Day 84 - We knew it would be a long day. We planned our day trip to start at 6:30 am. A family friend, Nazir, arranged for a driver and van. It's an option when we want to travel anywhere on the island. The driver arrived a bit late but we were loaded well before 7:00 am. Jay's sister locked the gate and we were off to Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Presently, there is no expressway to Kandy. We drove out through Veyangoda and Nittambuwa and got on the main Colombo to Kandy highway. It's probably the most travelled road on the island. It has been upgraded over the decades but it is still essentially a rural road that runs through the middle of dozens of towns along the way. Now, however, the towns have become cities in their own right.
I love leaving the flat coastal plain and heading into the mountains. It is easy to see life pass by out the windows, whether rice paddies, businesses, or people going and coming from work.
As with most road trips, we chose an early start and breakfast along the way. Jay had seen reviews of the Waahalkada Restaurant for a Sri Lankan breakfast buffet. So, we stopped and enjoyed a variety of hoppers, milk rice, and breakfast staples while sitting at an open table overlooking the river.
Distances on this type of Sri Lanka road are deceiving. Some sections are great but the average speed is likelier to be 35 km than 80 km. So, it takes considerably longer than one might assume because of traffic, road construction, and the limitation of passing zones.
Still, as mentioned above, it does allow passengers a chance to see so much going on outside. For example, towns are known for producing or selling particular items. The actual name of the place in Jay's language represents what they offer. Cashews, clay pottery, wooden furniture, or cane products come to mind. So stopping is easy.
And when one starts to go up in elevation, there are places to check out the view along with some of the local residents. These are macaques, as their hairdo is a dead giveaway. They're not really sweet because to get through life, they've learned to steal. They are naturally mischievous as well and live in very hierarchical troops. Still, they never complain about people snapping pictures.
Kandy was the last and final former Sri Lankan kingdom to fall to foreign powers. The British annexed the city into its other British holdings in Ceylon. However, it is most known today for its very famous Buddhist Temple. Read about it here. We parked near the far end of the Temple of the Tooth at around 10:35 am. From the house in Minwangoda, we had travelled about 120 km.
I hadn't visited Kandy in decades but my liking for the city was renewed today. I am a bit weird as nearly every place I've ever been, I've wondered what it'd be like to live there. I have spent a fair amount of time on the Internet checking out real estate the world over. Owning an apartment in one of the new condo buildings overlooking the lake would be a dream. Yet, dreams live in a lot of locations.
We noticed some temple elephants on the go. In Sri Lanka, Asian elephants are highly prized. They take part in Buddhist processions and the Kandy Esala Perahera is the premier such event in the country.
None of our group was hungry for lunch yet, so we decided to continue with a few other planned activities here. We got in the van and proceeded up a very winding road to a very high elevation. We were visiting the newest Buddhist stupa in the Kandy area. Construction on the Sandagiri Maha Seya started in 2017. These dome-shaped, religious constructions are a tradition in Sri Lankan history.
First, we walked up a path (rather than stairs) through tea plants. As this dagaba is a modern one, it has a large area inside for religious objects. The area was hot on a perfectly clear day. As is the custom, we had to remove our footwear and can attest that the stones get very warm!
Our driver was going to stay in the parking lot, however, he decided to drive up the narrow path and met us near the top. As we were heading back to the main roads of Kandy, we stopped at one more place. The tea museum is housed in the oldest tea factory in that area. It no longer is a working building but houses the antique machinery used in the production of tea. The building turns 100 years old next year. When you see the word, Ceylon on a tea label, this is simply the former British name for the country prior to its independence in 1948.
I peeked inside a first-floor window and we decided against going inside but did buy some fresh tea packets from the onsite store. We began our return home at around 3:00. It took about 4 hours because we stopped to buy a pestle and mortar from a roadside stand, had lunch, and did a bit of grocery shopping on our way to Minuwangoda.
It was completely dark at 7:15 when we got to the house.