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.

Phuket ( no not that pronunciation!) Thailand. Make that U a Long vowel sound!

 

Looks just like the travel brochures! We are visiting our last city in South East Asia today.  We’ve heard lots about this paradise and finally are getting to visit! Today’s port is a tendered port and again we needed to use the local boats to get ashore.  It was an easy ride and we looked forward to getting to our tour. Once again, we ended up with a big bus and ten, yes 10, passengers!! Our luck has been amazing!  There doesn’t seem to be a secret to how we end up with fewer passengers in our bus, we often have chosen the last included tour (we are slow moving in the early am) ,or people change their minds about doing the tour and don’t show up, or it could be because our traveling companions are tall and we ask for the least filled bus so they can have leg room…whatever the reason, we are delighted that we had one of the buses with few on board. The down size ,of course, is that for the guide/driver there won’t be the number of tips for them.

Today will include a lot of driving as the tour takes us over many hills to see both sides of the island.

Look closely…the amount of wires and cables running up and down the street always amaze me! How does that possibly work? It makes me happy for my underground wires at home.

The national flower are the yellow hanging blooms

Our first stop was at the four headed Buddha temple atop a beautiful mountain with a great view. 

View from the temple

Isn’t that a million dollar view?

This was a type of temple/museum, a type of lighthouse. Inside there was a good display of lighthouse memorabilia 

The temple of the four faced Buddha. Surrounded by hundreds of elephants.

Inside the alter was the Buddha. Each side had a direct to face.

Some of the surrounding elephants 

Various sizes

Another view

A closer view of the Buddha 

Afterwards we traveled to another Buddhist temple

Entrance gate to the temple Wat Chalong

The abbot’s temple. Inside were three statues that were incredibly ice like of the first three abbots of the temple

The bell tower off to the side

The temple that house a bone of Buddha

Inside the temple

The garden behind the temple. The hedge was in the hope of a snake

Inside the cone shaped fireplace people can buy fire crackers to light off to help send prayers off.

Along the fences are small urns with the ashes of deceased believers. Because there is no longer enough room and because of the younger generations movement away from the area, many people choose to be cremated and their ashes spread in the water now instead of being put near the temple. 

Another temple in the distance. After this, we headed to the cashew factory.

A cashew tree with the fruit

A cashew fountain

Raw cashews

Each cashew is opened by hand

The women work on piecework..by the kilogram. The machine is like a hand press.

Another temple. Phuket has over 40 temples

The last view as I boarded the tender to return back to the ship after an afternoon of sightseeing.what a marvelous place.