Hi there readers. What have you thought about Sri Lanka so far? Has it been living up to your expectations, or did you think it would be a different experience? Is there anything in particular you hope to see in the days to come? While I am not at all certain that I will be able to deliver a trip that goes along with any preconceived notions you may have had, I do promise to give a faithful retelling of what I saw, thought and felt along the way.
Keeping that in mind, our 7:30 AM breakfast was uninspiring, and I couldn’t be bothered to take any pictures. However, I appreciated that Laurianne shared some of her nice pour over Colombian coffee packets which she had brought along and then prepared for us herself. The departure from the homestay, for which Laurianne and I at least were happy to leave, was at 8:30 AM. Eric, our driver, told us that it would be 20 minutes for us to get to our first stop. His timing was a bit off, but at 9:05 AM we were at another temple with a lot of stairs, with a cost of 2000 LKR ($6.84 USD) for us to be able to go up. The stairs themselves were not that terrible, and by 9:17 PM we were already at the place where you probably already guessed, we would once more have to take off our shoes. However, unlike where we had been yesterday, there was a whole system for keeping the shoes safe while one entered the religious site.
At 9:23 AM we were in the first hall of Buddhas. While this site was mostly Buddhist, there was also some mixing, since some Hindu gods were also displayed.
There were a few different rooms. In some of them the statues were carved directly out of the rock, but in others there were carved statues, some even of wood which had been brought in from outside. On a separate note, when I asked, our driver/guide said that special allowances were made for actual worshippers who were in wheelchairs etc . . . so that they would have access to the temple. The last cave, which was also the furthest from the entry was the newest one. It had actually been made by the local village chief, so that his people from the area would also have access to the worship site.
Okay, so here are some other tidbits. The place where we were visiting was called the Dambulla cave temple. Like every other historic religious site around here, basically everything has some symbolic meaning which I of course did not understand. The first reclining Buddha seen when one enters from the stairs is from about 2000 years ago, with each area afterwards being a bit newer. Then right about as the drum started at 9:57 AM to indicate that we had to start leaving, I learned my favorite fun fact for the day. The dome shape of the Buddhist stupas is based on the shape of the Bo tree leaf, and how it looks when it is folded in half. These, trees, under which it is said that the Buddha meditated, are considered holy throughout all of Sri Lanka.
Incidentally, it is possible to hire an official temple guide for 750 LKR ($2.57 USD), which I most certainly would have done had I been on my own. When we went to get our shoes, we paid a 100 LKR ($0.34 USD) shoe care fee. My feet were very gritty at 10:05 AM when I was cleaning them before putting on my shoes and socks to walk back down, but the wet wipes in my shoulder bag helped get them clean. Then we headed back down the stairs where we arrived at the car park at 10:15 AM and then entered the van. Up until now, the day had been very overcast, but it had not been raining.
Our next step along the way was at a 10:53 AM; it was an herb and spice garden and of course shop. We had a bit of a tour, learning some facts and all sorts of supposed healing properties of different herbs and spices. While I did not believe much of what the guide said, I thought he did a very good job of making the whole experience quite interesting.
Some fun facts learned were the following. One of the reasons that Vanilla is so expensive is that most of it is artificially pollinated. The self-defense spray Mace is an extract from Nutmeg. There are more than 500 types of Aloe Vera. There are two types of Sandalwood, I think one is red, and the other is yellow. Turmeric is frequently used for preserving food, similar to salt, and Clover powder used to be commonly used to clean teeth. Once we were up to the hut area, he made the most of his marketing spiel to explain how these different mixed creams and oils can cure/fix everything one can imagine, and as part of the sales pitch smeared creams and oils on Dorothee and Laurianne, but I politely declined all of that. I did however enjoy smelling some of the essences.
I had no intention of buying any of the stuff in the shop, but I had been entertained by the guide, so when he left us at the shop at 12:06 PM, Laurianne and I each gave him a 1000 ($3.42 USD) LKR tip. Dorothee and Laurianne then did a bit of shopping in the store, with us then once again in the van at 12:20 PM.
The road to Kandy had a lot of twists and turns, and I was starting to get a bit nauseous, so when Dorothee expressed interest in getting out and looking around a bit at the Kandy War Cemetary from WWII at 2:01 PM, I was good with getting out to at least not be in the vehicle for a few minutes. I was very impressed with how well the cemetery was maintained. It was also interesting, because I had never really thought about Sri Lanka having been involved in the second world war.
However, our visit was brief before we were back in the vehicle and then we stopped at Oak Ray Regency Hotel at 2:26 PM to get a buffet lunch. The setting of the restaurant was beautiful, but the food was average at best.
The cost of the buffet for the three of us was again 10500 LKR ($35.81 USD) and we were once more on our way 3:00 PM, arriving to a parking spot in the center of Kandy at 3:24 PM. We had just one hour to explore a bit before meeting Erik for the next item on the agenda.
When we met back up with Erik at 4:30 PM, he told us that Kandy has approximately 35,000 lakes, and 99% of them are manmade, including the main one we had seen there in Kandy. At 4:43 PM we were at the folkloric dance place, where we had to pay 2000 LKR ($6.82 USD) each.
As we were leaving the dance hall at 6:09 PM I had to admit that I really had been very entertained. Of course, I have no idea if they were really “dancing correctly” or if they were doing anything “authentic”, but there is no doubt that they were trying their best, and for the most part there was never a dull moment. Finally, the whole fire walking etc . . . stuff at the end was a bit over the top, but what a way to end the show!
We had to rush from the dance place to the nearby Buddha tooth temple where we arrived at 6:15 PM and each paid 2000 LKR ($6.82 USD) to enter. Of course, this was another no shoes place. We went all over the place in there, and at times I was a bit anxious with the press of people. Special thanks to Laurianne, as she could tell that I was freaking out a bit about it and took some extra pains to calm me down and also prevent too many people from constantly pushing me from all sides. The first thing that struck me as I entered was that these people were definitely not shy about displaying elephant tusks, at least not in a religious setting. There was some sort of a religious ceremony going on related to the tooth of the Buddha relic which supposedly is located here.
At 6:58 PM we were outside for a few moments. And I was glad of that. We saw the preserved body of Raja the Tusker and then I stayed outside while Dorothee and Laurianne lit some oil lanterns in a glass enclosed space. Honestly, I was just happy to have a break from so many people and so much noise from the inside of the temple.
The temple was all very impressive, and I might even be interested in going back to see it again, but not when there are so many people. At 7:13 PM we were out and getting our shoes. With my “baby feet” all of that walking around barefoot, especially outside, had also been a bit tough. At 7:22 PM we were back in the vehicle and going very high up the mountain to Mount Blue Kandy, where we would be spending just one night. We arrived at 7:38 PM. No doubt the view would have been impressive, but it was very overcast with the recurrent rain. We had dinner at and then more or less went straight to bed. The room was nice as was the food, but arriving so late, we didn’t really get to appreciate it much.
We finished our food at 9:45 PM and went straight to bed. And once again, WOW! That had been a very packed day! We saw and did so many things, that it wasn’t until I was looking back over my notes and pictures that I realized just how much had been fit into a single day of travel. Do you think it was too much for a single day, or is that the way you like to travel? What part was your favorite? Was there anything that you think you would have skipped? Anyway, as always, thanks for reading along and let me know your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.
Travels with Jay 