Sri Lanka-Livy

I am so sorry I haven't written in a while. We have been so busy!!!

We took the ferry from Koh Rong back to the main land. I was so sad to leave! We were heading to Sri Lanka. We  took a short flight there and our plane arrived in Colombo really late so we stayed there for one night. The next morning we took a cab to Kandy. We were staying for two nights as there was just enough activities to keep you busy for one day. We were staying at a really nice hotel. The next morning we hired a Tuk-Tuk for the day to take us around the city.

There was a beautiful lake in the middle

 We first went to a Tea Plantation. It is were they make tea. Did you know that Sri Lanka is the second biggest tea country in the world? Anyway, it was actually not as boring as it sounds.

All the leaves they use

Next we went to a Elephant sanctuary. It was awful! The one in Chang Mai was 100 times better. The Elephants here were not treated the best. They still had riding!!! I did not like it at all. I mean I loved seeing the Elephants and all, but the actual sanctuary, that was not the the best.

A beautiful male Elephant

This is a full skeleton of a Elephant ( Anneka is holding a tooth)

We then went to the botanical gardens. Oh My Gosh! This place was amazing! It was super big and every corner was a new picture! It was just Beautiful!

There were so many monkeys there!

Me and Anneka

We met some kids and were playing tag

A beautiful pathway

The most amazing tree EVER!!!

We ate lunch there and about 1 hour later came back out. lastly we went to the spice garden. It is were they grow all kinds of spices. We were smelling EVERYTHING!!! My favorite was the cinnamon. We did not stay there for long. About 1 hour or so. The tuk-tuk took us back to our hotel and we went walking into town. We ate at a local place and got giant heaping for like 2 dollars! I got a big plate of rice and ate maybe a quarter of it! The next day we went to the train station to take a three hour train to our next stop, Ella. It was mental! My dad went early to buy tickets but they said it was not assigned seating. So we thought we would just grab one. But No. It was so crowded. We were all packed like sardines! AND, we found out it was not three hours but seven. So we hoped off and spent the 80 dollars to get a taxi. It was totally worth it. 

We arrived in the small town Ella. It is known for its beautiful hiking. Sadly the first night there Anneka got really sick! She could not do any of the hikes the next day. Me and my mom went on the little one called little Adams peek. It was spectacular!

This was not even the top. 

My favorite picture

Selfie!

This is such a cool picture

It was about a hour there, hour back. When we got home, my dad went for the same hike. The next day Anneka was feeling better. but now me and my mom weren't feeling the greatest! We basically lied in bed for the rest of the day. This happened every day for the next 4 days. Everyone was sick accept my dad. We stayed  a few extra days hoping we would feel good enough for the big hike.  Sadly, this did not happen. We had to move hotels because the one we were staying at was full. The one we moved to was a little out of town. A 5 minute Tuk-Tuk ride. It had it's own privet waterfall!!!  It was probably one of the nicest hotels we have stayed at. 

This was rite at the foot of our dinning area

If you walked down a bit, you would see this

As you can see, it was beautiful.

On the last morning we were there, my dad went for the big hike, Ella rock. It was 2 hours there, 2 hours back. So it was a big no, no for me, Anneka and my mom. He said it was beautiful though, and that if we were feeling better we could have easily done it. 

These are the pictures he got.

A cool rock formation

This is soooo beautiful!!!

We left Ella and left for Ulawalawe. It is a national park that is full of wild Elephants!!! We were going there for 1 night because there is not much of a town there. Our hotel was nice, and rite away we went to try to find lunch. It was OK. Really spicy! We were all feeling much better. It's funny, the day we leave a hiking place, we feel better! Anyway, the next morning we got up at 5:30 AM.  I was so tired!!! We were sitting in the back of the jeep. It was so much fun! We spent the day cruising around the park bird watching and seeing tones of Elephants.

These moms were so protective of their baby, they would not leave his side

A beautiful lake we stopped at

Behind us is the jeep we were in

One of the Elephants we saw

There were peacocks everywhere

This giant Elephant walked rite past our jeep, if we tried, we could have touched her. 

The next day we left for Marissa,a small beach town. It was known for surfing but, sadly, when we were there the beach had a strong current.  We went to the next beach over and the waves there were much better. My dad had just caught the virus, so he stayed at the hotel. Surfing did not work out. I was only out for about 1 hour before giving up. I know, I know I'm ashamed of myself too. We started walking down the beach and found some boogie boards. We played on them for about 2 hours. It was awesome.

Me and Anneka in the water

For the next 2 days we spent 5$ to spend the day at a nice pool on the beach.

Us in the pool

Me in the pool

Last but not least, we went to Unawatuna. It is ANOTHER beach town. We were here for 5 days and soon found out there was not much around. We splurged and stayed at a really nice hotel with two awesome pools.

We only ever used this pool. There was a shallow part for Anneka and it was perfect for handstands

We pretty much spent the next 5 days in the pool. One day, we went to the old fort called Galle. It is an old city surrounded by a wall, used when the dutch were taking over Sri Lanka. Anyways, we were there for about 3 hours. We ate lunch there, then just toured around.

A really cool tree

A beautiful entrance to the city

Were the soldiers used to stand guard

The beach there was so crowded

That was the end of our Sri Lanka trip. The next day we took a taxi to Columbo so we could fly out. 

I would love to say Sri Lanka was amazing, but for me, that would be a lie. Part of that reason had to do with the fact that we were all a little sick the whole time. But I think the biggest reason is that it was at the end of Asia. I am going to sound like a snob, but we were all ready to leave Asia as a whole. I'm sure that if we had come here near the beginning of our trip we would all have liked it so much more. I am so exited for our next stop,

EUROPE!!!