Day 4: Kandy, Sri Lanka & Nuwar Eliya, Sri Lanka
This day was a tour Kandy day, and we just walked around a mall, and then walked the streets to see the little shops. Before the shopping though, our tour guide took us to a lookout point or whatever you want to call it where you could see all of Kandy. It was a breathtaking view of the city with a lot of focus on the lake. The street shopping reminded me a lot of the souks in Saudi Arabia, so aside from the slight difference in merchandise it wasn't too amazing. Still fun to walk around and be part of the city. When we tired of shopping our tour guide brought us to his home to meet his wife and kids. He had a 16 year old boy, a 12 year old boy, a four year old boy and a 3 1/2 year old girl. They were all very sweet, and the wife had made some food, and they had fruit (fruit is like very popular there), and they had fancy fizzy juice. It was sweet of them to host us. After the visit, we started our drive up the mountain to Nuwar Eliya. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a hotel built practically right next to the waterfall. It was a humid yet gorgeous lunch, none of the restaurants we went to had air conditioning even in the hotels. They all seemed to think that sweating while eating spicy food was a great idea. NOT A GREAT IDEA! But after lunch we stopped by a waterfall and my boys and husband and tour guide all waded into the water. I chose not to because I did not want to be helped by the group of men standing there. However, after my husband, sons, and tour guide were in the water I realized staying by myself with the group of guys probably not the best idea. They kept saying things in Singalese (or Tamil not sure which language they were speaking), looking and me and laughing. They gave off a really sleazy vibe, and they kept getting closer and closer to me...as a group. They started talking to me and I did my best not to smile or be friendly at all because they were really really creeping me out. One guy took out his phone and asked if he could take a picture with me...I wanted to cry but emotionlessly said no. He asked again..one pic and I refused him a second time. Luckily my husband also felt uncomfortable as did the tour guide and the shortened their little wading adventure for me. Then off we went up the mountain passing the tea plantations. It was stunningly beautiful. Next stop was a tea factory. The building and everything inside was over 100 years old, and the same stuff used by the British who built it. The guy said they even used the same techniques and methods the British did to make their tea today...which I found pretty awesome. I'm a huge tea fan so this was just my cup of tea :P :P After buying 6000 rupees worth of tea we continued on up towards the hotel. When we arrived we were greeted with BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS weather...I was sooooo thankful not to feel the humidity although I had gotten used to it. Before arriving at the hotel we stopped so my oldest son could ride a horse/pony/wild horse then continued on to our hotel. When walked to our hotel room I was pleasantly surprised to see it was our own personal little cabin...walk inside and it was a bed and a loft with another bed. It was soooo cute and the view was amazing..looking straight onto the lake. We got settled then walked around the lake for a little bit and rented a peddle boat. It was dark though and my husband and sons were a little scared to be on the lake in the dark so we made it a short boat ride and headed back for dinner.
Day 5: Nuwar Eliya, Sri Lanka & Bentota, Sri Lanka
We decided that we wanted to spend a little bit longer in Nuwar Eliya instead of waking up and starting our ride to Bentota early, since the weather was gorgeous and we did not get to fully appreciate the city the day before. So we woke up, and enjoyed breakfast outside with our wonderful lake view. We even met a really nice couple with children close in age to our kids (though the parents looked at least 40). We walked down the entire pathway surrounding the walkable side of the lake, and then decided to have a family horse ride. I took the youngest with me on a horse and my husband to the oldest. I didn't actually ride the horse...I don't know how...a guy walked the horse while we sat on them...but it was still very fun, and made me want to learn to ride a horse even more. I think it would be amazing exercise. When the horse ride ended, we started put 6 hr drive to Bentota. We took one little break for bathroom and snacks near some river that was apparently in some british film that won a lot of awards call river something..and I just googled it. It was called: The Bridge on the River Kwai. Apparently it won a whole bunch of awards and our tour guide was like really proud that this river in Sri Lanka was part of the movie. The river was beautiful but I wasn't really interested in the fact that it had been featured in a movie. We were also supposed to go white water rafting down that river, but since we had the boys that was not an option and also part of the reason we chose to stay longer in Nuwar Eliya. We continued the drive and didn't arrive to Bentota until really late...8 pm. (thats really late in Sri Lanka). When we finally got up to our room...we were realllly disappointed. It was an oddly shaped tiny room with two twin beds. :| Also it was on the third floor at the end of a REALLY long hallway. To get to the beach or pool would be a nightmare with two little dawdling boys. So we called and asked if they had anything better...and they did have a room available on the ground floor that looked out at the pool, and had a walkout to the pool and beach. PERFECT! We changed rooms and to our relief this room had a king bed...a much better fit when its four in a bed. Also we could walk straight to the pool, and then from there to the beach without having to walk down an endless hallway, wait for an elevator, walk down another two hallways and out to the pool. AAAND we could easily get back to the room to change the boys into dry clothes. Much better fit for us. We ordered dinner and went to bed.
Day 6: Bentota, Sri Lanka
We woke up and spent the morning on the beach, and then the pool, and then had some lunch. The beach was sooo pretty, and the water was so clear and shallow for a good distance out which was great because it made it safer for the boys. The sand was so soft too...no shells in the water to hurt your feet. After lunch and a quick nap for the boys we headed to a turtle hatchery. There the boys got to hold turtle eggs, and baby sea turtles. They loved it and I have to say I really loved holding the turtles too! We also saw a few handicapped turtles they saved and Albino turtles which are apparently very rare the guy told us that from every 500,000 eggs, 1 or 2 will be an albino turtle. They keep the albinos and never release them because they are not safe (obviously) because they cannot blend in. When my son finally agreed to leave the turtles we went on a river safari. We saw a tiny little monkey which we were offered to hold, but decided against it. Next stop on the safari was the "fish market" Basically a little dock with large open sqaures holding HUUUGE doctor fish, and we were offered a foot massage by the fish. It cost us 200 Sri Lankan rupees each to sit and soak our feet with the fish...thats about $1.59!!! In the states to sit and have the tiny tiny fish nibble at your feet it cost waaaaaaay more than quadruple that amount! So I got a nice pedicure..too bad the fish can't polish my nails too. :( While soaking our feet my sons and husband held a baby crocodile..very brave little boys! Then we continued and my oldest son, 4 years old, drove the speed boat...almost crashing us into a mangrove! We safely arrived at a tiny island in the river that was home to a small Buddhist temple. We had a tour of the temple and at the end I asked the monk if he could read from their religious book. He looked very excited, i gues no one asks to hear a passage from the book, and read a little bit explaining what he had read. Then he proceeded to ask me if I had facebook and told me he had seen someone who looked just like me on facebook. Completely weirded out I backed out and headed back down to the boat. We drove through a mangrove and headed back to the dock to be taken back to our hotel. We had a horrible buffet dinner with RUUUUUDE russians/swiss people who had no concept of a line and went to bed.
This day was a tour Kandy day, and we just walked around a mall, and then walked the streets to see the little shops. Before the shopping though, our tour guide took us to a lookout point or whatever you want to call it where you could see all of Kandy. It was a breathtaking view of the city with a lot of focus on the lake. The street shopping reminded me a lot of the souks in Saudi Arabia, so aside from the slight difference in merchandise it wasn't too amazing. Still fun to walk around and be part of the city. When we tired of shopping our tour guide brought us to his home to meet his wife and kids. He had a 16 year old boy, a 12 year old boy, a four year old boy and a 3 1/2 year old girl. They were all very sweet, and the wife had made some food, and they had fruit (fruit is like very popular there), and they had fancy fizzy juice. It was sweet of them to host us. After the visit, we started our drive up the mountain to Nuwar Eliya. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a hotel built practically right next to the waterfall. It was a humid yet gorgeous lunch, none of the restaurants we went to had air conditioning even in the hotels. They all seemed to think that sweating while eating spicy food was a great idea. NOT A GREAT IDEA! But after lunch we stopped by a waterfall and my boys and husband and tour guide all waded into the water. I chose not to because I did not want to be helped by the group of men standing there. However, after my husband, sons, and tour guide were in the water I realized staying by myself with the group of guys probably not the best idea. They kept saying things in Singalese (or Tamil not sure which language they were speaking), looking and me and laughing. They gave off a really sleazy vibe, and they kept getting closer and closer to me...as a group. They started talking to me and I did my best not to smile or be friendly at all because they were really really creeping me out. One guy took out his phone and asked if he could take a picture with me...I wanted to cry but emotionlessly said no. He asked again..one pic and I refused him a second time. Luckily my husband also felt uncomfortable as did the tour guide and the shortened their little wading adventure for me. Then off we went up the mountain passing the tea plantations. It was stunningly beautiful. Next stop was a tea factory. The building and everything inside was over 100 years old, and the same stuff used by the British who built it. The guy said they even used the same techniques and methods the British did to make their tea today...which I found pretty awesome. I'm a huge tea fan so this was just my cup of tea :P :P After buying 6000 rupees worth of tea we continued on up towards the hotel. When we arrived we were greeted with BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS weather...I was sooooo thankful not to feel the humidity although I had gotten used to it. Before arriving at the hotel we stopped so my oldest son could ride a horse/pony/wild horse then continued on to our hotel. When walked to our hotel room I was pleasantly surprised to see it was our own personal little cabin...walk inside and it was a bed and a loft with another bed. It was soooo cute and the view was amazing..looking straight onto the lake. We got settled then walked around the lake for a little bit and rented a peddle boat. It was dark though and my husband and sons were a little scared to be on the lake in the dark so we made it a short boat ride and headed back for dinner.
Day 5: Nuwar Eliya, Sri Lanka & Bentota, Sri Lanka
We decided that we wanted to spend a little bit longer in Nuwar Eliya instead of waking up and starting our ride to Bentota early, since the weather was gorgeous and we did not get to fully appreciate the city the day before. So we woke up, and enjoyed breakfast outside with our wonderful lake view. We even met a really nice couple with children close in age to our kids (though the parents looked at least 40). We walked down the entire pathway surrounding the walkable side of the lake, and then decided to have a family horse ride. I took the youngest with me on a horse and my husband to the oldest. I didn't actually ride the horse...I don't know how...a guy walked the horse while we sat on them...but it was still very fun, and made me want to learn to ride a horse even more. I think it would be amazing exercise. When the horse ride ended, we started put 6 hr drive to Bentota. We took one little break for bathroom and snacks near some river that was apparently in some british film that won a lot of awards call river something..and I just googled it. It was called: The Bridge on the River Kwai. Apparently it won a whole bunch of awards and our tour guide was like really proud that this river in Sri Lanka was part of the movie. The river was beautiful but I wasn't really interested in the fact that it had been featured in a movie. We were also supposed to go white water rafting down that river, but since we had the boys that was not an option and also part of the reason we chose to stay longer in Nuwar Eliya. We continued the drive and didn't arrive to Bentota until really late...8 pm. (thats really late in Sri Lanka). When we finally got up to our room...we were realllly disappointed. It was an oddly shaped tiny room with two twin beds. :| Also it was on the third floor at the end of a REALLY long hallway. To get to the beach or pool would be a nightmare with two little dawdling boys. So we called and asked if they had anything better...and they did have a room available on the ground floor that looked out at the pool, and had a walkout to the pool and beach. PERFECT! We changed rooms and to our relief this room had a king bed...a much better fit when its four in a bed. Also we could walk straight to the pool, and then from there to the beach without having to walk down an endless hallway, wait for an elevator, walk down another two hallways and out to the pool. AAAND we could easily get back to the room to change the boys into dry clothes. Much better fit for us. We ordered dinner and went to bed.
Day 6: Bentota, Sri Lanka
We woke up and spent the morning on the beach, and then the pool, and then had some lunch. The beach was sooo pretty, and the water was so clear and shallow for a good distance out which was great because it made it safer for the boys. The sand was so soft too...no shells in the water to hurt your feet. After lunch and a quick nap for the boys we headed to a turtle hatchery. There the boys got to hold turtle eggs, and baby sea turtles. They loved it and I have to say I really loved holding the turtles too! We also saw a few handicapped turtles they saved and Albino turtles which are apparently very rare the guy told us that from every 500,000 eggs, 1 or 2 will be an albino turtle. They keep the albinos and never release them because they are not safe (obviously) because they cannot blend in. When my son finally agreed to leave the turtles we went on a river safari. We saw a tiny little monkey which we were offered to hold, but decided against it. Next stop on the safari was the "fish market" Basically a little dock with large open sqaures holding HUUUGE doctor fish, and we were offered a foot massage by the fish. It cost us 200 Sri Lankan rupees each to sit and soak our feet with the fish...thats about $1.59!!! In the states to sit and have the tiny tiny fish nibble at your feet it cost waaaaaaay more than quadruple that amount! So I got a nice pedicure..too bad the fish can't polish my nails too. :( While soaking our feet my sons and husband held a baby crocodile..very brave little boys! Then we continued and my oldest son, 4 years old, drove the speed boat...almost crashing us into a mangrove! We safely arrived at a tiny island in the river that was home to a small Buddhist temple. We had a tour of the temple and at the end I asked the monk if he could read from their religious book. He looked very excited, i gues no one asks to hear a passage from the book, and read a little bit explaining what he had read. Then he proceeded to ask me if I had facebook and told me he had seen someone who looked just like me on facebook. Completely weirded out I backed out and headed back down to the boat. We drove through a mangrove and headed back to the dock to be taken back to our hotel. We had a horrible buffet dinner with RUUUUUDE russians/swiss people who had no concept of a line and went to bed.
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