Kandy, Sri Lanka

Kandy
We headed straight for Kandy after arriving in Colombo. The guesthouse I'd booked arranged transport for us, so I should have known right away the the guesthouse was going to be crappy. The seats of the van were full of cigarette holes and there was no air conditioning. The only place to put our feet was a hot piece of metal, also full of holes, which provided a nice view of the road. But, we made it safely to Kandy Cottage, where we were greeted by monkeys and not much else. Eventually someone came out and showed us to our room where there were tons of ants and no running water. By this point I'd kind of had it, so, we took a rickshaw to a hotel I'd seen online, but dismissed because of the price tag. Fortunately, we were some of the only people there, so I was able to bargain. We got a great room with a view, goldfish in the windowsill, clean sheets and a comfy bed, plus limitless amounts of running water for almost half the asking price.





After a great dinner, we had a good night's rest and were ready to see the sights of Kandy the next day. The hotel provided us with a tricked out rickshaw and a driver.



Sri Lanka is the birthplace of Buddhism, so along the streets there are all sorts of little shrines. Also, even though it's close in proximity to India, Sri Lanka is worlds away in many respects. The streets are clean and the air quality is good too. I have to think this is mostly due to population. There are just over 20 million people in Sri Lanka, which, I guess is a lot for an island, but not much considering the almost 10 million people crammed into the city of Chennai.






Vertical Gardens
We didn't know what the vertical gardens were, but the driver took us there first, so we just went on in. Turns out, it was a great, big botanical center, where we were impressed by many things, two in paticular: orchids and giant bats.

Orchids are so pretty.





So, after the orchids we wandered around a little aimlessly until we saw a big group of people crossing a wide lawn. There was nothing else to do but follow them...right into a trap! In the trees across the lawn were hundreds of the biggest bats I've ever seen. AAAHH!! It was horrifying. Little did we know then that one of them would follow us all the way to the beach.






After that frightening experience, we went to find some serenity at the Temple of the Tooth, home of Buddha's tooth. Here's a brief, edited history on the tooth of the Buddha from Wikipedia:

According to Sri Lankan legends, when the Buddha died, his body was cremated in a sandalwood pyre at Kusinara in India and his left canine tooth was retrieved from the funeral pyre. A belief grew that whoever possessed the Sacred Tooth Relic had a divine right to rule that land. Wars were fought to take possession of the relic. Later the tooth was brought to Sri Lanka. The Sacred Tooth Relic came to be regarded as a symbolic representation of the living Buddha and it is on this basis that there grew up a series of offerings, rituals, and ceremonies.

Since The Temple of the Tooth is a holy place we had to cover up. I brought along a little hoodie, so I was OK, but Brad had to buy a skirt to cover his legs. He was worried that he looked dorky, but I seriously thought he looked awesome. And that's why I took his picture with this seriously awesome commemorative plaque at the entrance to the temple. I'm not trying to make a joke of it, I just love the wording..."Lion-hearted child hero..."




Things got even better from there. There was a good audio tour of the temple, so we both got to see and learn a lot. I'm pretty sure this was my first time in a Buddhist temple, unless my parents took me to one on a family vacation and I don't remember because I was too little or too busy fighting with my brother. Anyway, no fighting in this place, just lots of meditating and chanting and then of course, if you're a tourist, photographing and gawking.












Turns out, there's not much to do in Kandy. We didn't mind since we had a great pool, lots of books and DVDs and delicious food right in the hotel, so we did some serious relaxing before our big trip up Adam's Peak.