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Published: January 30th 2017
On the road to Kandy
We think he had just eaten a stray dogOwing to rubbish WiFi only just able to blog again. So the last few days involved travelling to Kandy in the rain via a spice plantation, where the guide gave me a hard stare when talking about the merits of red pineapple for weight loss.
Then an unexpected stop at Aluvihara Rock Cave temple where we once more paddled in the rain, climbed a million slippery wet steps and got drenched. This place was slightly different though in addition to all the Buddha's were also lots of graphic paintings of demons doing an assortment of horrendous things to the people who end up in hell.
Not only that but there was also a cave full of nearly life size models demonstrating the various torture methods and punishments meted out by the King of the time. No prizes for guessing what the woman who was tied upside down legs apart and being sawn down the middle had done.....it was all a bit too graphic and gruesome.
We climbed up the side of the rock and gazed out at the murky mist obscuring the view and then went back down again and I wondered why we had bothered.
Just
before he went off for lunch the custodian of the Buddhist Library let us in for a look. He showed me the palm leaf strips used for writing on while Howard vanished quickly. He also showed me the replicas of the books of Buddha's teachings, the originals having been destroyed by the bloody British! Now I felt bad. He was actually a really interesting man and made sure I saw the framed newspaper article of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit when he was saved by a worker from a nasty fall back in the 50s. It was in pride of place surprisingly.
As it was our last day with Sajith he put on a CD of his favourite songs for us to enjoy while we drove and was delighted when we sang along to some of them. What a mixture from 50s onwards but all with the theme of love!! It made a nice change at first but by the third time of hearing I was ready to rip the CD player out and throw it out the window. It wasnt helped by the fact that as we approched Kandy the traffic got heavier and heavier.
We spent
ages in traffic jams going through Kandy and then missed the turnoff we wanted, which meant even longer in queues and doubling back. It was yet another Buddha on top of the hills we were supposed to be visiting and I was all for giving it a miss but Howard got stubborn so we went.
The views were pretty good looking over the town, lake and hills but would have been better without the rain. I point blank refused to climb any higher than the first platform by the giant Buddha it was so wet and dodgy and by now I had seen enough of cloudy views and Buddha statues!
We did however go to the train station and manage to get tickets for the train back to Colombo, 3rd class as everything else was sold out.
That done we crawled along in traffic jams until we finally reached our hotel at the far end of the lake and up a hill. It was quite sad to say goodbye to Sajith and he invited us again to come and stay at his house and wants to keep in touch, but our plans are all in place.
We stayed at the Vino Villa, a nice enough place with a very helpful manager. The room was a bit of a let down as despite paying double the price of the guesthouses we had been staying in it wasn't any better and in some respects worse. Oh well the bed was comfy, even though the cook was away so they couldn't provide meals and the WiFi didn't work on our floor.
The next morning it was sunny!!!! Yes a brilliant blue sky, everything looked greener and the lake sparkled. It made us realise what a truly beautiful country Sri Lanka is.
Walking round the lake to town was lovely, there were loads of fish and turtles in the water and loads of courting couples on the benches!
We took a slight detour to visit the small British Garrison Cemetry which was in a lovely setting surrounded by tree and jungle. It contains the graves of men, women and children from the 1800s.
The cemetry is funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and looked after by an elderly local man and his nephew.
His nephew showed us round and had stories to tell about
Aluvihare Rock Cave Temple
More demons doing their thing how the various people died including a fat man who was trampled by a wild elephant as he couldn't run fast enough.
Back in the little hut by the cemetry he very proudly spoke about Prince Charles visit and how he shook his hand and he never wanted to wash it again. He was telling us about the money Charles had donated when he was shouted down by this obnoxious fat sweaty relic from the Raj. He was sat at a table going through the books and counting money.
It was totally unnecessary and extremely embarrassing for us all, I couldn't believe it, the poor lad backed off immediately and went from being bouncy and chatty to silent and downtrodden. I made a point of going over to him in front of this disgrace of a man and shook his hand and thanked him for a great tour and then signed the visitor book saying the same. Bastard, I bet he would have soon burnt the Buddha's books if he's been here then!!!
Fuming we left and walked to the Temple of the Tooth. We only saw it from the outside as we have seen so many
and didn't want to fork out another £15 each to go in...it's worse than York Minster!
By the time we had a bit of a look at the town Howard was flagging so we caught a tuk tuk back and then it started raining.
Our last day was more of the same, Sun, walk round the lake, a close call with a scammer and then a look at the shopping mall. We decided to try and find the proper market and we're walking down the rough road when I managed to go over on my ankle - it was Yosemite all over again. Excruciatingly painful, feeling sick and ready to pass out. No!!!
The rest of the day, after hobbling up 3 flights of stairs was spent on the bed, foot propped up on a suitcase and ankle covered in Tiger Balm.
So today my ankle is luckily not too bad which is just as well as we had a 2 1/2 hour train journey in very cramped conditions but we have had to cancel our final days sightseeing in Colombo/Galle as I can't manage that much walking and I'd rather make sure I can get
on the plane instead.
Oh yes and it's raining!
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