Towel art at Dalmanuta Gardens

Each day it is exciting to see what amazing towel sculpture is on our bed! We have a lovely house man, Ali who cannot do enough for us! Bliss!


Dog!


Elephant!


Monkey!


Lady!

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Dalmanuta Garden Resort

Our final stay at Dalmanuta Gardens set in beautiful gardens, Ross is off having his daily treatment of face, feet and total body massage followed by a herbal bath! I have opted out today due to a wobbly tummy! I am sitting out under our verandah in our own private garden, just bliss!



Our own personal eating hut, beautiful river breezes experienced at every meal! Delicious food, we place our order in the morning for dinner before the Chef goes to the market!


Our bed, the most comfortable bed we have slept in since being away!


The serenity garden, we walk through each meal time to get to our eating hut!
This is such a beautiful place, I am experiencing the Ayurvedic medicine with the lovely doctor on site, Ross is enjoying the benefits with the massages! Have just been given a potion so hopefully I will be better soon!

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Mt Lavinia Hotel, Colombo

A journey tracing back my family footsteps, firstly my grandparents stayed here in 1952 when they took a world trip by ship and Ceylon was on their itinerary! Am wondering whether the elephants that I have at home are from this journey! We have added to the family and bought 2 more to join the herd!


Dad trained in Sri Lanka for his acupuncture, our guide new of Dr Anton and showed us where he lived! His clinic was the next suburb but we didn't visit there! He has since passed away.





We enjoyed a delicious cup of tea in the lounge, imagining my family enjoying this magnificent hotel!


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A day without elephants!

We are now in Colombo relaxing in the hotel trying to work out what to do for dinner! Arriving here mid afternoon we have been for a wander and already have been completely drowned by torrential rain! Not sure about venturing out again! Our driver picks us up in the morning for a city tour and then on Saturday he drives us to our Aryuvedic Resort for 5 days of relaxation! Looking forward to some time out!


Fisherman on the beach in Galle


The walled fort built in the late 1500's, the Tsunami went around it both sides and it remained completely intact!


A lovely charming new friend in Galle!


Beautiful Art Deco in the fort city!

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Elephant Safari

Just returned from our elephant safari and we have been told that we have been so lucky to have seen so many wild elephants roaming in the National Park! Just amazing and so very excited to see so many very special elephants especially with lots of babies!











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Elephant Orphanage

These beautiful little babies are all orphans, mothers have either been killed or died of illness. They are brought to this orphanage to be hand reared with the hope they will eventually join the wild herds of elephants in the National Park nearby!
First stop is the milk, with a fair bit of push and shove to get their fair share!



Time for some leaves and branches and then back to their play pens!


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Kandy Botanic Gardens

Most beautiful flowers and landscape in the gardens! Cool and relaxing wandering around the paths, through the orchid glass house, very exotic flowers of all colours and shapes! This yellow flower is called a lolly pop flower!


Not sure what this one is but incredible sculptural shape!


Beautiful orchid!


Pine trees twisted from the wind!


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Another day of elephants!

The great elephant ride with Rani the elephant....the mounting process! She tucked her head under the platform so we could climb on easily!


All aboard, not quite sure about this!


Rani Banana we called every few minutes and fed her another banana!


Homeward bound, a little off centre!


An amazing sight, a wild elephant plodding across the road!
Sri Lanka is certainly the land of the elephant! Looked at a beautiful carving of a meter high elephant, $1,600 including shipping, unfortunately just out of our budget!


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A day full of elephants!

Our tour started today! Pick up at the hotel with our driver, Kuru and we are on our way! Our first meeting with an elephant was by chance, on the roadside a truck was transporting an elephant who had been sick! Wonderful sight to watch him pull palms fronds down on the trees around him!


We even get to pose in front of our new friend!


Elephant park and elephant orphanage, first viewing was at the river as they bathed and frolicked in the water and then they parade through the township and over the other side of the road to graze the day away!


Such a wonderful view of these incredible creatures!


A great surprise running into our friends Maree and Reese from Melbourne! They are doing a different tour but with the same company! Looking forward to seeing them again on the road somewhere!
Feeding the baby elephant was a highlight even though it took only seconds to gulp down his bottle!



We are now at our hotel about to go in for dinner! Will blog again soon!!


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Our first day in Sri Lanka

After arriving in Sri Lanka at some ungodly hour in the morning, finally in bed at 2.00am and then waking up to our first morning in Negombo! A swim in the beautiful pool, the sea looked very wild and then the buffet breakfast! Delicious fruit to start with then every cuisine was provided for again, served outside on a massive deck looking over the sea.


A lovely tour this morning with a very friendly taxi driver who was loitering outside the hotel! First stop a Buddhist Temple with incredible sculptures and murals!


The local fish market, amazing array of fish all fresh from the sea this morning!


Sardines drying on the sand!


We returned to our room to find our bed adorned with birthday celebrations for Ross! The elephant towel looked gorgeous, pity we have to use him! The hotel is lovely and all the staff are so friendly!





Afternoon spent doing my diary and watching the wonderful world go by! Dinner in the hotel restaurant for Ross' birthday and back to our room to catch up on some well needed sleep!


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China Town

Gorgeous coloured lanterns, so many people, delicious smells, a dinner out in China town, such a great experience!












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Singapore Botanic Gardens

Such a beautiful day wandering around the Botanic Gardens. The orchid garden was an absolute highlight! The most incredible flowers, amazing colours and different shapes! I know some of these plants are not orchids, but how many holiday snaps of orchids can I share???












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Singapore

Hello everyone from Singapore! Arrived yesterday afternoon and settled into our beautiful Hotel!







This is our birthday treat and it certainly is lovely! Staff are very friendly and helpful! Our room is big with a very comfortable king size bed however it was a struggle to stay in bed, still on Melbourne time!






After refreshments, Ross had his first Singapore Sling and I had a Virgin Mary we mastered the Underground and headed to Marina Bay! It is the festival of the Moon, lots of people out and about, beautiful moon cakes everywhere!


















Delicious dinner at a Japanese restaurant and then a taxi home as we couldn't quite manage the underground again!
Lovely sleep in our room, we have just had a swim in the pool and are now set for the day!

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