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Published: January 7th 2015
Today we decided to take the offer from Chandrika to hire him to drive us to Kandy in centre of islandand to an Elephant sanctuary. We left at 7 am on very busy single carriageway roads on which 2 lanes of traffic in each direction competed to overtake on every bend. Driving here is not for the faint hearted! Tuk tuks crowd the streets eveywhere ( scooters with a double seat behind the driver and a roof of sorts). They are used as taxis and delivety though few are insured. I discovered cars really can 'breath-in' as some of the gaps our car went through should not have been possible! But we survived and we only saw one accident and the truck had come off worse than the driver. It took 2 hours to Kandy through pineapple groves, coconut palms and verdant forests.The road was high and windy and reminded me if the stretch from Malvern up to Britidh camp -but with 4 lanes of traffic.
We called at a Batik centre, Tea processing factory, gem and jewenllery agent and Herbal medicine school and gardens where I had a neck and back massage...all actually toilet stops but the highlight was seeing the elephants. I rode Bandanake a 35 years old male retired from logging. Brian couldn't get his legs over his back which is a bit strange when you consider our sizes. We also watched as they were bathed in the river and have lots of photos. Then we went on to Kandy which was absolutely heaving. The Buddhist 'Temple of the Tooth' is there ...just after I had been vetted in the women's only entrance to check suitability of dress we began the walk towards the temple and the Monsoon rain poured down and we were soaked to the skin so we never got indide.
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Paul & Deb
non-member comment
Good Timing
Hi Both, good to hear you are enjoying your trip,seem to be seeing some different and interesting places. You got out of Cyprus on time as the weather has been pretty poor since you left. Lots of terential rain, cold and windy, not the warm rain of Kandy. Temp dropped today so snow in hills and mountains and cold northern winds. Drains blocked this morning and immersion heater burnt out as well last night. Spent a cold day with rods in drains and sitting on roof changing heater element and switch, absolutly freezing now. Piling on logs now to get fire going. Not very Cyprus weather, still gets us used to trip to Bulgaria next month. Rod & Carrie back now from cruise but Rod now in bed, ill after picking up some bug. Look forward to hearing from you soon, Enjoy your trip. Love P & D