Sri Lanka Part 2
Well, well, well. It is New Year's Eve today and Alex and I remain in Kandy. I doubt very much that we'll be drunk tonight! Maybe a fire work or two launched from our balcony at 10 p.m. when the whole city goes to sleep?
So what have we been up to of late?
On our first day in Kandy we walked over to the Temple of the Tooth (in the wonderful Dan Cruickshank's footsteps! - Diego alone will understand this) which is where they house the ACTUAL tooth of Buddha! Wow!
Obviously on the way to the TOTT (ha ha) we were hassled by about 100 Tuk Tuk drivers and a brilliant 'praying con man.'
The praying con man was standing, as if in prayer, as Alex and I approached him along the huge artificial lake. He stopped when we arrived and announced that he was a dance teacher who was very excited indeed about the huge birthday celebration on THIS VERY EVENING! What are the chances of that!? That Alex and I should arrive on December 28th! The birthday festival of dancing children for the kings of Sri Lanka, India and somewhere random like Nepal! The hitch was that tickets would only be on sale for the next 10 minutes, after which we would have lost any chance of taking part in the greatest cultural celebration Kandy had seen in centuries.
This was all utter bullshit and he got a little violent when we said a polite no thanks.
But back to the Temple of the Tooth and it's shrine filled gardens, monkeys, monks and elephants!
Locals throng to the Temple each day to see the tooth of Buddha. It is most definitely THE tooth because a while back a doubting king tried to bash the thing in with a hammer and, in some sort of retaliation, the tooth rocketed into space, became a bright and beautiful star for a night or two and then returned to an even bigger temple which, I suppose, the king felt he HAD to build after a display such as that one. You don't actually get to see the tooth (you don't actually get to see a lot of things here in Sri Lanka!) but you do get to see a lovely temple and a very nice gold box which might just have the tooth in it or, as was the case when a pirate from Portugal stole the box, a replica to discourage thieves. All brilliant though, let's be honest here!
After the Temple and an amazing lunch (which Alex very proudly ate with his right hand like a local) we caught the 5:10 p.m. train to Hatton... but I will write about that in a second because it was wonderful and took us to Adam's Peak and because Alex thinks he might be able to get a picture on here from his camera (in a slow Kandy based internet cafe?).
So what have we been up to of late?
On our first day in Kandy we walked over to the Temple of the Tooth (in the wonderful Dan Cruickshank's footsteps! - Diego alone will understand this) which is where they house the ACTUAL tooth of Buddha! Wow!
Obviously on the way to the TOTT (ha ha) we were hassled by about 100 Tuk Tuk drivers and a brilliant 'praying con man.'
The praying con man was standing, as if in prayer, as Alex and I approached him along the huge artificial lake. He stopped when we arrived and announced that he was a dance teacher who was very excited indeed about the huge birthday celebration on THIS VERY EVENING! What are the chances of that!? That Alex and I should arrive on December 28th! The birthday festival of dancing children for the kings of Sri Lanka, India and somewhere random like Nepal! The hitch was that tickets would only be on sale for the next 10 minutes, after which we would have lost any chance of taking part in the greatest cultural celebration Kandy had seen in centuries.
This was all utter bullshit and he got a little violent when we said a polite no thanks.
But back to the Temple of the Tooth and it's shrine filled gardens, monkeys, monks and elephants!
Locals throng to the Temple each day to see the tooth of Buddha. It is most definitely THE tooth because a while back a doubting king tried to bash the thing in with a hammer and, in some sort of retaliation, the tooth rocketed into space, became a bright and beautiful star for a night or two and then returned to an even bigger temple which, I suppose, the king felt he HAD to build after a display such as that one. You don't actually get to see the tooth (you don't actually get to see a lot of things here in Sri Lanka!) but you do get to see a lovely temple and a very nice gold box which might just have the tooth in it or, as was the case when a pirate from Portugal stole the box, a replica to discourage thieves. All brilliant though, let's be honest here!
After the Temple and an amazing lunch (which Alex very proudly ate with his right hand like a local) we caught the 5:10 p.m. train to Hatton... but I will write about that in a second because it was wonderful and took us to Adam's Peak and because Alex thinks he might be able to get a picture on here from his camera (in a slow Kandy based internet cafe?).
posted by Alex at 6:19 AM
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