Sights of Sri Lanka

We recently traveled to Sri Lanka and had a great time!  So much to see and do in such a small country. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I would just show you photos, which is a lot better then me just rattling on!

We stayed in some interesting hotels but this one was especially fun!  We even had our own resident crocodile who lived underneath our room.

Beautiful peacocks were everywhere on the hotel grounds and in the countryside.

We saw lots of really cool Buddhas!




















Lots of monkeys in Sri Lanka but this one was especially cute with her baby.












We climbed to the top of Sigiriya Rock. The view was pretty fabulous from up there.


















Since Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, we saw many young boys who were studying to be monks.

We went on safari and saw lots of animals but we fell in love with the elephants of Sri Lanka.

We saw LOTS of elephants!














We got up close and personal with some.

We rode elephants and fed elephants.




We washed an elephant and gave him a massage.











We bought handmade paper made from elephant poo!

And we watched the elephants make their way through town, on their trek to the river to frolic and play.  It reminded me a little of the running before the bulls in Spain! 

We learned about the lengthy process and all the time intensive work it takes to make batik fabrics.

We took the train up to the tea country. We heard that the next day, after we took the train, the observation car we were in derailed. Thankfully no one was injured!

We toured a tea factory.

We watched the tea pickers bring their tea to the managers to be weighed and their accounting ledgers marked.

We hiked through the tea plantations, had high tea, and bought several varieties of tea.

I don't think we will every think of a cup of tea in
exactly the same way again!

We met the lace maker and her daughter.  This is an old art that is dying out in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is full of these wonderful smiles!




 We checked out the day's catch of the local fishermen and watched them work.

We watched the local dancers at an anniversary celebration.

Sri Lanka is known for it's semi-precious stones so it was a real pleasure to visit the local jewelry shops and see all the jewels on display.

And of course the sunsets in Sri Lanka were stunning. We saw a gorgeous one each evening, on the south coast near Galle, where we spent 5 days on the beach.  A little bit of heaven!