It's raining like mad in Kandy. Our accommodation is again delightful. We are staying at a home stay in the hills, near the lake, with a lovely couple, Sujatha and Roney at Sujatha's Guest House.
Our home stay in Kandy. |
Our lovely hosts Roney and Sujatha and the mad Turk, Mr Khan. |
They have two rooms and the other guest is a funny Turkish man (only known as Mr Khan) who speaks very little English - goodness know he's coping cos I'm not sure he'll find many Turkish speakers to assist him in Sri Lanka.
Still raining in Kandy but enjoying ourselves all the same. We've decided to avoid some of the tourist sites - not because we're precious but because we're too old to fake interest in sites like Budhas' tooth (I didn't mind queueing for an hour is to see Uncle Ho in Ho Chi Minh City, but that was a whole Uncle, not just a tooth!).
Main street, Kandy. |
We spent considerable time trying to find a bar called PUB, which is located near the lake and we supposed to have a big neon sign. We eventually found it and the name has changed to Slightly Chilled and no neon sign. Funny name but great bar.
We arrived the Pub bar at 4 pm to discover that Kandy seems to follow antiquated British liquor laws - no drinks served between 2pm and 5pm. The staff were very sweet and served us coffee so we could kill an hour. Slightly Chilled has great views over the Lake and we spent a very pleasant evening chatting to the owner, an expat Pom from London.
We did go to the British Garrison Cemetery and the Kandy Garrison Cemetery. Both of which were very interesting. The Kandy cemetery was dated from about 1850 onwards and full of infants - one grave had fives sons from one family!
The very helpful cemetery guide gave us all the gory details - who died of malaria, sunstroke, dengue fever, wild animal attack - if you reached 40 years back then, you were ancient and bloody lucky.
The British Garrison cemetery was filled with graves of the war dead from the defence of Ceylon in WW2. The caretaker was also really informative - he'd worked there for 40 years and was about to retire. He was full of stories about the families of the fallen soldiers who had visited over the years and all the famous royal guests who came for Remembrance Day ceremonies over the years.
British Garrison Cemetery, Kandy |
We've been eating very well again in Kandy - from the lovely breakfast at Sujathas - fish curry and sweet rice, to the pastries at the Bakehouse, onion roti and apple cake, to chicken biryiani at the Devon restaurant and the memorable meal at the Muslim Hotel.
We had a few evening drinks at The Pub, on the balcony above The Bakehouse and had just ordered our dinner at the Muslim Hotel - two types of Kotthu, Dahl and parathas - when our fellow home stay guest, the mad Turk walked in. We asked him to join us and he promptly did and ate all our food!
We found out how he manages with very little English - he just shouts out words at the poor bewildered staff. The dining experience was equal parts hilarious and embarrassing!
Afternoon Tea at the Bakehouse, Kandy. |
We had a few evening drinks at The Pub, on the balcony above The Bakehouse and had just ordered our dinner at the Muslim Hotel - two types of Kotthu, Dahl and parathas - when our fellow home stay guest, the mad Turk walked in. We asked him to join us and he promptly did and ate all our food!
Chicken Kotthu - finely diced roti, chicken and veggies - seriously yum! |
The Mad Turk ordering at the Muslim Cafe and Richard with huge paratha. |
We found out how he manages with very little English - he just shouts out words at the poor bewildered staff. The dining experience was equal parts hilarious and embarrassing!
We decided to avoid the rain and spent our last day and evening with our lovely hosts. I took the opportunity to join them in giving their monthly offerings to the local village Buddhist temple. It was a lovely experience. I even got to chat with the Head Monk, who at 89 looked very fit and strong.
Local village Buddhist temple |
We spent the evening sharing a drink of Sri Lankan arrack, eating, swapping bad guest stories and playing a game called Carram - sort of like pool or billiards.
We had been told that 3 days in Kandy was enough and that it was very crowded with lots of traffic. However, staying with Sujatha and Roney was a heavenly little oasis of peace, calm, great food and good conversation - once the mad Turk left that is!
We are now on our way to Ella by train. We caught the train from Peradeniya Station, about a 20-30 minute tuk tuk ride from Kandy. The journey is meant to be very scenic. So far the train was 1.5 hours late and the ride is pretty bumpy. Plus there is an especially annoying group of old Australians with diarrhoea of both the gob and the other end. God remind me once more never to go on a tour! Thank fully I think they've now fallen asleep.
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