I had convinced my driver to drive me around for the weekend (not too hard) for a reasonable price (harder), so he came back early the next morning and from there we drove to Kandy, located in the middle of the Island. The traffic was bad (surprise...) but we managed to sustain a steady 30km/h... for the next 140km. We stopped on the way at an elephant hatchery in Pinawala, we conveniently arrived at bath time, and this will be one of the nicest memories I'll keep from that trip. Herds of elephant playing in the river, being washed, splashing spraying, it was beautiful and fun.
Then we stopped at Kandy's botanical gardens, it was a refreshing taste of the biodiversity in Sri-Lanka's forests and a very quiet and peaceful place, plus it was very large. I got countless pictures of trees, but this giant tree covering an area of 50x50 meters was rather impressive.
Then we stopped at the temple in Kandy after a late lunch from market fruits (rambutans, mangos, bananas, coco water). This is the temple hosting "the tooth" which is considered to be Buddha's remains and is one if not the holiest relic of Buddhism.
After a long way back to the hotel, I had an orgy of delicious curried seafood for a ridiculously cheap price, I just wish I was more hungry then. No pictures I was way too busy with foods all over from the tip of my fingers to my lips.
The next day we went on a tour of the city which was nice but not as exciting as the day before besides that I got booted from every single place for taking pictures. There had been a bombing from the Tamil Tigers next to my hotel the day I arrived with a large number of casualties (10 deaths 75 injured) and an upcoming Buddhist festival had the army on their teeth.
On the way back to the airport we had lunch at the driver's sister place where we were invited for some traditional Sri-Lankan food: "Rice and curry" as my driver was saying. I got a very warm welcome and got away only with the promises to stay in touch and to come back to visit with M.
Once at the airport I succeeded in getting swapped from an indirect flight with a long connection to a direct flight in first class without any fee and having to insist, so it closed the trip very happily.
I am writing all this waiting for the weather to clear up so I can drive back to the hotel without getting soaked. And I know I am slacking, pictures are not yet uploaded on Zenfolio...
