Kandy, Sri Lanka - Day 1-2

This trip has been highly anticipated by all and we are very excited to add Sri Lanka to our new country list. Although we are on top of our game in India, here in Sri Lanka we are real newbies, and as a result we get scammed by local tourist agents just like everybody else. Can't wait to beat them at their own games by the end of the week!

Here are some photos from the journey and our first day exploring Kandy.

Traveling lighter than expected. Yinon's bag with all his clothes got left behind at home. Ooops!

It's a tough choice for Yinon, mango or woodapple (?) juice?

First morning at Villa Comfort in Kandy. Kids have no recollection of how they got here last night, as it was past midnight when we arrived. The boys are already exploring and "helping out" with breakfast preparation.

Hopping around in the garden of the villa.

It's brinjal, declares Yinon. That's what he was taught to call eggplant at school. 

Villa Comfort, less impressive in reality than in the photos.

Beautiful indoor garden with natural light. Definitely adds ambiance to our breakfast experience.

View of the city of Kandy from our room.

Sri Lanka has won Maya's heart the moment she was served fresh pineapple juice. She already renamed the country Green Lanka and Paradise Lanka.

A hungry boy!

With this wonderful breakfast spread we feel very pampered.

The plates got cleared!

Ready for our day exploring in uncle's (Mr. Ravi's) tuk-tuk.

Dodged a bullet here... Our driver tried to convince us to spend the next night in his brother's guesthouse. Oh, it just happened to be in a village 30 min outside of Kandy.

At the Kandy Botanical gardens. The kids spotted the Trufulla trees right in the center of the lawn. You know what I mean if you read / watched 'The Lorax' by Dr. Seuss.

More views of the Truffula trees. Raphael has already checked them out in person.

We tried to convince Yinon these were the brown barbaloots, but he didn't take the bait.

Maya in orchidarium.

We are fascinated by variety of color and shapes of the orchid world

More orchid blooms

Orchids

A center of Asplenium fern - did anybody know I am a big fern lover?

We were fascinated by this orchid in the center, five blooms in a perfect column.

Another perfect lineup.

  

About to be wiped out by a giant coconut...

Coco de mer, or double coconut - a largest fruit of the vegetable kingdom. Each nut weighs 10-20 kg, and it takes 10 years for the nut to mature. A very rare palm, growing here in Sri Lanka in captivity, and naturally occurring only in the Seychelles. Absolutely impressive!

A bunch of tree huggers

View of the lawn in the botanical gardens. Although this was a "busy day" for visitors, there was plenty of room for everyone.

I was most impressed by this tree canopy, which ended up being a single Ficus tree!

Maya attempting to climb the tree. Check out the length of the branch! This is only possible because the branches are being supported by steel poles.

We snapped this picture right before the official showed up and scolded us for climbing.

What kind of fruit tree is this? Oh wait, these are fruit bats!

Definitely an amazing sight. These huge bats are active during the day, and unless you look closely, you totally mistake them for birds.

Fruit bats on the tree.

An alley of coconut palms.

What fruit is that?

We learnt this was a canon ball fruit tree!

What is this tree? We have no idea, but we loved how massive and majestic it looked. 

A hanging monkey bridge over the river. It can only hold six people at a time, therefore you had to wait in line to get on it.

Here is Maya, ready to swing on the monkey bridge.

Raphael is feeling a little shaky, he is not a big fan of heights.

The view of the river below. Looks like the mansoon rains finally reached Sri Lanka. They never made it to Madurai...

Another impressive tree, although we don't know what that was.

An up-close of Trufulla trees, definitely a fan favorite today.

Here are the blooms of the rose cactus, who knew?

A shopping mall right in the center of a busy street in Kandy. Check our how they kept the old original building as the facade, and built the mall behind it. Love it!

Eial and Maya paid a visit to the Temple of Tooth. That's where the holy relic of the supposedly original Buddha's tooth is being kept. Unfortunately, the camera batteries died on them and this was the last picture of today.