2/4/22
Got the train another four hours or so to Kandy from Nuwara Eliya. It was a much less eventful train ride than my previous one! I just stared out the window at the views, and listened to my own music! When I arrived in Kandy, I tried to look for a cafe to book a hostel from, but the cafe I went to was closed. I sat on a step and booked a hostel before haggling for a tuktuk to get there! I rocked up at Kandy Backpackers shortly after, checked in and then went out in search for lunch. I had witch’s fingers (okra?!), fried with garlic and rice. Then I took a nap back at the hostel before going out to see a traditional dance performance. I went with a Dutch girl, Raiza and an annoying Aussie guy!!
It was quite the performance! It was in a beautiful, traditional wooden theatre and there were maybe ten different short dances over the hour, including some aerobics, great costumes and even some fire play! At the end, they rounded up the audience and got them to sit at the front of the stage. Then they got a massive tray and placed it on the floor. They lit it and walked over the flames with barefeet. Afterwards, they lit fire batons and blew them far, with the sparks and oil from them landing on me and the Aussie guy who had been foolish enough/too keen to sit RIGHT at the front!! Aussie man headed home and Raiza and I headed to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth.
We queued up to go in, and they took our passport numbers for some reason. After that they rejected my outfit of long trousers and thick denim jacket, because my trousers were too tight!! I was very frustrated as I had worn all things long specifically so the temple people would be happy. They sent me away and after some debate, I bought another wrap!! We headed back and this time they let us through. Next they wanted us to pay to leave our shoes at a box office. Then it was quite a fee to see the ceremony in the main temple. In the end, we decided we would not see the main ceremony, we would just walk around the smaller sites and could abandon our shoes whenever we needed to! It was a pretty place! A man followed us around awhile and told us a couple of things in broken English. Then he tried to charge us for being a guide. I was not impressed, but Raiza gave him some money so he left! After the temple, we walked back to our hostel past the lake. It was very pretty, partially because there was a powecut so there were only car lights reflecting on the water!
On returning to the hostel, we chilled a little before heading to the roof for a cooking lesson. Around twelve of us sat around chatting, while waiting for the class to begin. The power cut was still on, but eventually the owner decided to start in the dark, by candlelight!! He made a few different curries and showed us how to make my nemesis coconut sambar – euchhh! He tried to convince me it was nice – it didn’t work!! After the food was ready, we all sat round the table and ate together. There were mainly Brits, Germans, Dutch, one Aussie, one Indian and some people that didn’t talk! It was a nice evening of chatting. Raiza decided that she too would leave in the morning. Both of us were headed to Sigiriya next so we planned to go together.
3/4/22
We got a tuktuk with a guy headed home to UK to the bus station before getting on the bus just before it pulled away! It was a busy bus but we did manage to get seats together, which was nice. Sadly, I had the aisle seat, which meant that as the bus became busier, I was constantly bashed and had people’s stinky armpits in my face!! I think the bus was a good four to five hours even though it wasn’t that far! It was quite a sweaty affair (as Sri Lanka always is)!!
wanderingwelshie travels 