Sri Lanka tailor made holidays top pick ?Sri Lank safaris and vacation tours … an amazing travel location that we will focus in this post. Udawalawe National Park: has fewer leopards, it’s a fact. The population is around 10-12, so the chances of spotting them are quite rare. We were extremely lucky to be able to watch two cute young leopards playing with their mother for about 45 minutes at Udawalawe National Park. It was just us and them, and no other jeeps! We were told this particular family of leopards at Udawalawe had grown used to the jeeps so were not shy to make an appearance for us. However, this experience is probably more the exception than the rule. Nonetheless, there is so much wildlife to see at Udawalawe, that we would have found the experience amazing even without spotting the leopards.
Towering up in the central highlands, Horton Plains is the highest plateau on the island. The cloud forests here are rich in endemic plants and animals that have adapted to the cooler climes (temperatures can fall below freezing at night). Birds such as the Sri Lankan whistling thrush and Sri Lankan bush warbler are best seen here. The dwarf lizard, found only in the montane zone, has evolved the ability to give birth to live young in order to avoid the problems of laying in such egg-chilling temperatures.
History of the tooth relic of Lord Buddha: When the war-torn situation of India threatens the existence of the tooth relic of Lord Buddha, king Guhasiwa decided to take the relic to Sri Lanka for safekeeping. King himself assigns this important job to his son-in-law prince Dantha and his own daughter princess Hemamala. Their ship secretly landed to Lankapattana during the reign of Sirimeghavanna of Anuradhapura in 4th century BC and handed over the tooth relic to king King himself. The King Sirimeghavanna enshrined it Meghagiri Vihara, now it is called as Isurumuniya Viharaya. Safeguarding the relic became king’s responsibility, overtime custodianship of the relic came to signify the right to rule. Time passed and reigning monarchs used to build tooth relic temples considerably close to their royal palace. Last Sinhalese King of Sri Lanka, Vira Narendra Sinha of Kandy built the present-day temple Meghagiri Vihara, First Tooth relic temple, present-day Isurumuniya Viharaya Famous painting of princess Hemamali and prince Danthaat at Kalani vihara. Present-day tooth relic temple Sri Dalada Maligawa Casket of tooth relic of Lord Buddha. Read more info Perahera seat bookings.
The beach at Arugam Bay is the stuff of Bounty ads: sugar-soft sands, coconut palms and utter solitude but for the whoops of the surfers riding the point. Before the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the bay was rapidly becoming one of the world’s top surf destinations. For the moment, you’ll have the double curve of beach and its coconut palm-covered point to yourself.
One of the most popular tourist attractions in Sri Lanka, the Kataragama Festival takes place every year in July or August and is dedicated to one of the Hindu gods. It takes place over a two-week period and people from all over the world come to join in. The festival is jam-packed with parades of elephants and colorfully dressed performers. There are countless traditional dances that take place; with musicians, acrobats, and fire-breathers feeding into the festival’s contagious energy. There are few places in the world where elephant sightings are so frequent. However, elephants are not the only animals to see within Udawalawe National Park; peacocks, jackals, water buffalo, crocodiles, monkeys and deer also roam the area. Safaris are most popular in the early morning hours when animals are at their most active. The biodiversity of the park can be attributed to its varied landscape; it is flanked by mountain ranges to the north with wetlands and rivers hugging the grasslands and forests at the base of the mountains.