SRI LANKA Part 2: Kandy

The train to Kandy was beautiful. We left the city and made our way through farm land and dense jungle and then wrapped our way around mountains.  The whole time a group of musicians sat in the next car, their drums and singing making their way into our our car made the whole thing the perfect experience. We snacked on samosas and oranges we picked up at a stand at the station. 

Local boys going swimming

Heading through jungle 

We arrived in Kandy just following sunset. We booked our tickets for that friday to head to the town of Ella, all they had left was third class, which was a little worrisome, because we had heard rumours that this could lead to standing room only, and on a 6 hour train ride that didn't seem like fun. Our taxi driver who took us to our hotel offered tomorrow to take us around Kandy and show us all the sites. We were a little hesitant, but in the end laziness won over and we called back our taxi driver that night to book a tour for tomorrow. He picked us up at 9am, he drove us down the road and then we quickly shuffled out of his van into a newer rad car, turns out the original driver was fully booked for the day, but his cousin David would be taking us around for the day.

Our first stop was a view point in the mountains

Next up we stopped at a banana stand on the side of the road, so we could buy the elephants banana's to feed them, we sampled a variety of different types, including red bananas which were significantly more expensive and sweeter than the other varieties. When we got to the elephant place, it was not the elephant orphanage like he had lead us to believe. Instead it was a place where you could ride elephants and watch them perform various tricks. Having already learned about how awful these things are to elephants last year in Thailand, I decided to pass on the elephant experience.

Our next stop was a spice garden, where the owner of the small garden took us through explaining all the different plants and what they can be used for. He frequently used Hylin as his example as he rubbed in various creams and oils into her arm to prevent a variety of illnesses and skin conditions.  

Our next stop was the tea plantation, but as we went to leave the spice garden, our car refused to start.  A group of men attempted to push it down the road a bit to give it a start. It didn't work. The engine light was fully lit on the dashboard and the men all stood around looking confused doing nothing. I grabbed the manual from the glove box, and made my way through the group of men staring at the exposed engine. The men seemed to shocked as I started to run down the list of trouble shooting when your car won't start. I bent over the engine checking fluid levels, connections and occasionally shouting out to David, "Ok, try and start it now." By the end of all the tests, I had determined based on the manual that it was the fuel pump that wasn't working. Which was something that nothing could be done for on the side of the road. 

So we waited...

And then a little bit down the road we found a lunch spot. The place back onto rice fields, giving a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape. The served traditional Sri Lankan food, geared towards tourist. They promised the wide variety of curries, chicken and vegetable dishes were not spicy. They lied. My mouth was on fire, my eyes watering, nose dripping. In response I mostly ate rice, which was still kinda spicy. 

Then we got a Tuk-Tuk! Our saving grace, he took us to the tea factory, where they showed us how tea is processed and what makes up the different varieties. Did you know that Orange Pekoe is called that because when it's good quality tea, and steeped the correct amount of time, the tea will appear orange in colour. Which means my parents steep their tea for far too long. Sri Lanka was the 3rd largest tea producer in the world, most of it goes to China, Russia and England. Many of the factories still use the same technology that was introduced by the British in the the 1800s when Sri Lanka (or Ceylon as it was called back then) was first converted to be a major tea producer by the English. The only shot I actually took during our tour was of the old wood burning stove that heated and dried the leaves. 

By the time we finished with the tea factory and were able to get a car to get us back to Kandy we were out of time to go visit the botanical garden, which I was looking forward to. But we did make it back in time to see the Kandian Dancers. The fast paced dancing with elaborate costumes and loud drum beats filled the small auditorium. 

 

That night we went to a pub with a rooftop patio, where we saw the sun go down over the man made lake. Large fruit bats circled above us. And to top it all off, I convinced them to put bacon on my burger! The next day we were leaving for the Knuckles to go hiking. So we called it an early night and made sure all of our stuff was packed up for our departure the next day.