Thursday, February 6, 2014

Kandy, August 2011

My first few days in Sri Lanka were spent in Kandy.  Kandy is the ancient capital of Sri Lanka and home to the Temple of the Tooth.  It is believed that a tooth relic from the buddha is held inside the temple in this ancient town.

I arrived by train after my "ordeal" at Ragama Station which led to one of the most fascinating train journeys of my life.  When I got off the train (because I am an idiot and didn't follow the instructions of my guest house to ring them on arrival) I naively got in a tuktuk and asked to be taken to the Beebopbeedoobi guest house.  The driver took me round and round Kandy and then tried to tell me that the place I had booked did not exist.  He also tried to tell me that I should stay at the hotel of a mate of his.  Kick backs… I knew it and I should have realised sooner.  So I called the Beebopbeedobi, expensively, on my Kiwi cellphone, and they gave him the directions.  We were only 30 seconds away at the time.  Grr.  Bless Chris and his wife, honestly!

The hosts at the Beebopbeedobi were fantastic and the view amazing.  Chris and his wife, Priyadarshini were just so kind and helpful.  Their daughter also happened to be there from the UK and we got along so well, even spending half a day together at a local tea plantation where her ability to speak the language came in handy as a couple of women picking tea complimented me on my awesome maxi-dress.  They all helped me so much, negotiating the tuktuks for me, educating me about the Esala Perahera, the first night of which happened to be while I was staying there, feeding me amazing Sri Lankan food (for a small extra fee).  They even allowed me to pay for a few nights of my sister's honeymoon (my sister was to follow me about 10 days later) in advance.

Kandy is such a beautiful place.  It has a lake, mountains, ancient temple, ancient festival, kind people and, like the rest of Sri Lanka, military everywhere.  The military presence could have been a result of the festival that was on while I was there though.

I arrived, unwittingly, but luckily, in time for the first of several days of the elephant procession that is the Esala Perahera.  There were elephants everywhere from all over Sri Lanka.  I enjoyed it.  I love elephants but I what struck me was that maybe these beautiful creatures were being treated unfairly.  Most were kept in chains on the side of the street.  It broke my heart and filled me with joy all at the same time, especially the baby ones.  Perhaps there was some culture shock for me in this nation famed for its wildlife.

On the night of the Esala Perahera I ventured into town from my guest house at the top of the hill.  I searched for a good spot and eventually, having made friends for the evening with a random dutch girl, also travelling alone, found a place to sit with a good view and a chair.  The crowds were immense and paying for a seat was a necessity if one wanted to see anything.  Apparently, I drive a hard bargain because we somehow managed to get two seats for the original price the vendor was going to charge us for one.  Once again I became so grateful for the kindness of strangers.  The Sri Lankan family beside us explained what was happening.  Elephants dressed in lights "dancing" as they paraded through the streets for a couple of hours.  It was truly spectacular, especially after I realised that I was watching a buddhist elephant procession with tooth relic involved walk right in front of a catholic church which we were seated opposite.  The beautiful dichotomy of religions that is Sri Lanka hit home at that point and it was the perfect top off to my stay in Kandy and utterly amazing.

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