I Want Kandy!

Sunday, March 01, 2015
Kandy, Central, Sri Lanka
Today is our 19th wedding anniversary. That's right, 19...eeeek. We are getting old.

So what does one get one's spouse for a 19th wedding anniversary? If you're in this marriage (and I'm fairly sure I am), you get a 4 hour public bus ride through Sri Lanka! And contrary to how that sounds, it wasn't so bad. We had a teeny bench seat to ourselves, and the windows were wide open, and it was a lovely day. We arrived in Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka and its cultural center, at 1pm. We immediately noticed how being in "hill country" in the center of the island dropped the temperature. It wasn't cool by any means, but it certainly wasn't Boil-Your-Meatsuit-From-the-Inside-Out hot like up north.


We went to a small eatery for lunch, weirdly called The Muslim Hotel ("hotel" has some flexible meanings here). It's noted for its kottu roti, kind of a stir fry of eggs, cheese, noodles, roti, and meat. I must say that I have a new local fave to eat. We snarfed that plate down so fast the waiter pulled his fingers back from our plates. And I accidentally discovered a delicious juice, called wood apple. I have no idea what a wood apple is. It sounds nasty. I assure you it is not.

So, another side note. Sri Lanka, as a culture, does not eat out. There are no restaurants beyond quick serve lunch places for day workers. It's very odd- the entire concept just doesn't exist. So, tourists are in a bit of a pickle. Back in Dambulla and Polonnurawa, tourists just eat at their guesthouses. While larger cities like Kandy have actual restaurants (and holy sh*t WE SAW A BAR), for medium- and small-sized towns, the idea of "nightlife" just doesn't exist. So, no restaurants, bars, theaters, or clubs. Which is really too bad except for the fact that the third season of "House Of Cards" just dropped this week, so I'm pretty sure we all know what my nightlife is going to be for a while.


After lunch we visited Sri Lanka's most important religious site, the Temple of the Tooth. This is a temple that houses (supposedly) a tooth relic from Buddha. From the drawings portraying the tooth, I think the Buddha was sporting sabertooth fangs. Oh, and the tooth itself? You can't see it. It's in a room, in a shrine, inside 5 other Russian doll-style shrines. So yeah, we paid about $6 USD to be told there MIGHT be a set of fangs in that box. And according to legend, whoever holds the tooth will rule Sri Lanka, so many, many wars have been fought over this. A tooth. This is why religion baffles me. Anyway.


The complex itself was a bit of a disappointment, and not just because of the go-see-a-tooth-we-won't-actually-show-you thing. I had read in my guidebook that there was a dead Rajah (prince) who had been STUFFED and MOUNTED and on display in a shrine on the Temple grounds. I love dead things and I love tacky, so obviously this was the shrine for me. I hustled myself there straightaway, only to realize that Rajah was an elephant, not a dearly departed Britisher. Well poop.


We ended our anniversary day with a stroll around Kandy Lake, a lovely lake at the southern end of the city, ringed by a pathway and charming guesthouses (including ours). Tomorrow we will treat ourselves to NOT riding on a bus, and visiting the Elephant Orphanage of Pinnawala.

Cheers :)

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