On the Kandy Trail

Our last day in Negomobo was uneventful with a steady stream of wedding couples using the hotel and beach for their wedding photographs prior to their celebrations, December is the lucky month to get married and many happy couples in fantastic dresses and head gear are making their way to the beach for their formal posed photos.  In our hotel the photographer obviously has a strange sense of humour posing a couple in front of the pool shower. Our hotel hosts a wedding reception tonight and during the day we watch the staff perform miracles to make the hotel look stunning with amazing displays of flowers. Amidst the arrival of the well dressed guests I mingle with them to conclude my cigarette transactions in a dark corner of the hotel.

On Sunday we begin start our travels for real.  We’ve hired a car and driver for the next 16 days.  This will solve a lot of the headaches around arranging connections and onward travel.  Ranesh, our driver arrives at 12.00 and we start the 3 hour drive to Kandy the second City in Sri Lanka.  Leaving Negombo the roads get narrower and rougher – at times we’re following little more than dirt roads that twist and turn through small ‘one horse’ towns.  Driving skills are at a premium and Ranesh shows he is up to the task as we manoeuvre past tuk tuks and busses often on blind bends and tight gaps.  Eventually we meet the Colombo - Kandy highway this is a little busier with but equally as bendy.   

During the trip John has become obsessed with working out the different makes of Tuk Tuks and is now super observant to the various makes, colours and engine sizes. We pass many old Morris Minors and old VW Beetles that are not the victim of rust and when John sees a VW camper van I think he’ll explode.  There are many old British and Japanese cars on the road but but the most common mode of transport has to be the Tuk Tuk.

Nearing Kandy the road gets very busy and our pace reduces from slow to very slow. All manner of vehicles vi for position and people mill around chatting and buying their groceries from stalls filled with fresh fruit and veg tumbling onto the road,  We pass the bus station and watch people jumping onto already overcrowded buses as they pull away with little regard for their safety.  We drive through the town and around the lake which dominates Kandy.  The town itself lies in a basin surrounded by steep hills amongst which hotels and houses nestle.  We start our slow climb up to our hotel – the Anapurna (aka Kandy Hills Hotel) lies just above the snow line.  Without our van John would need oxygen to complete the ascent.

The hotel is welcoming if a little tired and the staff are friendly and welcoming.  We’re paying less than £20 a night so one can’t expect the Hilton.  After a quick change our driver runs us into town to get some cash and have a look around   We even find the Pub Royal, a real pub with swing doors and a mahogany bar – time for a beer before the driver ran us back up the hill in time for John to Watch Everton play Stoke. By the time the game finished everyone in the hotel had retired for the evening ready for the next day’s activities.

We’re out just after 7.30 for a trip to Pinnawella to see the elephant orphanage.  Its well worth the early start as we see the elephants being fed before making their way to a large river to enjoy a morning bath.  We get front row seats on a hotel balcony to watch this spectacle.  Around 50 elephants of all sizes and ages walk through a road full of shops and tourist tat without causing any disaster before descending the bank to enter the river.  Some of the younger elephants obviously had ambitions of escape - one persistent offender tried a number of times to give the mahouts the slip but they kept a vigilant watch and were quick to wield their sticks when necessary. 

The young elephants are a delight to watch and the elephants huddled about in sociable groups enjoying the water.  Some elephants have chains attached to one leg presumably so they can be fastened up as required.  One elephant’s chain stuck between two rocks while trying to escape and we watched in fascination as he set about solving the problem of getting his chain released - included wrapping the chain around the front leg and using the weight to force it free, wrapping it around his trunk to undo the part that’s was stuck and eventually retracing his steps and giving an almighty heave to secure his release.

We moved on with regret and on our way back to Kandy we stopped and to have a look at a couple of large porcupines. A lady had the porcupines on leads and stood about as if these were household pets.  She let us stroke the critters and explained  that one of them was off colour today.  How would you know and where might you stick the thermometer?

Porcupine - the Ford Capri of the animal kingdom

Further on down the road we stopped at a herb and spice garden run by the government.  An interesting chap showed us round explaining the medicinal benefits and demonstrating their uses.  This included a demonstration on the use of turmeric for hair removal (on Johns arm).  John now has a bald patch on his arm and at the end of the tour was the subject of an aggressive massage which funnily enough matched the subsequent sales pitch. 

We stopped at a high tower dedicated to Captain Dawson, an Englishman who build the Colombo Kandy road.  Whilst I stayed in the car John went to investigate.  He returned 20 minutes later looking like he had personally built the Kandy road and was about to join Captain Dawson.  John explained that 110 lungbusting steps up a narrow spiral staircase in the pitch black in 34 degrees C was on reflection probably  not a good idea and is unlikely to be repeated.

Captain Dawson's Tower of Doom