Kandy Culture

Heading out from the slightly disappointing Nuwara Eliya (when people say charming, we expect charming!!), we boarded the train bound for Kandy (also a beautiful train ride exactly along the lines of the one from Ella). Kandy has its own highlights and affords easy access to others.

Our one full day in Kandy was pretty packed. We hired a tuktuk and driver for the day, and headed down out of the quiet hills above the city in which our guesthouse was located.

Our first stop was the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens. It was a real hit for us.

Botanic Garden entrance -- as usual, different fees for different folks

No plastic or styrofoam allowed in the Garden -- other places should get behind this!

 We got to see some amazing bamboo forests, incredible Javan fig tree, a long walkway lined with huge palms, walk over a suspension footbridge (jiggly), learned about cannonball trees (their fruit, which does indeed look like cannon balls, turns light blue when exposed to air), watched hundreds of  fruit bats fly around and marveled at the random assortment of trees that have been planted by visiting and local dignitaries over the last fifty or so years. These fans of arboreal sartorial included Queen Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a Russian cosmonaut and as near as we can tell one of the last Russian czars. My favorite part by far was the spice garden, actually a rather motley looking collection of spice bushes and trees. We saw (and sniffed) cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, jackfruit and vanilla.

Javan Fig Tree -- very amazing, monkeys also enjoy

Cannonball tree

Cannonball tree fruit turns blue when exposed to air

Palm lined walkway

Say "Cannonball tree!"

A wobbly suspension bridge within the garden

Cloves

Nutmeg flower

Where your cardamom comes from

Next we had a couple of dud experiences. We had lunch at the Soya Centre, which processes soybeans in-house to make all manner of tofu and soy related products, including spicy soy pockets and ice cream. The short eats were fine, however, dessert was not an option so no one left the Soya Centre happy if you know what I mea. Next we drove through traffic to reach a scenic overlook, which was fine, but nothing to blog home about. After that, we headed to the Temple of the Tooth.

View of Kandy Lake

The Temple of the Tooth houses the most important religious relic in Sri Lanka, Buddha's tooth, recovered from Siddhartha's funeral pyre. You may think that this seems a little far fetched, but the unbroken provenance of the relic traces right back to the pyre, and Sri Lankans have been building reliquaries for the tooth at Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and other capital cities for literally thousands of years. The current Temple of the Tooth is in Kandy and at trip to Sri Lanka without a visit is like a trip to Rome without going to the Sistine Chapel (which, btw...).

But man did we do everything wrong. First we went to the wrong entrance for the temple complex, then, at the correct entrance, we were told that Otis and I were not appropriately dressed (shorts! I don't know how no one warned us!). So we wandered into town hoping to find someone to sell us pants. Turns out, not a lot of pants stores, but plenty of folks will sell you a sarong. 1,000 rupees later (about $6.75) and Otis and I had matching elephant themed sarongs, expertly tied by a friendly shopkeeper.

So! Hurdle overcome! We got past the guard/modesty evaluator and walked a couple hundred meters to the entry kiosk. Cash only. So a couple hundred meters back to the gate, a couple hundred more to a nearby bank - sorry, no foreign transactions! So a few hundred meters more to another bank, take out a wad of colorful money, and back to the temple, finally ready to see what all the fuss was about.

At the temple, not too cranky to have our photo taken!

Two thirds of us believe that the hurdles were worth it to spend time in this special and interesting place. (One of us spent most of the time asking when we were leaving.) The temple itself is a very active pilgrimage site and like many attractions in the country, has separate tourist and non-tourist entrances. Shoes off (a common custom everywhere in Sri Lanka, not only at temples), hats off, no bare shoulders or thighs.

The tooth itself is encased in a sacred box within a shrine. People make offerings, mainly of flowers (scenting the air) and coin. School groups are common including a large group of giggly girls who came along with their dog. The temple complex also houses some museums on Buddhism which give one a better understanding of the history of the tooth relic as well as displaying many other statues of Buddha. The intricate artwork within the temple is beautiful and breathtaking (to some).

First sight on entering interior of temple grounds

In the shrine in front of the tooth; Otis is in corner petting the school dog

Offerings

Intricate, gorgeous art

After spending not enough time (some of us) and way too much time (others of us) in the temple complex, we met up with our tuktuk driver, who had purchased tickets for our next stop: a Kandyan Cultural Show, featuring a folkloric dance performance. We had overestimated everyone's energy level and some of us were beginning to flag (and were not into dance performance) so there was some behind the scenes on that. The performance itself was fun albeit a complete tourist trap. I wasn't clear about the true need for fire eating and coal walking at the end but I liked the dancing!

Dance performance 

Because Chris was feeling like he needed a break from curry yet we didn't have an alternative in mind, we decided to head to Pizza Hut (we'd seen it on our sarong search). Unfortunately we were caught in a ton of traffic as we made our way back around the lake, it would have been much faster and better for us to walk. We tumbled out of our tuktuk ready for some imported American pizza culture. The entire meal was uneventful and everyone was hungry and happy to let the familiar-ish food and random American music.

We headed back to our guesthouse tired but having (mostly) enjoyed a very full day. We would be on the move the next day for our final few touring days in Sri Lanka.