Our 5th day in Sri Lanka was a long day of traveling and stopping lots of places along the way. Sri Lanka is a pretty underdeveloped country so there is no good infrastructure in place and traveling anywhere takes a long time. They are building their first highway in the country but it isn't open yet so we spent a lot of time winding through little towns and villages to get where we needed to go. We opted to spend a couple of days in Kandy, which is near the center of the island. Luckily there were tons of interesting things to see along the way.
Our first stop was at a spice farm. They grew tons of different spices and the air was so fragrant. We could spell many of the spices distinctly in air. Nutmeg and cinnamon were the most fragrant. It smelled so yummy!
Vanilla beans:
Carter and Makenna with a cacao bean. They couldn't believe that chocolate comes from this plant!
Our next stop was a rubber plantation. These are rubber trees and the workers strip off little pieces of bark and the juice of the tree is collected in the little bowls that you see near the base. It would be tedious, hard work to work on the rubber plantation:
Next we stopped by a tea plantation and processing factory. When Sri Lanka was a British colony, tea was introduced and many varieties are still produced there. Tea leaves in the drying process:
Sri Lanka is REALLY hot and humid but we were astounded by the high temperatures of the tea factory. It was about 120 degrees inside where they were drying the leaves. We about died. It was fascinating to see how the tea was processed and separated after it was dry. The more refined the leaves, the more expensive the tea.
Tea plantation:
When we finally arrived in Kandy we drove straight to the temple of the tooth where we were met by a tour guide. There are vendors lined up outside of all the Buddhist temples selling flowers to be used as offerings. The flowers were so fragrant and beautiful. It is tradition to offer jasmine or lotus flowers.
Emery was hot and exhausted by the time we got to Kandy:
Our family outside the temple. You can't tell in this picture but the temple required us to be completely covered. Luckily Allen had packed a pair of pants and I had to wear my abaya from the KSA because I had nothing else to wear. Makenna wrapped Emery's blanket around her waist and we were able to go in:
The legend surrounding the temple of the tooth is that princess Hemamali and her husband smuggled Buddha's tooth from India to Sri Lanka in her hair. There was beautiful artwork all over the temple depicted the prince and princess with the tooth.
This was a huge, gorgeous sand painting of the prince and princess:
Inside the temple is a shrine built to the tooth. The doors are only opened every 5-6 years and the tooth is removed, and the temple has a huge festival to celebrate. The flags outside the shrine represent Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Each of the different colors represent a different body part.
More beautiful paintings inside the temple:
After visiting the temple we headed to our hotel for the night. It was a long and hot day and we were so excited to eat and then go to bed.
2 comments:
Beautiful, interesting land and traditions. So fun to see you together there
Wow! So neat to see your pictures and hear stories of your adventures. You are creating memories your children will treasure for a life time. Thanks for sharing-Val
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