I made one more visit to Sri Lanka. I spent 2 weeks with relaxation and enjoying my time in the sun. With lots of shopping and new camera equipment I was ready for everything Sri Lanka has to offer. When I was in Sri Lanka it was Wesak, the celebrations of Buddhas birth. I had not experienced that before. I went to the Buddhist temple in the morning to see how they celebrate that. Below are some pictures I took in the temple. People were coming with offering, like clothes and food and went to the temple and laid them in front of the Buddha statues. There was a band playing when this was happening to set the mood for prayers.
I love the details inside of the temples, if you ever get a chance to go inside you should. So many colorful paintings and statues will be found there. You might feel very small when you are there when you compare yourself with the huge Buddha statues.
In some temples there are lots of small statue and each of them tells a story. So it feels like you will be walking around in a story house. You get to learn about Buddhas life in a interesting way instead of reading a book about him.
The capital of Sri Lanka called Colombo is growing. Everywhere there is a new constructions being built. The roads are getting fixed and you can feel that Colombo is trying to renew itself. There are skyscrapers coming up and apartment houses are being built in a fast pace. I visited a building for apartments called Fairmount Apartment.
It is a luxury place. There is 30 floors so there is a great view over the city if you are on top of that building. Only if you know someone staying there you are allowed in. They have a big reception when you come into the building and you have to sign in to meet people there. I was lucky to know someone living there and got to see the view from the top.
On the top of the roof there is a pool facing the city. There is only a glass wall stopping you from going over the edge in the pool.
Tips when taking a three-wheeler
If you want to get from one place to another in the city the easiest way is to take a three-wheeler. Always look for the ones which has a sign on the taxi called Meter taxi. Otherwise the chauffeur will just say a overpriced sum and fool you. The meter works as follows, on the top you will see it say 50 Sri Lankan rupees. That is the starting fee and it will stay the same until you go over 1 km. So everything within 1 km will only cost you 50 rupees. If you take a look at the picture below you will see how it can look.
To the left is the waiting fee, as it is not mentioned anything that means the taxi have not been waiting for us. This is otherwise a function that can be used if you need to visit many places for a quick stop. The taxi will then wait for you and the timer will count the minutes and then it cost few rupees per minute.
To the right you will see how far the taxi have been driving. The green number below on the meter is how fast it is driving. There is lots of alternatives to the three-wheeler, for example the Nano car shown below. There are many names for the taxi companies for example budget taxi(seen below), my taxi and kangaroo taxi etc.
More articles about Sri Lanka is coming soon. For example a closer look at the Wesak celebration that took place in May. Also my experience of the visits in 2 national parks and food tasting at my favorite hotel Mount Lavinia in Colombo.
©2014
Categories: Sri Lanka
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