There is so much to see in Sri Lanka….If only I could attach the photos…that will have to happen when we are back in LA after Aug 16……….At least we have internet and electricity and tonight hot water, but the photos we will add later.
A few highlights:
COLUMBO: At the Famous Galle Face Hotel we saw part of a Wednesday afternoon wedding out on the lawn. It was beautiful after the bride and groom shared cake, he fed some to his in-laws!!
We also stopped at the Gangaramaya Temple and there was a resident elephant! There really are elephants around every corner here!
GALLE: At Day 5 of the India vs. Sri Lanka test match, we saw Maruli get his 800th test wicket. It was his last day of his 18 year career; we were there as was the president (of Sri Lanka). We also had our 15 seconds of fame: we were interviewed by National Television. I said, “it is great to be here and see the Koby Bryant of Cricket on his last day!”
UNAWATUNA BEACH: This beautiful beach was a great spot to hang out with several of our travel friends. We were with Olivier, Delphine and Mahout in five areas of Sri Lanka. It was sad to say good-bye hopefully we will see them in France or another travel spot!
TANGALLA: My favorite beach of the trip, recommended by Sam and JP who were also met up with in five spots–JP and I both had leech bites on our Ella Rock hike and we all saw sharks on our Pigeon Island snorkel! We did two days of Kayak safari and saw monitor lizards, monkeys and lots of birds! Cant wait to share the PHOTOS!
UDAWALAWE NATIONAL PARK: By far my favorite of the three we went to! We hung out for nearly an hour with a herd of 15 elephants. Only one member of the herd mock charged and we got to watch the babies! We also saw a crocodile eat a fish!
SRI PADA (ADAM’S PEAK): Our journey to Sri Pada was ten hours on five buses! What a pilgrimage and that did not include the change in elevation or the nearly five thousand steps up the next day! OH MY! It is gorgeous there during the day (most people climb at 2am to be there for sunrise) and we saw lakes, waterfalls, Dagobas, monks and more! Again the photos will come!!
I can hardly believe our time in Sri Lanka ends TOMORROW!!!!!!!!! We fly tomorrow Aug 3 to the Maldives. We hope to post our photos and George’s new single written and recorded with Brett in Arugun Bay: THE TUK TUK BLUES as soon as we can.
Hope all your adventures are good ones. Lisa and George
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Lisa Ellen Niver
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
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