We awoke early to catch the train to Ella, a hippie town in the hills of Sri Lanka. The train was an experience in itself. We were definitely not in the first-class carriage as I got to spend the entire trip standing near the doorway as people shuffled on and off and stood in the aisles or hung on to the railings outside. At about 1:00 we got to Ella and were able to explore the little town before getting back on the bus to head to Nuwaraeliya and to our hotel ...

Our last day in Sri Lanka was pretty full. We were first headed to the Turtle hatchery. We got to hold day-old sea turtles and learn about how the hatchery helps to keep the numbers of turtles in the safe zone from extinction. After that it was off to a spice plantation where we got to learn about native plants and their medicinal purposes. Leanne got a face and leg rub down and I had a small patch of hair removed from my legs by mysterious goo made from Sri La...

We got on the bus extra early to be able to get to our beach-side resort at Bentota before 1:00. It was a very long bus ride but we finally arrived at La Luna beach resort and got to go and see the beach and the Indian Ocean from the other side! We wandered through town to find some lunch only to discover that the power was out all over town and no air conditioning was working. We had a delicious lunch of rice and noodles in the sweltering heat and decided afte...

We had an amazing breakfast at the hotel prepared by a very eager and friendly host before leaving for the day. It was on the bus immediately after and off to visit the renowned Temple of the Tooth. This temple was constructed to house one of Buddha's teeth that were removed before he was cremated. The tooth is significant in that it had all of Buddha's wisdom passed through it while he was alive and so it is revered all over the world by Buddhists. The temple...

It was another early morning and back on the bus to go and visit Dambulla and Matale on our way to the city of Kandy. We stopped at the Golden Rock Temple in Dambulla and were amazed by the ruins of this once huge city in the middle of the jungle. The King definitely knew how to live with his own personal lake, palace, swimming pool, all complete with indoor plumbing and a whole house full of concubines. It was getting very hot and we were longing for some air ...