Nuwara Eliya, Srilanka

25 Jun

Learning our lesson from Sigiriya/Dambulla trip, we left Kandy early in the morning for our last stop, Nuwara Eliya, the "Little England". En route to Nuwara Eliya, we made a stop at Labukale Tea Factory. We had a guided tour to the factory, tasted tea with chocolate cake and bought some tea leaves back. It was a scenic route from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya with all the tea plantations along the way, the road is small mountainous road though. We managed to made it for lunch at Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya with Sachini and Indra.

En route to Nuwara Eliya

A cup of tea from Labukale Tea Factory

After lunch, we checked in to Governor's Chalet. It was the best in the trip, the chalet is right beside Gregory Lake. One chalet could accomodate 4 people, 2 on the ground floor and 2 on attic floor. The only disappointment was that June is not good season for visiting Nuwara Eliya. It rains almost everyday. Hence, we could not do much outdoor activities.

Gregory Lake

In front of our Chalet

After checking in, we visited a Rama temple that was claimed as the only Rama Temple in the world by Srilankans. We also went around Nuwara Eliya town and visited St. Francis Xavier Church there. We packed kotthu roti and chinese roll back. Dinner was at Governor's Chalet's restaurant. The food is good and service is slightly faster than other places.

Rama Temple

St. Francis Xavier Church in Nuwara Eliya

26 Jun

We decided to relax in the morning, took our slow breakfast, and started our trip back to Colombo only at 12 noon. We reached Kithulgala resting place at around 2pm for our late lunch. The food is OK only and as usual, the service is slow. Nothing much to do at this place except for meals. We continue our long journey to Negombo beach, on the way we made our stop to buy some cashew nuts as well. We reached Negombo beach around 6.30pm, a bit too late to take nice photos there.

Waterfall!

Negombo beach is only 1 hour away from Colombo airport. We made it back to the airport at 9.30pm and waited all the way to our midnight flight back to Singapore.