Friday 6 January 2012

The Sri Lanka circuit (the morning of Day 5) - The Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya - The 9th of December 2011.



As we woke up we felt the presence of macaques in the balcony and finally understood the written notice we had read the night before warning hotel guests to keep the doors to the outside closed at all times because of them (which had made no sense to me as our room was on the fifth floor) ...

...There they were ... to be seen everywhere and even as close as the breakfast room that had been se up in an outside patio.






We had our first chance to admire the view over the lake from our room in broad day light before setting off to the Royal Botanic Gardens of Peradeniya, in the western district of Kandy.















The history of the Royal Botanic Gardens dates as far back as 1371 when King Wickramabahu III ascended to the throne and kept court at Peradaniya having a royal garden made, but it was under the 18th century British rule that it would later be developed into Botanic Gardens, now well known all over the world.


We strolled along its palm avenues and flower gardens, having admired the bamboo collection (particularly the giant bamboo of Burma, the largest known bamboo, whose stems are said to attein a height of 90 to 130 feet and about 10 inches in diameter) and the arboretum  with over 10,000 trees.


We then stopped at the lake and the great lawn where some small school children were playing, until we finished the visit by being captivated by the beauty of a rather unique flower and the orchid species in display inside the orchid garden.



























































































It ended up being a fairly distinct morning, at least in as much as it was different from the ones we had been having ...










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