Horton plains - The Heaven's branch on earth!

Horton plains is one of the most enchanted places you can find in Sri lanka and is the only park in the country that visitors are allowed to walk.As mentioned in the post on Nuwaraeliya it is located in the Nuwaraeliya district and is one of the places someone should visit at the hill country.It is also one of the most popular places among the foreigners as it has a very comfortable,cold weather through out the year,thus most Europeans and Americans prefer to stay at Horton plains.

It is a well known fact that most of the rivers(main 3 rivers other than the Kalu river) in Sri lanka are started at the Horton plains as it is a very pure,cold and well preserved untouched part of the Hill country(to get an idea about Sri lankan rivers please read the post on Mahaweli river).The green untouched nature of the Horton plains plays a major role in attracting visitors towards it and it competes with all the other beautiful locations in the world for the most beautiful scenes.Watch a video

Though every where your eye catches at Horton plains make you feel like walking in the heaven,
there are few places you should not miss,like

• the worlds end(the most acute angle and the gap between two locations within Sri lanka that makes you to think you have come to the end of the world!)
• Bakers water fall (one of the most enchanted water falls you will find even you travel all around the world)watch a video on Bakers falls
  
• Kirigalpoththa and thotupola the 2nd and 3rd highest mountains in Sri lanka respectively.

The park is one of the places in Sri lanka with the most varied bio diversities and is consist of various beautiful species of animals and trees.While leopard,Sambhur and wild boar are the most common large mammals in the park,black napped hare,giant squirrel,endemic bear,monkey and otter are not uncommon.Due to the wetness within the Horton plains throughout the year by the northeast,southwest monsoons and the inter monsoonal rains,various types of ferns and orchids and reptiles and amphibians are remarkably high that leads to bring a lot of scientists to the park from various parts of the world.It is also a well known fact that Horton plains is filled with different varieties of beautiful and colourful flowers throughout the year.

Things which will bring joy to you at Horton plains would be

1. beautiful landscapes
2. camping
3. Hiking
4. birds and other flora

Nilaveli - The perfect beach

Nilaveli is considered one of the most beautiful unspoiled beaches in the world with white sand and clear blue sea.It is located in the East coast area(in Trincomalee district),which was in the terrorists territory until recently,where been cleared by the government forces.The distance is around 275km to Nilaveli, from Colombo,the capital of Sri lanka.

There is a multi hued reef located in the ocean around this part of the island,which has led to the creation of this beautiful shallow light blue ocean and the adjoining flat white sanded beach.So in this area you can enter the underwater world to see the colourful translucent reef and the beautiful darting fish.The ideal season to visit Nilaveli is from April to October.

Nilaveli is a picture perfect place as what ever you will be focusing will be merely describing the elegance and the pure natural beauty of a tropical beach.There are places of ancient values nearby as well,as father Philip's church,where you can give a visit to relax your self for a while.

Peacock- Probably the most adorned creature on Earth

No wonder you will agree with me after seeing these photos,that Peacock is one of the most beautiful birds you have ever seen.This staggering creature is a pheasant only found in Sri lanka and India(the blue variety).Considering both sexes of this creatures,most of the photographs you will see are of the male, as it is the most colourful and beautiful.There is a seperate entity of Kandyan dance representing the Peacock's look and it's behaviours,which is named as Mayura(mayura is peacock)vannama.

Though someone might think its one's fortune to watch this stunning bird live ,it is not a big deal for Sri lankans as these birds can be seen very frequently in the dry zone.If you visit Yala National park or even going through the Eastern or Southern areas of the country for some other reason, you will encounter a lot of them for sure..

This bird is a ground feeder that eats insects,plants and small creatures.In southern,these birds have a distinct place as Hindus believe its the vehicle of God Katharagama.
Though the male creature is brilliant blue, its female has a brownish ash colour and thus, colour wise a bit similar to the leopard.So there is a myth among some Sri lankans that when a male Peacock sees a leopard, it gets stunned by the leopard's colours(as leopard is more colourful than its female) and due to that fact forgets to fly away from it, which makes it leopard's ultimate pray(haven't heard of an incident though).

The best time to watch these creatures is the early morning,where males gather around females. Males shout out loudly and make a beautiful dance by stretching out all their feathers to attract the female.Believe me it is one of the most beautiful things you can see under the sun...

want to see more of Peacock? watch a video of Peacock

NuwaraEliya - A landscape filled with pure elegance

If you are someone with a hunger for very good scenes of nature,you are more than welcome to the city NuwaraEliya.It is one of Sri lanka's most beautiful cities.NuwaraEliya is situated in the hill country and is around 2000m above from the sea level.

If you get tired by the rough sunrays and the hot climate of Sri lanka's costal areas and wishing to have some cool breeze for sometime,NuwaraEliya is the place for you.The temperature of NuwaraEliya ranges from 14-21 Celsius throughout the year.
Architecture of NuwaraEliya mimics of an English town made with some red brick walls country house like hill club and mock -Tudor half timberline.

As once Exportation of tea was the main source of income of the country(you may have enjoyed a Sri lankan tea)NuwaraEliya gave a great amount of income to Sri lanka as it is the heart of the tea industry as it is filled with many tea estates.It is very difficult to give a list of places where you should visit at NuwaraEliya as there is a lot.Some very important ones would be

• Hakgala park
• NuwaraEliya Victoria park
• Ramboda falls
• Devon falls
• Hortan plains
  
• Mepilimana lake

During the April season,the whole NuwaraEliya town becomes a carnival city as it fills with lots and lots of various coloured beautiful flowers.So most locals and foreigners prefer visiting NuwaraEliya during this season.Know more.....

The proud Sri lankan landscape - Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa became the capital of Sri lanka after Anuradhapura.Today both these cities are full of ancient remnants of a proud Sri lankan history.King Aggabodhi IV was the first king to start his kingdom at Polonnaruwa during 667-675 AD.From there onwards several kings ruled Sri lanka from Polonnaruwa some of them who comes to any Sri lankan's mind would be King Vijayabaahu I and King Paraakramabaahu I who were great kings.

If you love to see ancient relics made by stone,Polonnaruwa is a place where you should visit.Polonnaruwa town is situated 140km North to Kandy.As the roads have been developed during the recent past,it wont take much time for you to travel from Kandy to Polonnaruwa.
Lets see what you can find at Polonnaruwa..
1)Polonnaruwa visitor information center and Museum
2)The Royal palace(King Paraakramabaahu I)
3)King Nissanka Malla's palace
4)Rankoth vihaara
5)Lankathilaka gedige
6)Watadaage(The quadrangle)
7)Kiri vehera
8)Gal vihara
9)Alahana pirivena complex and many more

All these ancient relics have their own story in the ancient polonnaruwa period where all well written in Mahaawansha(The great chronicle of Sri lanka)
During those ancient times Sri lanka was a great agricultural nation.All the kings gave their full support to the the agricultural field.

King Paraakramabaahu was one of the greatest kings as mentioned and during his period he unified the country under one rule and built a remarkable series of irrigation work including the massive "Paraakrama samudraya".if you see the Paraakrama samudraya which is a man made irrigation work to supply water to farmers,you might misjudge it as another ocean inside the country.The oath of this king is very popular.He has said "Even a drop of rain water should not be flown to the ocean without taking any use".

want to know more about Polonnaruwa? please visit
learn more about Polonnaruwa

Resplendency - Dunhinda Waterfalls

Dunhinda is another large and beautiful waterfall situated in Sri lanka.It is located about 10km from the Badulla town which is the head city of Uva province.Though the water fall is not as tall as other waterfalls in Sri lanka like Aberdeen or Diyaluma,beauty wise it gives a good competition to any waterfall.

On the way to watch Dunhinda you will get a bonus because you will encounter another beautiful waterfall similar to Dunhinda but smallet than it so is called "kudaa Dunhinda"('kudaa' means small in sinhala).

Unlike most of the other waterfalls dunhinda makes its water to spread wide which makes the surrounding envirounment misty.Because of this phenomenon you "feel" the waterfall than any other falls you might have visited.This vapour or mist is the meaning of "Dun" in sinhala so you can see how the name of this waterfall has been made.

Do you know that there are more than 40 waterfalls in Sri lanka? visit
Sri lankan Waterfalls

Have you ever been to Hikkaduwa?

Hikkaduwa is one of Sri lanka's most beautiful places where you can enjoy all the beach facilities.It just take some hours to get to Hikkaduwa from Colombo(the capital of the country is Colombo).


If we consider what you can do at Hikkaduwa...they would be
1)enjoy watching the coral reef
2)diving
3)surfing
4)enjoy some delicious Sri lankan sea food
5)beach parties
6)watch the beautiful sunset
coral reef -Hikkaduwa coral reef is an area found to be very rich in biodiversity and you can watch it either riding on glass bottom boats which give fantastic views or if you are someone enjoying diving,you can do snorkeling and diving as all the diving facilities are also available there.
Surf-you want more details on surfing at Hikkaduwa?you can get it at Surf information

want to know about hotel facilities and other stuff?visit
more information about Hikkaduwa