Budget Travels by Divya

Hi Folks, I will talk about our two-day trip to Ella, followed by our transfer to Galle, which we went as a part of our 10 day tour to Sri Lanka. We headed to Ella from the hilly town of Nuwara Eliya. There is a train option for reaching Ella from Nuwara Eliya, which is apparently very picturesque and scenic, but since we were not aware of this earlier, we did not get tickets for the journey. We took a bus to Ella instead. There are many AC buses from Nuwara Eliya to intermediate stations. The locals are very helpful with directions and we were able to reach the entire distance through public buses. We stayed in a Yoho hotel here . It is located very close to the main bus stand of Ella. We reached at about 12 noon from Nuwara Eliya. We freshened up and around the main bus stand area, which has many cafes and restaurants! It's any traveller's paradise, to sip in coffee, curl up with a book, and sit in a nice cozy corner of the cafes! Yours Truly in Ella! We visited th...

Kandy is a major town located in central Sri Lanka. It is famous for the Tooth Relic Temple and Perendeniya Botanical Garden. We arrived in Kandy from Dambulla by a bus. We reached at around 12 noon. We checked into a hotel booked on the spot through booking.com We freshened up and went to the Tooth Temple on road. It was a 10 minutes walk from the hotel. The Tooth Temple is a very sacred temple for Buddhists, which is believed to house an ancient tooth relic of Lord Buddha. This is housed inside the royal palace and the lake complex. There is an entry ticket for foreign tourists. The Royal Palace and temple complex On the Temple grounds! We did not visit Perendeniya Botanical Garden, since it was in the outskirts, and we strolled around the central railway station area. There were lot of food joints and bakeries in Kandy! We bought packets of Plum cakes and fruits cakes (by kilos!), and savored them in the evening. We started for Nuwara Eliya from Kandy, by road. The...

Anuradhapura is an ancient town in Central Lanka. It is a part of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, Sigiriya & Polonoruwa being the other two edges of the triangle. We did a day trip from Dambulla. We took a bus from Dambulla clock tower to Anuradhapura. The two towns are 65kms apart. It took us 1.5Hrs to reach Anuradhapura, at around 10.30AM. It was a very hot day, and we hired an auto-rickshaw (Tuk-tuk). He agreed for 1000LKR for showing us 8 spots in Anuradhapura. Around 10Kms from Anuradhapura is Mihintale, which is also a place worth visiting, but due to paucity of time, we skipped it. Listing the must visit places, in the order we visited them: 1. Isurumuniya Temple: This was the temple where the ruling king had built a home for few high-caste children who were ordained by the king. There is a wish pond in the lake, and a lovely temple. Entry fees is charged for foreign tourists here. The Temple in the back-drop 2. Ruwanweliseya Dagoba : This is a huge hemi-...

Hi Folks, I will be talking about my 10 day trip to the island country of Sri Lanka in South Asia in this post. This was a couple trip from Delhi (India) to Colombo and back. The itinerary we followed is below: Day 1:  Start from Delhi, and reach Colmbo. Transfer to Dambulla Day 2: Day trip to   Sigiriya & Pidurangula (20Kms from Dambulla) Day 3:  Day trip to Trincomalee Day 4:  Day trip to Anuradhapura Day 5:  Transfer to Kandy Day 6:  Transfer to Nuwara Eliya Day 7:  Transfer to Ella Day 8:  Transfer to Galle Day 9: Galle local sight seeing Day 10: Transfer to Colombo and return journey Places we missed, but are worth visiting: Jaffna in northern Lanka, Polonuruwa which is a part of the cultural triangle, Mirissa, Bentota, and the capital city - Colombo! Few pointers to keep in mind: Sri Lankan currency is Lankan Rupee (LKR). It is a closed currency, which means you will mostly need to exchange currency after you land...

Hi Folks, I will talk about my weekend jaunt to Nainital. Nainital is a small hill station in the Kumaon part of Uttaranchal. It is named after the Lake Naina, which separates this small beautiful town. This was a solo trip I did in May, 2017. May-June is the best(albeit crowded) time to visit this place, when the rest of the country is blazing under the relentless scorching Sun! 3 Day Itinerary: Day 1: Reach Nainital in the morning by overnight bus from Delhi. Naini Lake boating, Naina Devi Temple, Mall Road, Tibetan Market shopping Day 2: Snow-View Point, Eco Cave Garden, Sadiatal Cascade, GB Pant Zoo Day 3: China Peak Trek, and return to Delhi Trip in Detail: I took the UT Govt bus(I took the Volvo one. There are other budget options as well) from ISBT in Delhi. I reached Haldwani by this bus at 5AM in the morning. From Haldwani, Nainital is 40Kms, and there are frequent buses every ten minutes. I took a local bus and reached Nainital at around 6.30-7AM. There are p...