One of the important halts of the Colombo - Kandy one day trip is the Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens . This amazing garden/park is about an hours drive from Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage and about 6 Kms before the main town of Kandy.
The Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens
The garden is an example of the phenomenal wealth, diversity and beauty of the tropics and the botanical wonders that exist in the Tropics. The garden has an interesting history dating back to 1371 when it was conceived as The Queens Pleasure Garden. It was however only in 1821 that the foundations were laid to make it into a botanical garden.
A riot of colors in the Garden
Even if you are not into nature, you will love the riot of colors of the various types of plants in the garden. There is an abundance of glossy foliage, lovely fernery and orchid houses with rare blossoms and spice trees in groves. The botanical garden is large and covers an area of 147 acres. Keep aside at least 2 hours to walk around and enjoy the beauty of this place - nature lovers could easily spend a whole day here.
You need to buy a ticket to enter the gardens. Like other places in Sri Lanka, if you are from the SAARC countries, you only pay Rs 200 ( $2), from other countries, it is 4 times more. As you enter the garden, is a signboard with a numbered map to make it easy for one to navigate through the garden. These numbers are strategically placed around the garden. There are 4000 labelled species of plants with over 10,000 trees.
An exotic Orchid
To the right, as you enter the garden is the Orchid house which houses a host of exotic orchids. I have never seen so many orchids under one roof. You could easily spend an hour here just admiring these beautiful flowers.
Another exotic Orchid
One of the majestic trees in the garden
Thank you Pravine for this wonderful information. It really looks like paradise!
ReplyDeleteVery nice blog and artcle. I will add it to my blogroll. Good luck.
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