Public holiday in Kandy

24/2/17

Elephant Stables hotel was a bit of a disappointment last night. No cake...In fact no acknowledgement of my birthday at all! Ruined the record. To top it all our order for rice and curry produced a promising array of dishes...but at the first mouth full it was evident that it was all almost cold. Not what you'd expect for a luxury boutique hotel with just a handful of guests and a small set menu. I know I'm fussy but really! Their second attempt was little better...We'd have been better at somewhere cheap and cheerful in town.

Breakfast was much better with good fruit and freshly cooked sri lankan omelette and coconut pancakes.

First touristy item on the itinerary today turned out to be a full on Buddhist ceremony in the famous Temple of the Tooth. As it was a public holiday thousands of SL Buddhist families were piling into the vast temple complex. Dommi knows a trick or two about queue jumping so after seeing the congestion at the main entrance we sneaked round the back and after some sweet talking of the security guards we were in. Buddhas tooth is kept in the bottom casket of 7 golden caskets in a special room behind ornate locked doors but during the ceremony the doors and caskets were opened. We got fairly close and followed the tradition of offering lotus flowers to Buddha. So you've all had some good karma sent your way.

The full site has many buildings with museums as well as the main temple and we had a good look round. Dommi is a Buddhist so was able to give us a real insight into everything we saw. Information overload but some of it has stuck. Some lovely children around with their families and Sunday schools seemed to find us amusing. Dommi explained they were from rural areas and wanted to practise their English so we had a few shy handshakes with hello what's your name type conversations.

After recovering our shoes it was a good opportunity to grab a Jumbo Jolly (ice lolly) and Wonder Bar (bit like a magnum)..then drinks and washroom stop at a local old hotel. Walk back to the vehicle past Kandy Lake which I was expecting to be a picturesque natural lake..but more like Corby boating lake!

The viewpoint on the Upper Drive road gave us a good view back down to the old capital although the view from the hotel is nearly as good.

We'd decided against the batik and gem shops/showrooms after yesterday's hard sell experience which was a good plan as it gave us a sunny session round the hotel pool..sun so strong you can't walk in bare feet near the pool.

This evening gave us a rather chaotic but amusing touristy "theatre experience" to see a display of traditional Kandian dancers and fire walkers. Very colourful but that many tourists of multiple nationality in an overcrowded venue was never going to make the top 10 things you do on your bucket list.

Tomorrow we are planning to do the botanical gardens before 6 hours on a train to Ella through the hill country.