Kandy

Tonight the boys are watching Bollywood videos in our hotel room and asking a lot of unanswerable questions, like, 'why are there dancing Santas shaking their tummies in this video?'
 
I have no answer for this, just like I had no answer as to what a Hindu cow was doing wandering in a Buddhist temple this afternoon, why whitening cream is popular for Asian women, or why our bus driver was driving like he wanted to kill us all, and then suddenly calmed down. Last week I also couldn't answer why Buddhists seem to worship relics of the Buddha. Despite not having a good answer for this last one, we all enjoyed The Temple of The Tooth in Kandy, which is said to house a relic of the Buddha's tooth. 

We arrived at the temple in time for puja or prayers and packed into the second story of this temple with a lot of Sri Lankan Buddhists keen to see the door of the sanctuary open to where the tooth is kept. (You can't see the actual tooth.) People offering prayers bring the most beautiful flowers to the temple. Once the doors were open, there was also amazing drumming and a kind of bugle was played too. Although most women wear white to visit Buddhist temples, there were also some amazing coloured saris. I wanted to photograph all of them, but didn't want to be too obvious. 

Flower offerings

Temple of the Tooth and dusk

We had delicious masala dosa for lunch that day, and then took the bus out to a beautiful botanical garden at the edge of the city. There we saw lots of different kinds of palm trees, some beautiful lawns, and green houses of cacti and other more native plants. We avoided the wandering monkeys and the bats hanging from the trees, and closely monitored the weather. We knew a thunder storm was forecast for that afternoon, and got in a tuktuk just as it started to pour. The park was packed with school children (again in white uniforms) and we didn't stick around long enough to see them get caught in the rain, but I can imagine the chaos of all those children trying to take cover. (Yet another moment where I was pleased to not be in a teacher role.)

Moments before getting soaked!

Walking along the palms 

From Kandy we left the highlands and headed north. We went by private van that day, which was pretty fancy, compared to the crowded bus we took to get to Kandy, and the VERY crowded train we took to the elephant center. The boys were absolutely gob-smacked by the crowding on the train. They couldn't believe that people ran to get on the train before it even stopped, and that people would stand hanging out the door of the train as it went along. So, the kids were quite excited to be in an air-conditioned van. Rob and I were more excited by the vintage 1971 Volkswagon Bug that we had to briefly take to meet up with the van, complete with fancy Sri Lanka painting on the door.
 

We chose the fancy van partly for the AC and partly because it allowed us to stop along the way. We visited a spice garden, which was really interesting. I had never seen plants that grow my favourite spices, and I didn't even know that tumeric came from a root (like ginger) or that curry was actually a leaf. We also got to sample cardamon, cinnamon, mace, pepper corns (VERY SPICY), cloves, and aloe. Our guide also told us that hibiscus flowers can prevent premature grey hair. I was tempted to purchase some, but I'm not sure my grey is actually premature.
The next few days we spent in an area called The Ancient Cities. We climbed a lot of stairs in the mid-day heat to see some extraordinary Buddhist murals and statues in caves. The kids were particularly impressed with how old the statues were. I think Rob was mostly impressed with the vivid colour my face turned after climbing all those stairs. I have since been dubbed, 'tomato face.'
 
Our time in the ancient cities was not without mishap. Rob suffered a bout of food poisoning that put him out for twenty four hours, and I had another bicycle related incident with faulty brakes resulting in a very bruised leg. Dassa got multiple bug bites. (And Makaio? Still eating, and still losing his stuff. He's on hat #3 of the trip, and has no pajamas or earbuds.) We also stayed in our first not-so great hotel - cockroaches, dirt and crap wifi. All this slowed us down a bit and with the very intense heat, we spent a few afternoons at pools keeping cool. The boys enjoyed this immensely, as pool afternoons often come with French fries and non-spicy food.






Still to come: The Liebersmiths Go on Safari, The Liebersmiths Go to Jafna and Get Stuck in the Sand, and (some) of the Liebersmiths go snorkeling with sharks. (Guess who didn't go - me!)