Kandy, Kandy, Kandy, I can’t let you go…

I need to be upfront here, Jarrod. This post contains more outrageously adorable photos of elephants, which is either a promise or a warning depending on your point of view. After my time in the Ancient Cities (see blogs on Sigiriya and Dambulla), it’s time to head inland to the hill country. (Cue banjo music). First stop: Kandy!

The bus ride from Dambulla to Kandy is a direct trip (yes!) and costs roughly the equivalent cost of $2 AUD. I kick back and listen to an audiobook, smugly dreaming up my next Facebook post–a nonchalant selfie at a teeming bus station with #practicallyalocal, perhaps? And then…. I’m spat out at the bus station and literally surrounded, nay, SWARMED by tuk tuk drivers.

Unfortunately I’ve made the rookie error of failing to ask the accomodation in advance what the cost of a tuk tuk from the bus station should be. It’s pouring rain, I’m completely drenched and I have drivers telling me the guesthouse is “very far, very far” and quoting me four to five times the cost of the bus I’ve just taken which I (correctly) suspect is exorbitant. I barter the fare down from the original quote of 1200 to 500 rupees at which point I just sheer run out of fight. Turns out when I arrive at the guesthouse it should have been 200 max. Ahhh, you got me! *shakes fist half-heartedly before being distracted by welcoming pot of tea and home made biscuits.

I’m staying at Kandyan White Holiday homes. Contrary to tuk tuk driver rumour, it’s not in fact “very far” from the town centre, it’s all of a ten minute walk downhill. The host is a lovely man named Ratna and if you’re staying there you should most definitely take him up on the option of dinner there. Unless of course you have something against smiling deliriously and stroking your foodbaby belly in a contented fashion that has other guests averting their eyes uncomfortably.

So aside from eating, what is there to DO when you’re in Kandy, you ask? WELL. I start my first day with a day trip to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. The orphanage is one of Sri Lanka’s most popular attractions. It was initially established in 1975 to provide a safe housing for orphaned and unweaned elephants found in the wild. They launched a captive breeding program in 1982 and it’s presently home around 80 elephants.  Ratna arranges a tuk tuk to get me there, and we head off early to be there for the morning bathing session which kicks off at 10am.

I love watching the bathing, truly, I stay for almost the full two hours and take close to three hundred photos… but I must admit I leave Pinnewala with conflicted feelings about the place. And if I had to choose between observing elephants on a safari, like I did in Minneriya and coming here, I think I’d opt for the safari to be honest. Having said that, though…

They are….

pretty….

damn….

irresistible….

Very playful….

And there’s an obvious bond between them…

Tuk tuk back to the town centre through some very pretty scenery–

and I’m deposited as per request on the edge of the man made Kandy Lake. According to Lonely Planet “a leisurely stroll around it is a pleasant way to spend a few hours.” I’m sure on a sunny day with blue skies this is probably the case, but on the day I’m there it’s very overcast and grey, so my ‘stroll’ is basically a frustrating exercise in trying to get a photo that looks remotely pretty.

Maybe if I whack a boat in the foreground to add interest? Nope.

Eventually I decide to just lean into the slightly gothic shadowfest…

Suddenly I hear a slight lapping in the water beside me and half expect to see a dead body bobbing to the surface. Instead I spot, I don’t know, a SMALL DINOSAUR swimming towards the waters edge–

And any notions of a ‘leisurely stroll’ are abandoned in favour of a feverish, panicked power walk, that eventually brings me (da da daaaaaa) to The Temple Of The Sacred Tooth Relic!

The Temple is home to Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic–a tooth of the Buddah. Now tbh, I always find it exceedingly creepy and weird when mothers have those little pewter vessels where they store their baby’s first tooth, lock of hair or first nail clippings. Ick. Ick. ICK. What on earth do you need to keep that stuff for? Cloning? I’ve seen Orphan Black, ladies, along that path lies madness and destruction. So that when the police eventually storm your house with a warrant for DNA samples because–completely expected plot twist–your offspring has become a serial killer you can hand it over, and in Royal Selangor, if you don’t mind?!

But this is the tooth of the Buddha, not some little random named Jaysun. So it warrants a temple and a bit of respect! Sri Lankan Buddhists generally try to make a pilgrimage to the temple at least once in their lifetime.

I arrive just in time for puja (offerings time) and purchase myself a little lotus offering from one of the many stalls outside.

I’ve read blogs where people skip going into the temple b/c of the ticket price… and I can’t help but feel they’re really missing out. It’s absolutely beautiful. I add my offering to the thousands on the table and spend a few minutes in quiet reflection. Tempting as it is to take dozens of photos inside the temple, there’s something really special about being here during puja, so I put my camera away after a cursory couple of shots and decide to be really present.

I think you’ll agree that’s a lot to squeeze into Kandy Day One so I take Day Two at a more leisurely pace. Breakfast and then a wander down to the town centre. First stop: The Olde Empire Cafe. It’s been at least 30 minutes since breakfast and that calls for more tea and a slice of passion fruit tart.

It’s exquisite and I walk away thinking ‘I could die happy right now.’  Fittingly, my next stop is the Kandy Garrison Cemetery.

The cemetery was established for British Colonials in 1817. Transporting the deceased home to England wasn’t really an option when the only transport available was shipping that would take over four months. According to the free handout most of the souls buried here died ‘in the flower of their youth’ with only a ‘bare handful reaching the proverbial three score year and ten.’  The cemetery closed in the mid 1870s.

It’s a melancholy little oasis away from the bustle and noise of the main streets nearby.

From the cemetery I wander back to the main streets, past some very pretty colonial style buildings

and stroll a short way uphill to reach the Natha Devale, one of the numerous Devales in Kandy…

I have a few hours of daylight left, so I decide to duck into a tuk tuk and head out of town to visit my first tea plantation! Alas I’m there on a day where there’s no production occurring, but they are able to show me one step of the process, in the form of some tea leaves in the Withering Room. The tea leaves are brought in here and sit atop hot vents, losing up to 60% of their weight in moisture.

I almost wouldn’t have believed a room could be so dehydrating, but then I caught my reflection in a window. Brutal.

(kidding of course, avid readers of the blog–aka Mum and Dad–will recognise this photo as a South America flashback!)

After a complimentary cuppa, I’m led out to the plantations to explore.

I absolutely loved my two days in Kandy and can’t wait to share more of the hill country with you, but right now as always, I’ll throw it over to you, Jarrod! Kandy, Kandy, Kandy–would you go?