Nuwara Eliya is one of the most beautiful hill stations in Sri Lanka. The climate is pleasant through out the year. Cold weather and mist bestows a special ambience to Nuwara Eliya.
Nuwara Eliya means 'city of lights' or 'city on plain'.
While going from Kandi to Nuwara Eliya, we could visit Shri Bhakt Hanuman Temple, Rambodha.
In Wevanden Hills at 3200 ft above sea level, this is the Hanuman Temple set up by Chinmay Mission, Sri Lanka.
This temple is near to the main road with a mountainous steep motorable road. There are a few steps to climb. When we had visited in 2013, there was not lift facility available here.
This area is said to be the area where Sri Hanuman was searching for Seetaji. This beautiful temple has huge idol of Sri Hanuman. The idol is more than 15 ft. tall.
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| Shri Bhakt Hanuman Temple, Rambodha. 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Shri Bhakt Hanuman Temple, Rambodha. 📷Wikimedia Commons |
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| Shri Bhakt Hanuman Temple, Rambodha. 📷Wikimedia Commons |
Being on the mountain, this place offers a beautiful view of surrounding hills and rivers. The place is serene and one really feels peaceful after coming here.
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| View from Bhakt Hanuman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Temple Premises 📷 Sneha Tilak |
You can visit the nearby Ramboda falls. It is one of the beautiful waterfalls of Sri Lanka falling from a height of 358 ft. This waterfall is surrounded by thick forest.
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| Ramboda waterfall 📷 Sneha Tilak |
Few kilometers away from the waterfall and temple was Nuwara Eliya.
There are beautiful hotels in Nuwara Eliya. Though I don't remember name of our hotel, it was a private two story bungalow with dine in facility. The road to hotel was really tricky. As our driver was used to that terrain, he could take our vehicle till the entrance of the hotel. Otherwise it was a very narrow hilly path.
Front door of our hotel was on first floor. If we just walk around the garden, the road was so steep that we were able to enter the other door on second floor!
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| View From hotel 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| View From hotel 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Nuwara Eliya 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Nuwara Eliya Post Office 📷 Sneha Tilak |
This remarkably beautiful brick building is an old post office building built in 19th century. It's photograph was used on a stamp issued on world postal day.
With many tea estates and tea gardens and the pleasant climate, Nuwara Eliya was always a sought after vacation destination for the British Officers. It is called Mini England.
We could see the Mackwoods Labookellie tea factory. It was founded in 1841 and is the most famous and largest tea factory in Nuwara Eliya. Here you can see the process of tea making. There is a small museum and shop. You can enjoy tea and cakes in the restaurant or outdoor sitting. They say that this factory provides tea to royal family in London.
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| Mackwoods LabookellieTea Factory 📷 Sneha Tilak |
The tea factory is surrounded by tea plantations.
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| Tea Plantations 📷 Sneha Tilak |
There is a Gayatri Temple near Nuwara Eliya. The main deity is Gayatri but there are 108 shivlingas in the temple. They told us that Meghanada, Ravana's son used to worship Shiv in this place.
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| Gayatri Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
We could see the real Parijata flower in the premises of the temple. Luckily it was blooming season. The tree is huge and the priest told us that the flower stays fresh on the tree for nearly a month.
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| Parijata Flower 📷 Sneha Tilak |
Nuwara Eliya is surely one of the most beautiful places in Sri Lanka. The hills clad with greenery, many lakes and water falls make the place more beautiful.
There are many places around Nuwara Eliya which tell us the story of many incidents from Ramayana.
There is a Seetha amman temple known as Seetha Eliya.
When Ravana had kidnapped Seetaji, he had kept her in captivation in this place and this is the place where Sri Hanuman could find Seetaji.
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| Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Sri Hanuman Footprints Seetha Amman Temple 📷 Sneha Tilak |
In the stream at the backside of temple, you can see footprints of Sri Hanuman!
The place where Seetaji was kept was known as Ashok Watika. Now there is Hakgala botanical garden in the place of Ashok Watika.
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| Hakgala botanical garden 📷 Wikimedia Commons |
Some say that Sigiriya was Ravana's palace. It seems that he had palaces at many places. There was an intricate network of tunnels and caves, in Sri Lanka in his times. It enabled him to move from one place to other with speed.
We could see one such residence of Ravana.
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| Ravan Ella Cave 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Ravan Ella Cave 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| View From Ravan Ella Cave 📷 Sneha Tilak |
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| Road to Ravan Ella Cave 📷 Sneha Tilak |
The Road to Ravan Ella Caves is hilly and in thick jungle. Senior citizens may find it difficult to climb.
Nearby the Ravana Ella caves, Ravana falls can be seen. In Nuwara Eliya, there are many waterfalls! Each of them has multiple names!
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| Ravan Falls 📷 Sneha Tilak |
We could see one more important spot related to Ramayana. It is the place where Seeta took oath and entered into agni, the agnipariksha.
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| Agneepariksha 📷 Sneha Tilak |
The tree is said to be a branch of original Bodhgaya bodhi tree. There is a Buddha temple near the tree and a primary school behind it.
Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. The climate is warm and humid. The people are friendly.
Though the public transport system is good, I would suggest to hire a private vehicle to save time. We had hired a Colombo - Colombo vehicle. The vehicle was with us through out out our travel in Sri Lanka. Having a local person with you is surely helpful.
For vegetarian or vegan food, in 2013 we had to search a lot. I hope the situation is better by now.
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