Kandy, Tea and Animals

We left "Trinco" (aka the ex war zone) and headed on a long and arduous journey to Kandy. In Australian terms, the distance wasn't far but when you have to dodge potholes and other traffic then it takes a fair bit longer.

On the way to Kandy we stopped off at an Ayurvedic spice garden. I was just expecting a show of all the various spice plants but we ended up getting a run down on all the medicinal properties of different spices as well. Needless to say we walked away with a few natural wonders after trying some out ourselves.

Kandy was the last Sri Lankan Kingdom and the last strong hold before the British conquered them in 1815. It is in the hills and we stayed at a hotel high on the hill side with amazing views. It looked like a buddhist monastery on the hillside as we approached. The following view was just outside our room.

That night we both got sessions at the hotel Spa. I thought the full body massage was the way to go. They call it a Sri Lankan herbal oil massage but in reality it was a Sri Lankan male rubbing oil on you for an hour. Luckily I left with my masculinity intact although a little bruised.

We only spent the day in Kandy but it was filled up. In the morning we went in search of a hotel Krishni's grandfather used to own which now belongs to the local university. We managed to find it and were given a little tour through. It was a little run down now but we could see it had a lot of potential back in its heyday.

After our little family history tour we spent a bit of time at the botanic gardens which used to be the royal family's pleasure gardens. They really were quite spectacular. Here I am getting into the Buddhist mood and mediating under my own "bodhi" tree.

We saw more sights until the evening when some Kandyan dancers put on a show. It was fairly entertaining and they definitely dressed the part.

We then ended the day with the temple of the tooth relic. It is supposed to contain a tooth from Buddha which a monk grabbed from the fire after Buddha was cremated. It has travelled back and forth from Sri Lanka and India for centuries as wars were waged but now sits in a 7 chamber bell in a Temple in Kandy. All Sri Lankan Buddhists are supposed to make a pilgrimage here once in their lifetimes. We did a quick walk by but you can, if you line up, have a closer view at the bell.

Outside, Krishni and I iit a candle for Buddha's wisdom. We aren't Buddhists but you could say we are part of his fan club.

We moved on from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. This is where the British set up all the tree plantations and was once home to the famous brand Lipton's. It is high in the hills at 6000ft asl so has a dramatically different climate to the rest of Sri Lanka. We stayed at a renovated tea factory and looking out the windows in all the mist you could easily imagine you were in England somewhere. It also had a little eerie spooky feel to it.

Inside it was very modern with a lot of the old machinery still scattered around.

They had a tea bar where you could taste a bunch of different teas. I am not much of a tea drinker but we did have a 5 spice tea which was really, really nice.

We only spent another day there. Krishni was sick and spent most of the time inside recovering but I managed get out and did a fair bit of walking around the plantation and the nearby village. The tea pickers are like little ants that work in teams moving from one patch to another.

They were all very friendly and said hello and 'photo' as I walked by. You have to give it to the women for doing most of the work in the field.

After recovering at the tea factory we moved from the high country back to the low country and the national park of Yala. This is the main Safari capital where there is the densest population of leopards in the world. Well that is what they say since we didn't actually see any. We stayed at a hotel just outside the main entrance but was still very much in the roaming grounds. This is a (wild?) boar that kept on doing circles around the hotel grounds.

We weren't supposed to walk around at night so had to be escorted to and from our rooms for dinner. The unique thing about Yala is that it is right on the Indian Ocean so the following beach was a mere 20m from our room. I made it down but Krishni wasn't game to walk through the 10m of scrub between the rooms and the beach. It was worth it though. I saw some elephant dung on the beach as well so they were definitely very much around.

In the afternoon we did a Safari. It is not the same as the African Safari but still pretty cool. We saw a lot of Buffalos and Peacocks. I would say it probably has the highest population of peacocks in the world as well as they were everywhere but don't quote me on the that. This is one showing us (or the hiding females) his stuff.

We were on our way back with no elephant or leopard sightings when we suddenly ran into a big WILD bull elephant on the road. It had a real close look at the car ahead of us.

He then started heading our way. Gently strolling along.

He literally brushed past the truck. It was definitely a nice up and close encounter.

A definite highlight and worth coming all this way for!