit the road begins to ascend gradually. You stop for a short visit at a rubber factory, where you will learn in detail, how the milky sap called latex is treated to become raw rubber. Another stop will be made at a spice garden; where you see many unknown trees, bushes and plants. After this stop you will enjoy a beautiful panoramic view of the central highland with its hills and mountains. At noon you reach, the old royal city of Kandy situated at 5'000 m, beautifully nestled between green hills.

In its very centre lies a small artificial lake and the palace of the last Singhalese king which has become a temple and the most holiest shrine in Sri Lanka, where the tooth relic of the Lord Buddha is highly venerated. Check-in and lunch at the Hotel Queens or Hotel Suisse. In the late afternoon short city tour of Kandy with visit to a lapidary. In the evening we shall pay a visit to the temple of the holy tooth.

After the temple visit you have the opportunity to attend a dance performance, where you will see the famous Kandyan dances, as well as up-country and devil dances. Dinner and overnight at the Hotel Queens or Hotel Suisse, Kandy.

Day 3 Kandy

In the morning after breakfast visit of the world famous Botanical Garden Pera- deniya. The park dates back to 1371 under the reign of king Vikrama Bahu III when he held court here. The English put the cornerstone of the present garden in 1821. During the Second World War the garden served as the headquarters of Earl Mountbatten, the supreme commander of the allied forces in Southeast Asia
who later became the last Viceroy of India. You will find in the garden a very large variety of orchids, spice trees, palms, bushes, as well as tropical plants and flowers of all type.

Lunch at your hotel. Afternoon at leisure, dinner and overnight.
 

Day 4 Kandy - Bandarawela

After breakfast you leave Kandy. From Peradeniya the road starts steadily to ascend and at noon, shortly before reaching Nuwara Eliya, you will have climbed 1'500 m. You are now in the tea country; wherever you look, you will see tea plantations, the rich full green of thousands and thousands of tea bushes. And out of the green in regular intervals the white coloured tea factories will enchant your eyes. Occasionally you can see a few rice fields and near villages, vegetable plantations or gardens.

Lunch at the Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya. During the British rule, the Grand Hotel was the summer palace of the English governor.

The small resort town of Nuwara Eliya, situated at 2070 m above sea level, lies on a little lake and is surrounded by mountains covered over and over by tea bushes. At the town boundaries there are a lot of vegetable plantations and flower fields, but also along the roads of Nuwara Eliya and in most of its gardens flowers are blooming.

After lunch the journey descends to the town of Bandarawela at 1200 m, which you will reach in the late afternoon. Dinner and overnight at the Orient Hotel.

Whenever possible, we shall do our best, to allow you to make the journey from Peradeniya to Bandarawela by train. A journey by train through the tea country, past waterfalls, mountain creeks and through the tea plantations is something very special!  With no more then 40 km the train drives uphill and masters the severest inclines by means of impressive tunnels. Your driver brings you in Pera- deniya to the railroad station and waits for you upon your arrival in Bandarawela. You will take your lunch packet along from the hotel and have lunch on the train.
 

Day 5 Bandarawela - Kuda Oya

After breakfast at the hotel you leave Bandarawela to the south, passing tea and vegetable plantations, occasionally a waterfall, forests and many small villages and hamlets. From the descending road you have again and again a beautiful view to the mountains and into the valleys. After reaching the plain you will again see coconut and rubber plantations and the familiar paddy fields. At noon you will reach for lunch the Task Safari Camp situated by a small flowing river, surrounded by jungle.

   
                                                  

Accommodation in the camp will be in insect proof canvas tents, equipped with simple beds with pillows and clean linen, tables and chairs. Each tent has an attached shower and toilet. Meals are on full board basis with a choice of American or Sri Lankan breakfast. Lunch is a typical rice and curry served in traditional clay pots followed by a barbecue style dinner. A wide array of
luscious tropical fresh fruit and home made yogurts and treacle would add to the meals offered in the camp. A selection of fine wines and beverages from a well stocked bar and a superb personalized service by courteous well- trained staff will make you feel utterly pampered. Sitting around a campfire, relishing a drink of your choice and enjoying the sheer silence around you
disturbed intermittently by the intrinsic sounds of the wilderness will make you appreciate the mysterious yet hauntingly beautiful serenity of a typical night out in the forests of Sri Lanka. After lunch you will drive to the Uda Walawe National Park, where you will change to a Land Rover and go into the park on a photo safari, accompanied by an experienced ranger from Wildlife Department.
After the safari you return to the camp. For dinner there will be, if weather permits, a barbecue at the river side.
 

Day 6 Kuda Oya - Galle

After breakfast you will leave the camp and drive to the south, the closer you get to the coast, the countryside becomes more and more barren and near to the sea, you will see along the road many salt fields from which salt is produced. At Dondora you will reach the most southern point of
the island and continue in westerly direction along large, beautiful, white, palm fringed beaches. You will reach Galle at noon. Check in and lunch at the Closenberg Hotel, Galle. - Afternoon at leisure at the hotel. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

 

Day 7 Galle - Colombo

You will leave the hotel after breakfast, a short drive takes you for a visit to the old city of Galle The fort with its impressive great rampart is well preserved. In 1505 the Portuguese took the town from the Singhalese king and built large fortifications which they called Santa Cruz. In 1640 the Dutch stormed the fortress. They later incorporated the remains of the Portuguese fortification
in an imposing new fort for the protection of the harbour and the sea routes. On the way to Colombo you will be passing through well known resorts as Hikkaduwa, Bentota, Beruwala, Kalutara. There are still a lot of things to be seen, for instance the "toddy-tapers", young men who climb high into the
trees to collect the sweet, milky sap of the coconut blossom, or one of the many turtle hatcheries. In the evening you will reach Colombo. Accommodation and overnight at the Hotel Trans Asia.
 

Day 8 Colombo

Breakfast at your hotel and end of tour.

The price includes bed and breakfast in Colombo at the Hotel Galadari (former Hotel Marriott) full board on the tour with accommodation in economy class hotels, transport in air-conditioned car with experienced English speaking driver/guide from Colombo and again back to Colombo, inclusive of entrance fees for the excursions and visits mentioned in the programme.