The Lotus Dome in Sri Lanka

From our ship we had a great view of this tower. Unusual looking during the day, a great light show at night. 

All photos are a bit blurry as they had to be blown up a LOT

 

 

Monday, March 27, 2023 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

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March 27 – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Day 3 

Today’s tour is to a tea plantation. We’ve heard great things about this tour from friends that took the tour over the last two days. 

We are in a mini-van today that is definitely made for the smaller bodies of the Sri Lankans. We are back to a guide whose English is barely recognizable. We started out with him showing us everything we’d already seen in the included tour, but finally we headed out of the city towards the tea plantation. The guide had never been to the plantation, nor had the driver. The guide was relying on written notes trying to explain about the tea and the harvesting and processing. 

We had been told by the ship that photos would not be allowed inside the factory, but our guide encouraged us to take as many photos as we wanted. Once on the plantation, we were also given a demonstration of how latex is harvested from the rubber trees. This particular plantation grows tea, rubber trees, and palm oil palms.

The tea are the smaller bushes. What look like dead trees are alive and will grow again. These taller trees provide filtered sunlight for the tea.

These are rubber trees.

Below are terraces that have been planted with a creeper that will put nitrogen back into the soil. After a year with the creeper, new tea plants will be put in.

HA = hectare.

2.5 acres to a hectare.

Milking a rubber tree for latex. The tree will last about 30 years.

Rubber trees and fallow tea fields.

Demonstration of picking tea.

Just the tips of each branch are pulled off. About 3-5 leaves.

The light green leaves are what get harvested.

Slightly dried green leaves are rolled in this machine.

What comes out of the machine is then

Put on these tables about 2" thick and here they ferment and become black tea.

This is all Orange Pekoe.

Different color bin indicates different quality of tea.

Green tea is the 1 leaf at the tip and is dried, but not rolled or fermented.

Just the countryside in the region of the tea plantation.

After touring the factory, we were taken to the Superintendent’s Bungalow for tea and cake. But the driver got lost between the factory and the Bungalow and had to backtrack on a one-lane dirt road. 

The plantation itself was very interesting and we could see women in the tea plants harvesting as we left. The terrain in the hills where the tea grows was quite beautiful. As we got to the port area, our driver was taking us through a portion of the port that we had not seen in the last two days of tours. We believe he was trying to deliver us to a different cruise ship that was docked all the way across the harbor from us. Another 15 minutes of driving through the port and we made it back to our Viking home. Needless to say, neither the guide nor the driver received a tip from us. That was one of our more “interesting” excursions.

 

 

Sunday, March 26, 2023 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

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March 26 – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Day 2 

Today, we are taking the “Included” tour which is the usual city tour. We’ve got a great guide. His English is far superior to yesterday’s guide. We can actually understand him. 

We will spend about 3 hours riding around Colombo with only a couple of stops. Many photos are taken through the bus windows which adds reflections and haze. There aren’t a lot of buildings left from the colonial period but the few that are still here are striking. In many cases, the original building was built by the Portuguese, then the Dutch would modernize it to meet their ideas. Like many of the areas we have visited in Southeast Asia, there are numerous religions being practiced here. The primary one is Buddhism, with some Muslim and some Christian.

This one is a bit wierd.

We stopped to look, nobody seemed to notice the fire trucks in the courtyard until I looked at the pictures much later.

Have no idea what was going on,

Obviously a mosque. The date says 1908 (I think), but that is from a previous site, This site is from about 6 years ago.

 

 

Our first stop is at the Gangaramaya Temple which is a Buddhist Temple. It is quite a complex and lovely. It appealed to me more than any other Buddhist Temple I’ve seen over the last several weeks. The Image House is full of sculptures. The many different images of Buddha and then sculptural depictions of significant events in Buddha’s life. There is also the requisite “Bo Tree” or Sacred Fig tree. Most Buddhist Temples will have this tree. Buddha was sitting under a Bo Tree when he gained enlightenment. We also learned that, if at possible, a Buddhist Temple will have it’s own elephant. Elephants are quite long lived.

 

Deep 3-D (either carved or plaster statuary) throughout this portion of the temple.

Magnificent!

The Buddha and his son, The son asked for a favor. Buddha made his son a monk against the mother's wishes.

After that, boys could not become monks without the mother's permision.

The ceiling was batt and board. And painted beautifully.

By an entrance to the temple. The dog looks alive.

 

The sacred tree. Probably 150 years old. Amazing

The root system of this amazing tree. Ficus religiosa. Sacred to these people. Every buddhist temple has one of these trees.

 

We also stopped at Colombo’s Independence Hall. A very attractive and interesting edifice.

 

 Really a lovely building. There were many people there that were drawing various features of the building (I assume an art class of some sort. The drawings that I saw were very good. 

On the way back to the ship, we were able to get a photo of the Lotus Tower. An interesting building that really shows it’s stuff after dark. I’ll post a separate blog about that that will be mostly photos.

Saturday, March 25, 2023 - Colombo, Sri Lanka

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March 25 – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Day 1 

No more tender ports for a while which is nice. Being at a dock is far better. That said, although we are technically at a cruise dock, it is buried in the middle of a very busy container port and we are not allowed to walk more than about 100 yards from the ship. When you observe the activity at this container port, you wouldn’t want to be in the middle of all that. 

These two shots were taken from our stateroom veranda. It was fascinating to watch these HUGE machines at work. 

The 18 wheelers were constantly in motion.
 

The Island Nation of Sri Lanka is at the southern tip of India. They were on the very early trade routes between Europe and Asia. They are also one of the “Spice Islands”. They grow rice (a very major part of their diet) coconuts, and rubber as well as tea. For a long time, the island was known as Ceylon. The Portuguese were the first to have settlements here (starting in 1588), followed by the Dutch in the mid-17^th century, then the British. Recent years have been difficult with a very corrupt government and an economy on the brink. Just before we got there they received an infusion of money from the International Monetary Fund of $3B. A year ago, gasoline prices were about $1 / liter. It is 4 times that now. 

The initial itinerary had us in Sri Lanka for just 2 days. When Myanmar was removed from the itinerary an extra day in Sri Lanka was added. We elected to take an optional excursion to go south of Colombo to the southern tip of Sri Lanka and see the historic Dutch fort at Galle (pronounced Gaul). 

The fort was originally built by the Portuguese in 1588. In the mid-17^th century, when the Dutch took over the fort was heavily fortified. It is on a peninsula of land at the southwestern corner of the island. There are about 130 acres within the fort. We walked most of the way around the ramparts. By the end of the day, we had in over 4 miles. There are great views from the ramparts and the water here is quite clear. Galle harbor is a natural harbor and continues to be a base for the local fishermen.

Local fish market. These are ones that did not sell yesterday, they are now dried and will, more than likely, be sold today.

Typical fishing boats.

Russ and the old cannons that used to protect the port.

More of the fort, looking towards the natural harbor.

 

From the edge of the fort fortifications, seeing how clear the water is.

The fort, luckily, was not heavily damaged by the 2004 Tsunami that devastated much of the island. Our guide did comment that he lost both family and friends to the tsunami. 

We had a great buffet lunch at a nearby hotel, then returned to the fort to visit the maritime museum and for shopping. Every tour has shopping time built in. Then back to Colombo and the ship. We were gone about 9 hours.