Botanical Garden at Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

The Botanical Garden at Nuwara Eliya is the second enchanting garden that I have visited in Sri Lanka (see pics of Kandy Garden in an earlier post). It would be silly to compare the two, as both of them have very distinct character and charm of their own.

The Botanical Garden at Hakgala, 10 km from the Nuwara Eliya hill station, was setup in 1871 and is located at an elevation of 1745 meters above sea level. The climate in the region is extremely pleasant throughout the year, with hardly any extreme season.

Too much fiddling has not been done by man to disturb the natural beauty of the area, and it is a photograher’s paradise. It does not boast of ancient and historic trees like the Kandy-Peredenia Garden, but has over 10 thousand species of flora and some of its huge trees are also more than a century old.

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Yala National Park was a pleasant surprise. Located in Southern part of Sri Lanka, the Rain-forest was pristine and beautiful. It is green and untouched. Its beauty lies in amazing scenery and healthy animals who do not seem to bother about the tourists at all. But that is because the Safari jeep drivers are disciplined and cautious – they have not ruffled the farmers. many of the animals seen in these pictures actually came out of the dense forests to have a LOOK AT US !

The leopard sat majestically just near the track, eating its kill, least bothered about the clicking humans nearby – reeking royalty and non nonchalance

The birds were simply amazing. I clicked a few and missed hundreds in my short three hour Safari.   I have been to a number of national parks in India, but the number of animals, the state of the forest and the overall experience was much better here. Maybe, that was because the ‘king’ showed up this time, whereas I have never been able to see the tiger in Indian forests.

The amazing beaches and the lotus ponds, not to mention many scenic waterholes makes me wonder whether the animals here are actually having a whale of a time, while we humans are slogging it out in the cities?????

Safari Trail

Crock comes to greet us near the gate

Water Hole

Jungle Inspector Elephant comes near to peep inside our jeep. All’s well and he moves on to check the next jeep

Inspector Elephant being a little careful about allowing tourists in the jungle today

Jungle fowl, no less proud than the peacocks

Obelix would have loved this forest

Hornbills

Pretty picture

Jackal family

The beach in the middle of the forest

Safari taking a break at the beach

At close quarters

Elephant shaped rock with amazing lotus pond

Wild Buffalo, doing what it does best, enjoying a water hole

Hawk

Langoor looking pensive

All set?

Leopard eating its kill

Mongoose

Monitor Lizard

 

380sq mile Rain Forest

Awesome nature: Kandy, Sri Lanka

Natural beauty of Kandy, Sri Lanka lies in its greenery. The trees of Royal Botanical Garden and the winding, snaking roads lined with awesome trees makes the place a photographer’s delight.

Some of the pics here were taken from the car – since the scenes were too tempting to ignore. Imagine what one can get if one goes with a dedicated mission of capturing all of its beauty!!!

Flowers of Royal Botanical Gardens, Kandy

Sri Lanka’s Kandy hill station is known for its Royal Botanical Garden, and rightly so.

It is a beautiful garden, with a huge variety of plants from all over the world.

Here are some of the pics I took of in its flowering plants section. Actually the trees were much more glamorous, with names like Mother in Law Plant and Song of India plant etc, and some of them were huge and more than 150 years old. Some of the trees with thick creepers were haunting in their beauty. But I could not capture them with my limited ability and basic Canon camera.

So let these pics be just the appetizers for you….

Palms and Beaches of Colombo

A confession….these pics are taken from a mobile 😦

But do not let that deter you from taking a look…it takes away nothing from the sheer beauty of the beaches of Colombo – Negombo and Mt Lavina – captured in these pics. Capturing the natural beauty of a beach and the palms is perhaps the second easiest thing to do…the first being capturing the beauty of the hills and the pines 🙂

Another food for thought…how long will it take for mobile phone to catch up to professional cameras?

Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

The Gangaramaya temple was the first one one I visited since I landed in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In an instant one understands the culture of the land – like this temple’s architecture, Sri Lankan culture is a mix of Indian, Sri Lankan, Thai,  and Chinese.

This beautiful temple has the main features of a Vihara, a hindu temple, a Cetiya or Pagoda, a Bodhitree, a Seema malaka or an assembly hall for monks and a relic chamber.

Here are some of the photos I clicked. Notice that even random photos from a non-professional camera gives awesome results – all thanks to the photogenic quality of the temple itself.

A day in the bazaar: Handicraft shopping in Delhi

Yet more flowers… they are so easy to shoot

Costume Drama (All experiments on Tintin)

It has not been easy to make the kid wear the costumes or get the photos clicked. He resents it.

It has been a struggle, and this collection is the result of lot of sweat and blood from us doting parents.

Kashmiri girl

Gorkha Girl

Gorkha Boy

Tipu Sultan

Cowboy

Maharana Pratap

Sikh fighter

Labourer

Batman

Prince Rama

Superhero

Lord Rama

Some Lakes of India

Dal Lake, Srinagar

Ward’s Lake, Shillong

Ward’s Lake, Shillong

Lodhi Garden, Delhi

Udaipur Lake

Changu Lake, Sikkim

Nainital Lake

Udaipur Lake

Nainital Lake