And the travel begins. Charith told me that it would be much more effective to get a driver and our own car as part of the trip instead of public transport, which is effective, but not nearly as comfortable or as efficient. Our driver and guide is named Elyian which sounds like (eel E on) Elyian was an amazing driver and guide and had so much knowledge about everything that we saw.
The first day of traveling we spend a lot of time in the car, which is to be expected when you are trying to cover a country. I ended up completely passed out in the car while snuggling with my big stuffed leopard which by the way if you don't have much shame in bring a stuffed animal with you to travel I highly suggest, best pillow and all over support ever. We did however stop for lunch at this beautiful lake side restaurant called Kurunegala. When traveling in Sri Lanka you must be cautious in regards to food. This is another reason why a guide is so great.
While we were there there were two couple getting their wedding photos done. The first couple was leaving but the next was sticking around so I cheeped around and took quite a few photos. The women is wearing a tradition Sari with the appropriate head dressing, but the groom is wearing a traditional Indian frock. Either way they were quite stunning.
After more driving and no more sleeping we arrived at our first destination :) Which was a gigantic statue of a Buddha in the blessing position which is a standing pose with the right hand turned sideways to the viewer. The site is called Aukana Buddha Statue. The statue itself is more than 40 feet tall making it rather spectacular. This is also where I got my first lesson in proper behavior around depictions of Buddha. Basically you must never turn your back to the Buddha as it shows a lack of respect and you must never make the buddha or any other feature (including stuctures such as stupas*) as the background of a photo. This being said it makes walking away from something like this very difficult as you are supposed to at least be turned side ways....
Finally after going off the beaten path a bit we found some rather poisonous lizards (don't worry nothing happened) The neat thing about them was their coloring which was not actually bright, but more Iridescent. We also had a massage and then checked into the first place.
*A stupa (from Sanskrit: m., स्तूप, stūpa, Sinhalese: ස්ථූපය, Pāli: थुप "thūpa", literally meaning "heap") is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the ashes of deceased, used by Buddhists as a place of meditation.
The first day of traveling we spend a lot of time in the car, which is to be expected when you are trying to cover a country. I ended up completely passed out in the car while snuggling with my big stuffed leopard which by the way if you don't have much shame in bring a stuffed animal with you to travel I highly suggest, best pillow and all over support ever. We did however stop for lunch at this beautiful lake side restaurant called Kurunegala. When traveling in Sri Lanka you must be cautious in regards to food. This is another reason why a guide is so great.
While we were there there were two couple getting their wedding photos done. The first couple was leaving but the next was sticking around so I cheeped around and took quite a few photos. The women is wearing a tradition Sari with the appropriate head dressing, but the groom is wearing a traditional Indian frock. Either way they were quite stunning.
After more driving and no more sleeping we arrived at our first destination :) Which was a gigantic statue of a Buddha in the blessing position which is a standing pose with the right hand turned sideways to the viewer. The site is called Aukana Buddha Statue. The statue itself is more than 40 feet tall making it rather spectacular. This is also where I got my first lesson in proper behavior around depictions of Buddha. Basically you must never turn your back to the Buddha as it shows a lack of respect and you must never make the buddha or any other feature (including stuctures such as stupas*) as the background of a photo. This being said it makes walking away from something like this very difficult as you are supposed to at least be turned side ways....
Finally after going off the beaten path a bit we found some rather poisonous lizards (don't worry nothing happened) The neat thing about them was their coloring which was not actually bright, but more Iridescent. We also had a massage and then checked into the first place.
*A stupa (from Sanskrit: m., स्तूप, stūpa, Sinhalese: ස්ථූපය, Pāli: थुप "thūpa", literally meaning "heap") is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the ashes of deceased, used by Buddhists as a place of meditation.