At Bandaranayake International Airport, our chauffeur will meet and greet you in English. then proceed to Sigiriya securely. Visit the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, which is nearby. Visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress and climb "Lion Rock," one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Transfer to a hotel in Sigiriya to spend the night.
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
The word "elephant orphanage" may be unfamiliar, yet it is entirely factual and real. The quiet grounds are committed to providing a natural habitat for captive elephant babies ranging in age from weeks to fifty years. The herd can be housed at the only orphanage of its sort on the planet to date.
Sigiriya Rock Fortress
Sigiriya is an old rock castle and palace erected by King Kashyapa between 473 and 495 that stands 660 feet straight up. This fortified garden city of Sigiriya rock fortress is an exceptional master piece of ancient urban planning, landscape and architecture, construction technology, exceptional hydraulic engineering and management, and ancient fine art with a unique harmony between nature and human imagination, with all these living examples proving that it was a well-planned city and palace in the 5th century AD. Sigiriya Rock Castle is known as one of the best preserved 1st millennium surviving ancient urban sites in Asia, or simply as a living museum.
Proceed to Kandy after breakfast. You can take the opportunity to stop by the Ancient Dambulla Cave Temple along the way to unwind and explore a natural spice plantation and a Hindu Kovila. Visit the Temple of the Tooth Relic (Dalada Malaigawa), a World Heritage Site, and the Kandy cultural dancing performance after that. Don`t forget to tour Kandy City, which served as Sri Lanka`s final capital prior to being occupied by the British.
Dambulla Cave Temple
Dambulla Temple has five caverns (shrine rooms). All of these caverns are filled with statues of Buddha and other figures from Buddhist history. These caverns include 150 Buddha pictures. Cave No. 5 (the final in the series) has little historical significance because it was built in the second decade of the twentieth century. The other caverns all have sculptures and paintings from various epochs of Sinhalese sculpture and painting. Some believe Dambulla`s early paintings date from the 8th century A.C. However, due to overpainting, this cannot be proven. Nonetheless, this location is a treasure trove of decorative motifs, the patterns of which are similar to those of Sigiriya.
Matale spice and Herbal Garden
Visit a spice garden in Matale to learn about the many spices that Sri Lanka is famous for. The Matale spice gardens, located just 25 kilometers from Kandy`s hill capital, are among the greatest on the island. You`ll be introduced to many spices and shown how some of them are farmed and prepared. Visitors are welcome to meander through the gardens and learn about nutmeg, pepper vines, clove trees, curry, cinnamon, and the rare cardamom, a relative of ginger. It grows in the shade of high jungle trees and can only be harvested by hand. Visitors can purchase spices, traditional cures, and cosmetics; sample a herbal brew; and, in some cases, enjoy the full flavors of Sri Lankan spices over lunch or an Ayurveda massage based on natural garden products.
Matale Hindu kovil
Muthumariamman Temple, also known as Arulmigu Sri Muthumari Amman Kovil, in Matale, Sri Lanka, is a Hindu temple. The prefix `Muthu` means `pearl` in Sanskrit. In Tamil, `Mari` signifies rain, and `Amman` means mother. The shrine is devoted to Mariamman, the rain and fertility goddess. The land was once a paddy field and was given as a gift by the owner in 1852. The current temple was built in 1874 using funds provided by Nattukkottai Chettiar. Both Hindus and Buddhists visit this shrine. The temple began as a modest statue under a tree prayed to by Hindus, but it has since been expanded by the people of Matale.
Kandy cultural dancing show
A Kandyan cultural show will leave you speechless with its amazing dance, acrobatics, costumes, and music. This cultural display, held in Kandy town, depicts several styles of Kandyan dancing, which were previously indigenous to the area but have since spread to other parts of the island. Several dances depicting the graceful movements of birds and animals trace their origins back to the ancient ritual known as the Kohomba Kapkariya, as well as energetic acrobatic performances in which the men perform a series of leaping pirouettes and stunts such as plate-spinning and the dramatic `fire walk` that concludes the show, will be performed during the show.
Tooth of temple Kandy
The Sri Dalada Maligawa (or Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) is a Buddhist temple that houses Lord Buddha`s tooth relic. It is located within the royal palace complex of the ancient Kingdom of Kandy. Kandy was the last great capital of Sri Lanka`s ancient monarchs, and the presence of the temple is one of the main reasons why the city was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The relic housed within the temple has played an important part in Sri Lanka`s political history, as it was believed that the keeper of the relic had the authority to rule the country. The protection of the tooth relic became one of the monarch`s duties, and it became a symbol of the right to reign over time. This is why the temples built to protect the relic were so close to the monarch`s royal home.
We should leave after breakfast to travel through Kandy to Negombo. While traveling, you can see the Royal Botanical Garden, a tea plantation, a tea factory, and the Tea Factory`s Sri Lankan No. 01 tea cup.
Royal Botanical Garden
The Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya are Sri Lanka`s oldest formal gardens. Every year, roughly 2 million local and foreign visitors visit the Royal Botanic Gardens Peradeniya. The park contains about 4000 plant species, including orchids, spices, medicinal herbs, and palm trees, and is known for its orchid collection and long, palm-framed pathways. The Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya was named one of The Guardian`s 10 great botanical gardens around the world in 2018. The dazzling climber plants with difficult-to-pronounce names like Beaumontia and Saritaea are entwined with the lovely lilac-blue petraea, which are claimed to have grown more beautifully than at the Kew gardens themselves.
Tea factory and museum
The Ceylon Tea Museum features displays on early Sri Lankan tea traders such as James Taylor, a Scottish tea farmer who introduced tea to Ceylon, and Thomas Lipton, another Scotsman who produced Ceylon tea and exported it to Western markets beginning in 1890. The museum has four storeys, including ancient tea-processing apparatus like 19th-century generators, rollers, dryers, fermentation tables, and sorting machines on the ground and second floors. The first floor houses a library and an auditorium with audio and video presentations, and the third floor houses a tea shop. The top level houses a tearoom with excellent views of the neighboring villages, hills, and groomed tea gardens, and visitors can have a complimentary cup of tea after touring the museum.
