Blogs from Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 8

Dancers, Flowers and the Temple of the Tooth in Kandyland: Most tourist spots have their short list of go-to suggestions, and the Traditional Dance performance in Kandy is one. It's on every night at 5 pm, and the Buddhist religious service at the Temple of the Tooth Relic is on at 6pm, almost next door, so lots of people opt to do both in quick succession. After the dancing, we chose to walk around Kandy Lake instead, which started off ok, but night fell very quickly after 6pm and by the time we got to the far side of the lake we found that the sidewalk was under construction and peak hour traffic was careening along the lake front, so it wasn't the serene walk we'd anticipated but a bleak struggle to survive without falling into ... read more

The Spice of Politics and the Politics of Spices: This time we were off to Kandy, the city whose name has always brought images of striped peppermint canes to me, but only because I was never taught the history of Sri Lanka and how Kandy was the home of kings for centuries. As it turned out, our stay would coincide with another Poya day, the monthly Buddhist holiday of the full-moon, which is a public holiday for Sri Lankans. As it turned out, we arrived on the last day of campaigning for the provincial elections in three northern provinces. (Provincial elections are not held country-wide, but are done in groups of provinces across a calendar year.) The city was jammed with buses and people and it was electric with anticipation because it was said that the ... read more

This morning, we packed our things to move on to Kandy. Whilst Dani was packing she came across something she wasn't so happy about. A load of ants, underneath and surrounding her backpack. She went crazy. Hayley and I both tried helping. She had left something wet lingering, which of course they attract. Ok, so I laughed my ass off at her going spare. But then when picking up my small rucksack, I had exactly the same problem, however I had crushed biscuits in my side net pockets which they seemed to be enjoying. Hayley helped me brush them off and still there were more. We made our way to the train station, where we bought our ticket and had some local food in a small café. A new cultural experience today, eating chicken rice and ... read more

Today we went to Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka. First thing this morning we went to The Temple of The Tooth, considered to be one of the most important Buddhist temples and is home to the tooth relic. The relic is kept in a room which is only opened 3 times daily for puja - a ceremony where the relic is paraded around the temple accompanied by traditional drumming. once the golden covered relic is in place in the temple the Buddhists then move to the temple to make offerings of flowers to Lord Buddha. The buzz in the temple was amazing, the atmosphere was something else. Everyone around us seemed so excited and in awe of this ancient tradition. Throughout history it has been said whoever is in possession of the relic ... read more

Three weeks - no chocolate, no coffee & no wine (well one glass doesn't really count, right?). Instead we have had Sri Lankan cuisine which, like the weather is pretty hot! From noodle dishes to fresh sea food, to curries that make your eyes water, we've had a feast! We've tried Sri Lankan Kottu Rotti which is chopped up pancake mixed with vegetables and a curry sauce (it tastes a lot nicer than it sounds!). Less successfully we tried the tradition curd dessert, which as the name suggests is in fact just curdled milk, served with treacle (presumably to mask the taste of the curd). We tried and failed to taste 'hoppers' - yeah, we dont know what they are either. In most places we found cheap bakeries which had vast selections of delicious pastries, although ... read more