Sri Lanka….some call it India’s tear drop but don’t think the Sri Lankans believe that..day 1

 

Today we are entering the Port of Sri Lanka for three days of sightseeing and culture. Once again we are at a very industrial dock but this dock has a wonderful little village of shops right here on the dock , in case we don’t make it to a shop in town.

Wonder what I’ll find this time? 

An interesting building as we leave the port on our tour bus. Around the bottom ,there are lots of Buddha statues

The headquarters for the Sri Lanka Navy!Our tour today is the included one and will give us a taste of the city and what it has to offer.

This is the entrance to the President’s house.  Last summer this was ground zero for protests by groups who hold the president and prime minister responsible for bad economic practices, To be honest, we were surprised to be able to visit and up until we pulled into the harbor we were prepared to skip this visit. It was nice to be able to stop and so far it seems as if things have returned to normal for the country with a change in leadership.

Once again, we see the visible effects of the colonization of the world by the Western European world.  The British were very active here also, after the Portuguese and the Dutch. The city has a huge numbers of colonial style buildings.

Gangaramya Temple 

Inside the temple

A stupa. It is a solid round building that usually houses a relic from the temple, either a bone,tooth,etc from Buddha or jewels from the temple. There is no opening and no one can enter it.

The Bodhi tree ( a spiritual tree)

Buddha in the touching earth ( enlightenment) pose 

After the temple visit, we continues our bus ride. This building is similar to our White House ad is used for government business

Across from the White House is this meditating statue of Buddha in a beautiful park

Now on to the Independence Hall 

Im in love with this statuary at the Independence hall

The Independence Hal s a replica of the wooden hall that was used when the treaties of the Kandy kingdom were signed with the British in 1819. This Hall was built to sign the independence treaty with Britain  1948 it give Ceylon their freedom from the British. From then on it was named Sri Lanka

The building is found is Cinnamon square and is a wonderful open air space. 

This row of lions lined the front of the building

Just so you don’t get the idea that all is colonial here… this building from afar looks like it is leaning onto the other one. Another Architectural marvel!  

This is another event place that is rather modern

And yes there are mosques here also

Always know where your consulate is! The US one is behind a really strong barrier!

The following pictures are of a college celebrating and getting ready for the “Big Game” don’t know if it was football or Cricket, but their enthusiasm and joy was infectious. It brought back fun memories of our youth when we also did such crazy things like block traffic while we cheered and drove around waving our school flags.. seems kinda like our homecoming events! It was fun to wave and give them a cheer!

After such an exciting way to leave the city, we drove along the local beach park and headed back to our ship dock.  The island in the distance is a man made island that the Chinese are building to house shopping,hotels and stuff like that.  There is lots of Chinese involvement in most of Southeast Asia and not to the liking of everyone in this country.  There is a genuine mistrust of the motive for Chinese investment here. But of course money does make things happen, so it is a fine line to walk for most of the countries in this area.

Tomorrow we are independently heading to the National Zoo. We were supposed to go to the elephant orphanage, but some passengers raised concerns about supporting an organization that might have poor animal conditions… I would have liked to have gone and made my own mind up, but as often happens, one or two complaint can change plans for everyone.. GRRRRRRRR

Don’t get me started on how I feel about this…anyway, tomorrow is now a free day for us and we will visit the zoo….Im not expecting a 21st century zoo….but it is what they have to offer and I am looking forward to seeing it.