Sri Lanka ~ Photo courtesy Lonely Planet
It is hard to believe that it has been six months since we got back from our cross country RV trip. Tim has stayed busy helping our son with his business while I have been stagnate. I am so ready to shake off the “snow and dust” and get out the door.
And we are about to embark on another fantastic adventure!
Tomorrow we fly out of Los Angeles on Qatar airlines, change planes in Doha, Qatar and roughly 23 hours later we will land in Colombo, SRI LANKA.
The first three days will just be Tim and me along with our frequent travel buddies, Dick and Karen Theil plus Gary and Jan Jantzen. On day four we will meet up with our Gate 1 tour group for the 14 Day Treasures of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is an island nation, technically known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Located in South Asia, in the Indian Ocean, it can be seen on the map above, just on the SE corner off the coast of India.
Some of you from my generation may remember when this country was under British colonial rule and was known as Ceylon. In the early 20th century, there was a political movement that wanted independence and it was granted to them in 1948. It was not until 1972 that they became a republic and changed their name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka.
There are only two countries in South Asia that rate “high” on the Human Development Index (which measures life expectancy, education and per capita income). The two countries are the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Buddhism is not considered the official religion, but it is identified as the foremost religion and given special privileges in the constitution.
It is summer in Sri Lanka, and we are looking forward to tropical temperatures in the 80’s which sounds heavenly. I am hopeful that the humidity will be kind to us. Monsoon season has passed, but occasional rain showers are not unusual.
The tour highlights are listed as:
- Visit a National Park in the Cultural Triangle, one of the best places in Sri Lanka to view wild elephants
- Glimpse into village life in Hiriwadunna where you are welcomed with a hosted lunch
- Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Polonnaruwa, where kings ruled Sri Lanka over 800 years ago
- Tour the iconic Sigiriya Rock Fortress dating back over 1500 years, rising from the central plains
- At the inspirational cave temples of Dambulla, view golden Buddha statues and murals
- Tour the gold-roofed Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, one of Sri Lanka’s most sacred sites
- In Kandy, dinner at the home of a local family with specially prepared Sri Lankan dishes
- Travel to the town of Nuwara Eliya in the center of Sri Lanka’s magnificent tea country
- Learn about the growing, harvesting and processing of “Ceylon” tea at a Tea Estate factory
- A Jeep Safari at Yala National Park highlights Sri Lanka’s astonishing wildlife and stunning landscapes
- Tour the colonial town of Galle, with its historic fort built in the 1500s by the Portuguese
- Visit a Turtle Hatchery, to learn about the rescue and protection of turtle eggs
I will try to update the blog along our journey as time permits. We hope you will enjoy following along.
GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I am so excited to be off on another journey to a far-off destination that was not even on my radar until a few months ago when Karen asked us to join them. We are all packed, last minute “to do” items have been checked off, and we are spending this evening with our son who very kindly surprised me with a special gift of some Bose noise canceling headphones to take on the flight with me. Life is good!
A Note From Abroad 
Nice! Enjoy.
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Thank you! We will do our best to enjoy every moment of it.
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Have a wonderful trip !! Can’t wait to read your reports. Have a safe flight ! Enjoy !!!
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Have a great time!
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Thank you Kathy!
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Yay, I can hardly wait. I travel through you and Tim more than anyone else. You write very well, provide some of the best backgrounds of anyone I follow and take beautiful pictures. Enjoy your trip, I know I will! I have another couple I follow I also enjoy immensely, they are diplomats so change countries and locals every couple of years. This blog, like yours, is primarily written by the wife, husband takes a lot of pics. She writes from a humorous point of view. Like you she and husband have been on a bit of a hiatus, the last assignment in South America had to end suddenly and they had to evacuate. So they are just now coming around to another assignment, and hopefully more travel blogs. Her mother was part of a family that fostered me for the latter part of high school.
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Hi John,
Thank you so much for your very kind assessment of our blog. We too are excited to finally be off on our next adventure. The time at home has been good for several reasons, but boy have I missed seeing, doing, photographing, reporting and sharing all the wonderful corners we have been blessed to see. I would love to learn who the other writer is that you follow if you wish to share. Sounds like someone I would get great joy from following.
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Here is a link to the blog I talked about. She also posts a lot of book reviews she has just read! She is also a WordPress user, so she should be easy to find. Her blog is called “In Search of the End of the Sidewalk”.
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Thank you for the link. I will look forward to checking her out after we get home.
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Enjoy your trip. A friend visited Sri Lanka and loved it. It is the home of author Michael Ondaatje. He wrote a delightful memoir called Running in the Family which has always made me want to go there. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5941.Running_in_the_Family
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Darlene, this book sounds like one I would enjoy reading. I wish I had known about it before we left, as now our time is rather tight. I will make a note, and give it a try after we get home. I’m guessing that reading it will be a wonderful addition to and reminder of places we will see on our trip.
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Wow! This sounds like a fabulous experience. I am looking forward to reading about your tour. My husband lived in Sri Lanka when it was still called Ceylon and he had told me stories about it. He was only about 10 or 11 at the time. Have a wonderful time!
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I’m so glad you will be following along. I hope that we are able to give your husband’s homeland justice through our write-ups and photos.
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Thanks. My husband only lived there for a couple of years. His dad was there with the US State Department.
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Have a wonderful time.
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Thank you very much.
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Have a wonderful time all of you!
Can’t wait to join it vicariously!!
Very best,
Linda and Paul
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Safe and fun travels!
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We are off on a bit of a wild start, as I’m sharing in our next post. 🙂
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Life IS good! Have a wonderful time – I look forward to seeing what the country is like through your eyes, and learning about the food through your taste buds!
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I too am excited for both – I of course plan on taking a LOT of pictures. I love Indian food and know that there is quite a bit of similarities and influence here. I’m expecting a lot of curry dishes and have heard that the tea is superb.
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This sounds like an amazing trip! Wishing you happy and safe travels.
Alison
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Thank you so much Alison.
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Thanks for taking us on your trip.
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We love having the company 🙂
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WHAT? I’m going on another trip? Yippee!!! 😁
I look forward to traveling vicariously through you. I can’t wait to see what adventures unfold and learn about all the amazing places you mentioned.
Thanks for taking us on your journey.
🤟🏼
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Yep, can’t keep us home indefinitely… We are so happy that you will be following along with us. I know so little about Sri Lanka, so we are super excited to learn more.
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WHOOT!!! … this is gonna be good! 😀
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I sure hope so! I know that we will make the most of our time here and will return home with a ton of pictures and some incredible memories.
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Looks like another great trip! Looking forward to following this new adventure!
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Thank you Mary. We are pleased that you will be joining us. It has been far too long since we have been “abroad”
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So happy to hear from you.Have a Wonderful timeKeep me on the mailing list. Rod and I aren’t going very far. Rod hurt his backand is with a walker an I Just got double vision so no driving. The driver now is Uber.
Love
Alice & Rod
Sent from my iPhone
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How wonderful to hear from you Alice! I’m sorry to hear that Rod is slowing down. Tim and I were just talking about you and that we would love to see you. Perhaps when we return from this trip we can make some plans to take you two out to dinner. It would be great to have a chance to catch up.
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How exciting !!! Enjoy – can’t wait to read all about it
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Hi Fran! We have not had a chance to see too much yet, but I have no doubt that we will soon be flooding this site with a lot of pictures.
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We have just completed the Gate 1 trip that you are now beginning. We know you will enjoy the adventure, the beauty, the food and the fine people of Sri Lanka.
We are now staying at the Kingsbury hotel in Colombo at the finale of our trip.We fly out tonight for Vietnam. We will be in Vietnam, on our own, until March when we head home. We remember all three of you couples from our encounter in Antigua,Guatemala and our happy day at Lake Atitlan. Hope we can meet up again someday. Keep on traveling.
Debby and Bill Brown
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How wonderful hearing from you!!! I’ll make sure that the rest of our group knows of our “almost” reuniting here. We were just recently mentioning you two and talking about how we had enjoyed meeting you in Guatemala. Such a big world, such a small world…We too hope that our paths will again cross and that we will be able to have a good visit. Will you be returning to Guatemala anytime this year?
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