Steven and I had spent a large chunk of the morning at Kandy's Ceylon Tea Museum before ordering a Uber tuk tuk to take us the thirty-minute ride down the mountain to the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens. I was amused when the driver asked whether we had Uber in the US but could understand where he was coming from as, decades ago, I remember being surprised when I noticed there were KMarts also in the US as I thought they were only located in my native Canada!
We passed quite a few shrines along the very windy road - no doubt because of the number of accidents that had occurred along the narrow road. Even though we'd only been in Sri Lanka a few days by then, we'd already grown very accustomed to the crazy driving habits of tuk tuk drivers especially, who loved to pass on the straightaway or on curves. Oh, and they thought two-lane roads didn't exist ever, figuring there was always room for an additional two lanes for tuk tuks!
Ther driver pointed out the second-largest hospital in Sri Lanka and proudly said there was free health care in his country. I told him regretfully our country didn't have it. We must have passed 50 or so murals by the hospital imploring people not to take drugs, abuse alcohol, etc
The Peradeniya Botanic Gardens had once been reserved for Kandyan royalty exclusively but luckily commoners like us were now permitted to enter the stunning gardens that were the largest in the country!
Near the entrance, we were greeted by enormous Jak trees.
In our many travels through the Southern Hemisphere, we have been lucky enough to view lots of palm trees but I think these were the first Toddy palms. Very common in the dry coastal areas of Sri Lanka, all parts of the tree are used. According to an old Tamil song, the Toddy palm has 801 uses in South India!
I read that the sweet, scented flowers of the Spinish cherry tree (but known as Spinach Cherry tree on google IF it's the same) are distilled for the perfume industry. The oil obtained from the seeds was used in lighting and cooking, and the flowers, fruit and bark are used in indigenous medicine.
The gardens had a huge collection of agave plants
Behind the agaves were the first ebony trees I remember seeing.
Wild banana trees were another first even though we'd come across banana palms in the Amazon years ago.
I had to crane my neck to take this photo of the Australian palms.
Since first seeing bamboo groves somewhere, I'd always been drawn to them. You can imagine my delight, therefore, when we saw what we soon realized was the biggest bamboo grove we'd ever seen! Never had we had the opportunity to walk among bamboo trees before.
I think this, too, may well have been the first student garden we'd seen in any botanic gardens.
It was only when we kept seeing bamboo grove after bamboo grove of 40 meter-high Burma bamboo trees that we realized how extensive the collection was and why it ranked as the biggest we'd ever seen.
Look at the enormous size of the cycad tree's trunk!
Another intriguing feature of the Peradeniya gardens was its collection of lawn cover, i.e. grasses! Are we the only ones to have ever seen that before?
The water garden didn't appear terribly interesting initially until we entered and noticed about 30 different individual water gardens set around the perimeter. What a brilliant way to introduce visitors to the world of water gardens, I thought!
If you want to see any of the photos in greater detail, just click on the photo.
You can see walking through the Herbal Garden was akin to making your way through a maze!
The Sealing Wax Palm had bright red bark near the tip.
The rock garden was also very attractive.
I am pretty sure these slanting trees were Cook's Pine trees. I just hoped there wouldn't be a strong wind as we walked under them!
On the Great Lawn was the giant Javan fig tree that was a perfect spot for a picnic and a chance to escape from the heat.
The Bronze Shower Tree did really 'shower' the ground underneath with scads of tiny orange rings.
I have always been drawn to trees with amazing root systems like these that spread out so far into the lawn. They looked like snakes!
One of the many canoodling couples we passed in the gardens!
These were the first monkeys we saw in the gardens even though we'd been wandering already for well over an hour in the 60-hectare gardens.
I'd loved to have known what this beautiful flowering tree was but there was no sign I saw that identified it.
Naturally, it wasn't until after we'd walked along this suspension bridge that we saw a sign that limited the maximum number of people walking on it to just six and that any shaking or rocking could be dangerous. Clearly, nobody on the bridge had come from the opposite direction and also seen or read it as there were many more than six on it and lots of shaking by others! I am not normally afraid of bridges like these but this one did unnerve me!
The stately Royal Palm Avenue took our breath away.
What a perfect tree for tree climbers, don't you think?!
I could have sworn I took a photo of the Yellow Saraca tree planted by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin but somehow I goofed - drat it, as it was neat thinking the first man to walk in space had been at these same gardens.
The huge Central Lawn with the Royal Palms in the background:
Double Coconut Avenue:
As we left the garden, we saw huge groups of school children coming to enjoy their country's lovely gardens. I figured there had to be a very strict dress code that even included hairstyles because every single girl had long hair pulled back into two braids. Shudder to think about how American parents might react if they were told their daughters must be similarly attired.
These Sealing Wax palms were blooming.
We ended our visit to the gardens at the small but still alluring Orchid House.
Next post: A marvelous few hours discovering 14th century temples in the countryside outside of Kandy via tuk tuk. No wonder that Kandy had been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site!
I am also finishing up at long last writing posts from our really fun six-week trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom last fall. Here's the link to my most recent post about our visit to Vindolanda Roman Fort and then hiking along Hadrian's Wall in the far north of England:
Posted on April 16th, 2020, on a very snowy day in Denver - how I wish we were still on our planned trip to Asia and the Middle East as we would have been lounging on a beach in idyllic Palawan, Philippines today yet I know we are lucky we decided to come home when we did from India. Please stay safe and connected to those you love.
I can't believe we've been home a month already and spending part of every day working on over 50+ flight and hotel refunds and travel vouchers. We really are so fortunate to be healthy and getting a steady income during this terrible time.
ReplyDeleteThank you darling for taking all your time to write these wonderful posts.
Your loving husband.