In our armchair travels we’ve been traveling about Sri Lanka. Now we have arrived in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. In history it was a port on ancient east-west trade routes and has been ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. It is a city with a mixture of colonial buildings, high-rises and shopping malls.

Golf lovers will especially like the Royal Colombo Golf Club, right in the heart of the city. However even if you don’t play golf you will enjoy it here since it is a tranquil place where you can watch others tee off and relax in the natural surroundings. The scenic landscape has some rare species of flora and fauna. At one time this was a 96 acre farm. It was founded more than 130 years ago and is the second oldest Royal Golf Club located outside of the U.K. In the club…

Sit back and relax as we continue to tour round the nations in the Indian Ocean in our armchair travels. From The Maldives we head for Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) an island nation south of India in the Indian Ocean. Here you can find rainforests, plains, highlands and sandy beaches.

The first city we’re visiting is Kandy, a large city in central Sri Lanka. The city sits on a plateau surrounded by mountains and has tea plantations and biodiverse rainforest. The heart of the city is scenic Kandy Lake.

The Ceylon Tea Museum makes its home in the vintage 1925 Hantane Tea Factory just 4 km south of Kandy. Here you can see exhibits on tea pioneers James Taylor and Thomas Lipton and lots of tea-processing paraphernalia. There are guides that can offer more information and you can have a cup of great tea in the top-floor tearoom.

Just north…