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Published: March 8th 2018
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We said goodbye to Dambulla and set off for Kandy the second largest city in Sri Lanka and the cultural capital. The lush scenery is lovely and we passed amazing Rain Trees that are hundreds of years old. I’ve never heard of them before and I loved them. We also saw Kapok Trees with their cottonwool flowers drifting through the air making a white carpet on the ground.
On the way we stopped at some spice gardens where a sweet guy showed us all the different spices and how they grow. He told us how they could be used in cookery and medicine, all quite fascinating. He gave us a head massage with one of the creams they sell. Their shop was filled with so many tempting things and we all came out with brown paper bags full of goodies. The spice gardens also had a restaurant where we had another delicious lunch. I wish I knew the names of all the wonderful curries we have had, I’ll never remember them.
Upul told us that there had been some trouble in Kandy between some muslims and a Buddhist tuk tuk driver and the Buddhist guy had been murdered and the Muslims
had set fire to some houses and temples so there was a curfew in Kandy from 6.0 pm till 6.0 am. All sounds a bit worrying.
When we hit the road again we began to climb higher into the hill country up narrow winding roads with blind corners - tuk tuks, lorries, buses, mini vans, cars all overtaking where I wouldn’t dream of overtaking. It seems so dangerous like so many roads in Asia but you have no choice but to just go with it and trust.
We arrived in Kandy and took photos from the hill top overlooking the lake. We could see The Temple of The Sacred Tooth across the lake and we will go there tomorrow. We also called into another wood factory so Trish could look at some chest of draws.
Upul had booked us in to see a Sri Lankan dance show and we arrived at the theatre early so we could park right out side. I bought a water color painting of Sigiriya Rock from an artist displaying his work inside the small wooden theatre. Upul had booked us seat in the middle of the front row and we sat eating popcorn and chatting
to some Australian people while we waited for the show to start. I wasn’t looking forward to the show much because I thought it might be like one I’d seen some years before in Kerrala in India which had been very weird and boreing and lengthy. However this show got better and better as it went on and I really enjoyed it. There were plate spinning dances and very fast people spinning dances, lots of drumming and some singing but the finale was breathtakingly scary. On the floor, right in front of our seats, they came with a long trough of coals and poured kerosine over it and set it on fire. Then two of the dancers started running flaming torches over their bodies and walking up and down on the hot coals. Then they seemed to drink the kerosine and blew fire out of their mouths. Just terrifying. We had kerosine splashed over our clothes and we wondered what health and safety in England would have to say about the fire eaters being so close to the audience and in the wooden building too! It was worth seeing though.
We then set off for our hotel noticing a lot
of police about.
The Cinnamon Citadel Hotel is very nice and now I have my own room for five nights. All very comfortable very good food and every comfort catered for. We had dinner on the terrace overlooking the pool and went to bed happy.
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