Nuwara Eliya to Kandy and the Ancient Cities

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So we arrive by taxi and not public bus as we once again wus out as we were offered a pretty cheap deal to our next destination - Kandy.
A little while ago you may have read we were in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, and while we were there we met a great kiwi couple called Leigh and Gail from Auckland. As it turns out one of their good friends lives in Kandy - and also lives in a large house and had some spare room for a couple of wondering souls and very kindly offered us a roof over our heads while we were in Kandy - Danny you’re a star.
So after we’re dropped off at the pub it’s not long until we meet our new host and then it’s a quick drink and then a short tuk tuk ride to La Palace Danny. Wow - neither of us have been a home for a while and I have to say it’s nice to be in a house and not a dodgy hotel. Danny was also kind enough to organise a driver to take us to the elephant sanctuaries that were nearby.
However before that we made a visit to the “Temple of the Tooth”, where there is apparently a tooth from none other than Buddha himself. The temple itself is pretty nice, located on the banks of the lake in the middle of city - my only advise however would be not to wear shorts as you are asked to wear a what can only be described as a “skirt” - I’m not sure David Beckham himself would of pulled the look off as well as myself of course… and no, we never saw the “tooth” as it was again covered up - I’m beginning to think Sri Lanka doesn’t have any relics but they don’t do a bad job of pretending.
So now it was time for the elephant sanctuary’s and after we had the usual pigeon English talk with our driver we headed towards the Pinnewala elephant sanctuary which is probably the most famous and the one in lonely planet and of course therefore the most busiest this side of Clapham. The sanctuary is pretty large with a lot of elephants ranging from babies (aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh how cute) to big boys (oooooohhh my god)… So we hang around and watch the babies get fed including one wee fella with an ear missing - poor chap but I like to think with the one big ear he’ll be okay…
We then stand back as the herd are guided through the gates, across the street, past the shops (their not big shoppers) and down to the river for their daily bath. Now I personally don’t like an audience when I have a bath but I don’t think they minded the few hundred people who came to watch and enjoy the spectacle of a herd of elephants having a swim in the river with a full mudpack. Now some time ago Suzanne had seen a programme on television where someone was riding on the back of an elephant and getting the elephant to give the rider a shower but unfortunately this wasn’t an option, which was a shame.
So we left the Pinnewala sanctuary and headed back to Danny’s, however once again while we were in the Andaman Islands we met a Scottish girl who not only told me the Celtic score and subsequently who won the Scottish Premier League but as she previously volunteered at the Millennium Elephant sanctuary, she recommended a visit and to pop in and say hello. So with that advice how could we say no and are we glad we did. The people were so friendly and helpful, without the usual in your face can we have some money attitude so it was with great pleasure we were then shown around to the herd (after actually handing money over of course). The millennium sanctuary only had about half a dozen elephants that were on show but to Suzanne’s delight she was able to have her very own elephant shower and fulfil a dream. I have to say the look on Suzanne’s face was absolutely priceless as she was soaked again and again from Bob the elephant, and of course I cant remember the elephants name but I’m sure if you ask Suzanne I’m sure she will know as she so kindly sponsored the old boy for a year to make sure he’s looked after and has everything he needs - what an angel.
So after a wonderful day we headed back all be it a wee bit wet but if anyone is going to Kandy and wants to go to Elephant sanctuary then the Millennium is the one to go to - a great place doing a great job…
While in Kandy we also did a two day trip to visit the ancient cities at Polonnaruwa ruins and Sigiriya and this time we did take the bus - honest we did.
We arrived at Polonnaruwa and quickly booked into a hotel and hired some very girly bikes to tear around the ancient cities and headed off with great anticipation and excitement. To say I was a wee bit disappointed is probably an understatement. A certain phrase springs to mind from a very good friend JT when we visited the Alamo in Austin, Texas, if I remember correctly it went a long the lines of “this place is a dump, it’s no wonder they’re called ruins, it’s ruined, they should tear it down and build something decent”, well as extreme as that may sound (he did have a very bad hangover), I would have to say that apart from the monkeys that live there that most people wouldn’t notice the change. Another thing that was pretty annoying was not only did my bike have no gears, although the bell was good fun, but after reading the lonely planet we were expecting to see a large Buddha carved into a cliff - talk about perspective, the statue was only a few meters high and deeply disappointing. So as we had seen all the ruins in about half an hour we decided to check out the hotel without actually staying there, which of course the hotel loved and headed off towards Sigiriya - hopefully things can only get better.
So after an early rise we head towards the big rock to climb to see the ruins - for those that don’t know, the ruins here at the top of a pretty darn big rock. Luckily it was worth the climb and the views from the top were pretty spectacular.
You may notice that there are no photographs of either ruins but I would like to point out that is due to my camera having a focus error - to be precise Error E61 and if this should ever happen on your Sony DSC-T1 then you can either send it too Sony for about 200 pounds to repair or drop it on any hard surface from about 4 feet until it works again which for me was about 20 times but once again it now works fine - its amazing what you can find out on the internet…
During the rest of our time in Kandy we went to see traditional Kandy dances which involved lots of head shaking, drums and of course masks and finished off with fire walking which was all very cool. During our stay Danny was such a good host, especially to a couple of people he’d never met before, we went to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city and with our own personal tuk tuk driver who was Danny’s neighbour and waited for us whenever we went anywhere - and he also used his contacts to get us a cheap deal for a night at a posh hotel for our final night in Colombo before we headed to Dubai so come on Colombo…

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