Unknown Sri Lanka

Arrival at Colombo airport and a special welcome at the airport. Transfer to the hotel to the beach. Relaxation

After breakfast, departure to Ratnapura. Sri Lanka is known for mining gemstones, and Ratnapura is an area where sapphire mines are located. You will see how the most beautiful sapphires on Earth are mined. Ratna means gem, stone, pura means city. Its history dates back to 2,000 years ago, when Buddhist monks came here to promote a new theological system.

Some believe that the stones move with the passage of time from under Adam’s mountain, where the guardian Saman has his main residence. To extract the precious stones, one must go to his temple Saman Maha Devalaya.

After visiting the temple, you will go to the rainforest for trekking. Advancement options are up to you. This attraction is included in the UNESCO Natural Heritage List and is a natural rainforest.

After breakfast, you will go to the Duvili Ella Falls (Walawe Ganga Fall). This is one of the most beautiful, but also the strangest waterfalls in Sri Lanka. The cascade of water flowing down from the narrow throat of the rock veils its base with a water storm made of an infinite number of drops. Hence the name – Duvili in Sinhala means dust, ella means waterfall.

From the falls you will set off to a town near Adam’s Peak. The climb to the peak will start at around 2am, so after checking into your hotel there will be time to mingle with the locals. Many of them are pilgrims to this sacred place for all religions.

The climb with the tracker starts at night to reach the top at sunrise, which is an unforgettable experience in good weather. There are many Samana places of worship and Buddhist temples along the way. You can also take a refreshing bath in the clear waters of small cascades, where the locals perform ritual ablutions – washing away Satan’s eye.

After descending from Adam’s mountain you will proceed to Hatton Railway Station to catch a local train to Badulla. The route takes you through the famous Mutharajawella swamps, endless paddy fields, villages and towns, lush green tea plantations with their tea factories, dark tunnels where establishments happily shout, countless waterfalls and water cascades, stone arch bridges. Driving this route you will be able to see the lower Sri Lanka from the top.

After breakfast, you will set off for Dunhinda Falls, which are located about 5 km from Badulla. The waterfall itself is reached by a 1 km muddy road, where vendors sell refreshing local herbal drinks. You can also see another waterfall in the distance, called Kuda Dunhinda. Dunhinda, which is 64 meters high, gets its name from the smoky dew (dunh in Sinhala means smoke, to burn) that forms from the drops of water and spreads at the base of the waterfall. There is a stable platform at the waterfall. If you are brave enough, you can cross the river to see it from its most spectacular side.

At the end of your visit, you will head to Maduru Oya National Park for a jeep safari. This is a unique park. It is not advertised, so you won’t meet many tourists in jeeps there, and there is a high probability that you will have the entire park to yourself. Hence, the behavior of wild animals is more unpredictable. The main attraction of this park are the wild Asian elephants maximus maximus, while deer, peacocks and other birds are also abundant.

Within the park boundaries also live the indigenous people of Sri Lanka – the Veddas at Henanigala.

After breakfast, you will go to Dambana, a village in Badulla district, where you will meet the local Vedda community – Sri Lankan aborigines. In 2010, there were about 1,000 Veddas living there, speaking their disappearing language.

After the village visit, you will travel to Kandy, en route visiting Mahiyangana Raja Maha Vihara, an ancient Buddhist temple in Mahiyangana, Sri Lanka. It is considered the site of Gautama Buddha’s first visit to the island and is one of the Solosmasthana, of the 16 sacred religious sites in Sri Lanka. Nowadays, the temple is also significant due to its archaeological significance.

The road to Kandy is an attraction in itself. Called Daha Ata Wanguwa, it is one of the most scenic routes, and equally dangerous. It consists of 17 hairpin bends in the jungle, where drivers can test their skills. The road has recently been modernized and widened. Although its name has changed from Sinhalese to “road of 18 bends”, after further modernizations, there are only 17 of them left.

In Kandy you will visit the Temple of the Relic of the Tooth of the Buddha, the most important place of worship for Buddhists on the island. It houses the tooth of the thinker, enclosed in seven caskets. Around the temple you can look at other temples dedicated to Hindu gods and goddesses.

In the evening, you will be treated to a show of folk and shamanic dances, juggling and walking on hot coals.

Kandy is a metropolis where you can find outlets of the best Sri Lankan jewelers, shops where you can buy branded textiles for next to nothing, traditional carving workshops offering souvenirs and making furniture for export, factories producing batik – materials dyed using the waxing method. All of this is worth seeing when visiting the former and last capital of Sri Lanka before the colonial period.

Then you will go to Yapahuwa. It was one of the ephemeral capitals of medieval Sri Lanka. Currently, what remains is a monumental gate and stairs with carved lions guarding the entrance against the background of a huge rock rising above the surrounding plains.

After breakfast you will go to Ridi Viharaya, a Buddhist temple whose origins date back to the 2nd century BC. Here were located the silver deposits used in the construction of one of the largest dagobas in Sri Lanka, Ruwanwelisaya.

After visiting the temple, you will go to Dambadeniya, the ruins of the former capital of Sri Lanka from the 13th century AD. To this day, most of the city is hidden in the crevices of a large rock monolith.

Stay on the beach in Marawila.

Stay on the beach in Marawila.

Stay on the beach in Marawila.

Stay on the beach in Marawila.

Stay on the beach in Marawila.