12.2016 Kandy, Sri Lanka
Kandy - the heart of Sri Lanka's cultural triangle.
We arrived in Kandy around mid-day after our gorgeous train ride from Ella, and began with the typical firsts orders of business: getting train tickets to Colombo, and checking into our Airbnb which was perched on a hill with a wonderful view of Kandy city.
Ad was our Tripadvisor specialist, and decided that Cafe Empire was the place for lunch. Although we arrived around 3pm, we got the last two seats in the restaurant and feasted on a salad (!), burger, delicious fries, and a milkshake.
Kandy town is centered around Kandy Lake and the Temple of the Tooth, both of which were just a few minutes walking from Cafe Empire.
Buddha's tooth is shown only twice a day, early in the morning and in the evening at 6:00pm. We'd heard that there are massive crowds during this time, and that the tooth, displayed in a box, is barely visible. Being of my stature, I probably didn't stand a good chance of seeing it.
So instead, we walked around after lunch, and Ad was forced to buy a skirt because men had to cover their knees. The temple and the temple are beautiful, even at an off-peak time, it was already quite busy. We walked through beautiful paintings of Buddha's journey, and through the World Buddhism museum which had exhibitions from all over the world.
After that, we went to the Red Cross Theatre for a traditional Kandyan dance. There were about 10 dances which depicted stories unique to Kandy, and culminating with fire breathing and walking.
Because we had a late lunch, we weren't too hungry so went for drinks up on the hill. But then, Ad ended up wanted to eat dinner, so we went for South Indian food, very cheap and very delicious South Indian food.
Our original plan was to the take bus to Dambulla and Sigiriya, but our fatigue and laziness got the better of us, so we decided to hire a car and driver instead. This allowed us more flexibility and efficiency.
We left around 7am and reached Sigiriga around 9:30am. The fortress was an amazing sight, but already at that time in the morning, there was a long, long line up to get to the top. I think it took us about 1h.
Sigiriya used to be the capital of Kandy, and the King built his palace on top of this fortress, giving him the ability to see for miles and miles surrounding.
At the foot of the palace (almost to the top!), are the feet of the Lion Rock. We have to be honest in saying that we didn't really know what to expect of the palace, so when we got there, we were amazed to see the vast ruins of what was once a proper palace.
After more time than anticipated at Sigiriya, we stopped for a buffet lunch at Sakura. It was a 90% vegetarian lunch featuring all local fare, and it was amazing. We tasted some items that we had not yet tried like banana flower curry.
Our next stop was the Cave Temples in Dambulla. We first went up to see the large seated Buddha. Ad, again, put on his favourite skirt.
We knew and thought there was more to Dambulla than just seeing the large Buddha, so even though we were exhausted, we still decided to climb the unknown period of time to the Cave Temples.
The theme for the Cave Temples was the same as Sigiriya Rock - we didn't really know what to expect but heard it was nice. We walked many, many stairs, passing by many, many monkeys until we finally arrived at the outside of the caves.
It didn't seem like much from the outside, but each cave really was its own temple, carved from rock. And inside each cave, we found countless Buddhas, carved according to the height of the caves. Definitely glad that we found them!
I found a pamphlet in the car about an Ayurvedic Village that looked pretty interesting. Our driver was kind enough to stop there, telling us the tour would take 10-15min.
The place we went to is government-run, has acres of land which is used to grow and produce natural medicines. Our Ayurvedic doctor showed us plant by plant, explained the natural uses of the plant, and also gave us samples. Most notably were the natural cocoa drink, Ad's hair removal cream, and my on-the-stop facial.
Of course, at the end, we were taken to a shop and because the tour was free and we had just spent an hour, we felt like we had to and also wanted to buy something. Prices were fairly expensive, but we decided on coconut oil and the hair removal cream. We apologized profusely to the driver, and about 5min after we left, Ad was having doubts that there was something else he wanted. So, we went all the way back, and had some delicious tea while waiting.
It took forever to get back to Kandy as traffic was horrible. We had very limited cash at this point so we ate at Cafe Divine - fries, burgers, and a shawarma for me.
Our last day in Kandy was Christmas Day. Our original Christmas plan was to stay at a resort spa outside of Kandy, but we figured that it was much further than planned and we had a train to catch from Kandy back to Colombo.
We had breakfast on Bernard's rooftop with a beautiful view of Kandy. And because that our special Christmas plan was no longer in play, I felt strongly that I wanted to do something special for Christmas. After too much debate, we decided that we would write Christmas cards for one another. We had delicious coffee and waffles and started a possible Christmas tradition.
By the time we finished, we were more than ready to have lunch. This was a bit of a mess. We tried one place that was closed, another place that was just horrible service, and finally ended up at an Indian restaurant where we had a 3pm lunch. We ate a lot =)
So much so that we decided to walk around a mall afterwards where we found a cool men's shop and Ad got some clothes. We then went on a long mission to find a special batik man to get ourselves a souvenir. He was a nice, humble guy who talked us through the entire batik process. We spent an hour or so chatting with him, looking at his work, and finally decided on a beautiful Sri Lankan elephant piece.
We were too full for dinner, so instead went to Ozo for Christmas drinks with a beautiful view of Kandy Lake.
Kandy, all in all, was wonderful =)
