And OMG if we thought Negumbo was busy, Kandy is utterly crazy! Many road users - elephants, tuk tuk, leyland truck circa 1960, moped with a family of 4 on, the odd cow and of course then there are the buses - everyone gives way to these as they are the biggest and brightest. The journey can't have been more than 100km but took 4 hours.
Thusara has booked us into a hotel, The Eden Garden, from here we made our way to Sigiriya and climbed this 5th century rock fortress that was built by King kashyapa in 477 - 495 AD, it rises 656 ft out of the jungle below, some view at the top and of course a couple of ozzies discussing cricket (Dambulla the next town was hosting the NZ v Sri Lanka match the following day).
Got chatting in the bar that night with Richard, a Geophysicist (oil) from Huston, boy could he talk, but so funny. He gave us some travel tips as he had travelled the world (first class) care of some large oil giant. Didn't think at this point that it was a good moment to mention my views on post peak oil!
Following day was a trip to the Golden Budda and the sacred caves that were occupied in the 2nd century by buddhists monks. Like most places we have visited, shoes are a no no as are Fe's shoulders. One of the monks, shaved head and dressed in orange and dedicated his life to buddhism didn't seem to want to give up his blackberry!
Moving on, enroute to Kandy we stopped at a Herbal Garden. Here they grew everything like pepper, cloves, cinnamon, pineapple, tumeric, sandlewood and jak fruit (largest fruit in the world but might google that and see). Was good to see all these things that are in our spice draw growing in their natural way and like soooo organic you know.
Our second hotel that Thusara fixed was in Kandy by the lake, The Suiss, very nice and very colonial. Used by Lord Mountbatten.
Right we off for a spot of lunch. More to follow eh...
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