Beijing, China

On our first day in Beijing we visited the Summer Palace. It was constructed during the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) and continually then extended. It was a luxurious garden resort for the royal families, last used by Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 19th century.
We visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu the next day. This section was built in the sixth century, and some restoration occured in 1368. The views and the wall were stunning. We caught a ropeway up onto it, then walked along on the reconstructed section as far as we could go. We then went a little further on an original section until we reached the unrestored tower (pictured). We descended from the wall by toboggan!
The Forbidden City was next on the agenda, it was the first day of Golden Week holidays so it was extremely crowded. We passed through Tiannamen Square first & saw statues and silk hangings of Chairman Mao. The Forbidden City was huge, some buildings were kept as they were with original furnishings, others were used as museums to display artifacts.
That night we ate at the night market down the road from our hostel, we had fresh (made right in front of us) noodles & beer.

Pinnewala & Colombo, Sri Lanka

We left Kandy in the early morning & got a bus headed to Kegalle. From there we got another bus to the Pinnewala elephant orphanage. As we got off the bus we saw all the elephants crossing the road going down to the river. One of the smaller elephants tried to enter a shop, but was intercepted by the shopowner who succeeded in turning her away. We bought our tickets and followed them down to the river. We watched them bathing and playing for a while, then went up to the orphanage to watch them returning.
From Pinnewala we headed back to Kegalle and caught a bus to Colombo. Along the way we saw roadworks Sri Lankan style: guys in jandals using jackhammers & workers waterblasting rocks loose 50 metres up a cliff.
The next day in Colombo we caught up with Kristy & Darryl again at the TransAsia hotel. We went swimming in the pool with the NZ A cricket team & Sir Richard Hadlee. We had a delicious buffet meal and a beer in the foyer before catching a ride to the airport with Kristy & Darryl.

Kandy, Sri Lanka

Travelled to Kandy. We spent a day at the Peredeniya botanical gardens and saw a bat up close and thousands in the trees all around. Wild monkeys were running around and playing in the trees. We got quite close to them. Manda was holding a couple of bananas in a plastic bag (that we had got earlier for our lunch) but one of the monkeys thought that they should have them rather than us. It pursued her until she managed to get them out for them as quickly as possible. The gardens were huge, we particularly liked the sausage tree, giant fig and double coconut palms. We visited the Temple of the tooth the next day where the tooth of Buddha is said to be kept (you only see the outside of a room, and inside there is supposed to be a series of chests within each other with the tooth inside the smallest one). We also went to a Kandyan dance show one evening and saw fire-walking and various dances.

Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Travelled to Nuwara Eliya (3 buses) and caught up with Kristy & Darryl at the Grand Hotel where they were staying. Had a couple of relaxing days, tried poo-fruit (durian), tried a few different beers, and went to Victoria Park.

Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka

Woke up at 1:30am, had a light snack and set off. Our guest house was only a few minutes away from the beginning of the track. The two dogs from the Green House began the walk with us, and we assumed they would come for a short walk before heading home. The first hour or so was fairly easy, and the weather was iffy, but holding off. We wasted 30 minutes by going the way, which could have been the right way also, except we decided it didn't join up, and went all the way back again.
Manda was attacked by the first leech, and without realising knocked it off her leg (the bastard had gone THROUGH my trousers!), so it left a lovely little hole in her leg which bled the entire journey. After a little freak-out, we continued on our way. The rain set in after a while, and leech checks continued every 15min or so (ended up with two leeches each). Our dogs were still enjoying leading us up the mountain, until one starting growling and there was a small scuffle in the dark just behind us. Luckily it turned out to be Katsu (a Japanese guy we had met earlier at the Green House) and his guide dog. Katsu had no torch, and only had a jacket because the Green House had provided one, so he was freaking out, and more than happy to join us. We carried on our way, the steps became steeper, and the rain heavier. We finally made it to the top, 5200 steps later, and joined a group that had come up in the evening, and a few more small groups of people who had arrived just before or after us. We were given a cup of hot sweet tea in a hut of a man who lives up there, and chatted to the others until the sun came up... supposedly! Unfortunately as the weather was still bad, we could see nothing of the promised views. We rang the bell for good luck, had a snack & fed our dogs (found out every person or group had 1 or 2 come with them), then headed down with Katsu. Going down was hard on the knees, but was a lot quicker. We arrived back at the Green House to be greeted with a delicious Sri Lankan breakfast.

Haputale, Sri Lanka

Took several long painful (no leg room or sitting on top of the engine) bus trips to arrive at Haputale, which is nestled in the hills. We checked out Dambatenne tea factory which was previously Lipton. Had a tour and saw the processes used to produce tea, and had a taste test at the end. We also went for walks and enjoyed the town. We tried wood-apple (yuck-Manda) and butterfruit (actually avocado).
Haputale is a lovely place with a nice small-town feel about it.
We left by train to travel to Hatton and on towards Adam's Peak. It was a 3hr standing train trip, but we were kept entertained by a group of guys on a work trip. They played drums and sang, also getting us to try their arrack (a strong alcohol distilled from toddy which is tapped from coconut palms) and dried fish cubes. They convinced Darren he had to sing a song, but Manda begged off with a fictitious sore throat. Caught a bus to Muskelliya & then another to Adam's Peak. Arrived at the Green House, had a lovely dinner and then went to bed early in preparation for our hike up Adam's Peak.