On the first weekend of the Sri Lanka trip, Matthias and I went to Kandy. It is another city in Sri Lanka but located higher above ground compared to Colombo. Kandy is supposed to be a religious city where u can definitely find more places of worship and cultural stuff, which I am really interested in. Matthias presented me with first class tickets for a train ride, first class meaning u don't have to be packed off together with the many people who is on the train ride as well and being subjected to molestations and thefts. Hehee. (Sorry, different country, different definition.) No, I am kidding, the ride itself was amazing.... the real difference lies in being able to absorb the sceneries of the countryside when u're travelling in the comfort of first class seats and fans!
Sorry folks, I wish I can show u pictures of Kandy here but Matthias forgot the camera for this trip... what a pity! But I will pick out a few interesting things I saw in Kandy which leaves an impression on me...
Anyway I thought I could escape from the heat once we get to Kandy because it is higher up on the grounds but the heat was still sweltering.... Only in the day time though, it is always raining past 4pm, really wet country. The city itself is a busy place, buzzing with peddlar activities, local people going on with their daily routine life; indian restaurants and cafes packed all the time, round the clock.
My favourites : The mixed fruit juice stall -- U pay for pure fruit juice blend, its yummy and cheaper to drink comparing to eating fruits.
The fruit stall -- I love the way the peddlars call out when they are trying to sell u coconut drinks... They have only small yellow coconuts (we have green in Singapore), they chop the tops open on the spot with their parangs and serve u with dirty straws!
The weighing scale along the streets -- I found out how the locals weigh themselves, they would usually have peddlars along the streets with the bathroom scales and a sign next to it 'Weigh urself for 8 Rupees'.
Issin't it amazing how the locals earn a living?
The famous Tooth Temple is located at the heart of Kandy, where worshippers throng the place every day and night to do their daily prayers. The temple has a history about how Prince Sidharta became Buddha and of course, about the powers of the ancient tooth relic. It draws many religous local worshippers and tourists who have heard about the Tooth Temple alike.
Besides the temple located in town, we made a cultural hike out of the city areas to visit other Buddhist and Hindi temples.... they all share a common thing, they have histories dating back to at least 800 years old, intricate wood carvings and architecture which is really an interesting sight to absorb.
Now I wished I had shown more interests in my history classes during my secondary school years, I would perhaps have been more prepared for this Kandyan trip! :)
Last but not least... I saw the traditional Kandyan dance! We went to a performance featuring the dance together with their fancy costumes... and at the end of the whole segment, there was even a performance on fire walking. Totally cool. Last time I saw a fire walking performance was long ago during Vesak Day in Malaysia.
Alright finally I do have some pictures here... Matthias and I went on another trip during my stay in Sri Lanka, to Hikkaduwa, this beautiful beach paradise for surfers as much as for people who just want a nice relaxing weekend. It is just a couple of hours bus ride away from Colombo and honestly, it is a tourist paradise because the whole beach is just always thronged with foreigners... the only local people u see are those who are working at the beach lodges and cafe bars...
It never seems to rain in Hikkaduwa... always fine weather! And fine waves for surfing!
And here where we lay.....
At Rita's, we get the most amazing garlic toasts for breakfast....
And some more pictures of the beach....
Surf boards for rent!
What is the difference between daylight and sunset?
Daylight....
Beautiful beautiful beautiful sunset.....
On the 2nd day of the trip, Matthias and I decided to rent a bike to ride around the little village of Hikkaduwa and finally make our way to the rainforest for a little trek. It costs only 10 Sing dollars to rent this bike for the whole day, and it looks like it is only going on its virgin trip, so brand new! We have initially estimated that we will be able to get to the rainforest in 4 hours, provided that the roads on the maps are really existing, and make our way back to Hikkaduwa by the time the sun sets..... But 6 hours later, we still didn't have the rainforest in sight at all. No surprise at all that our estimation was wrong, we could only go maximum of 60km/hour on this scooter but the real culprit were the roads!! The winding roads.... whenever u reach a corner u always sound the horn to avoid oncoming vehicles.... and perhaps the distances on the map... we never made it.
However, we did have a lot of fun riding the scooter through the villages. We received star treatment along the way... everyone along the streets waved and called out to us when we rode past!
Here comes the Scooty Pep hero!!!
And some pictures I took as we ride along the villages....
Plantation plots....
Ah lunch...... so YUMMY!! It took us some time to find something like a restaurant which serves what we wanted, we went from village to village until we almost ended up lunching at some fly-infested little hut. Good that we didn't miss this! Look at the food!!!!!!!
Look at Matthias...
We finally decided to visit the rock temple located in the hills...
And after that the waterfalls...
It was already close to evening when we got to the waterfalls and the rock temple... giving us a couple more hours of daylight to ride home. The streets at nights are not supposed to be so safe to be riding on because u don't get streetlamps every 100 metres.... we were lucky that it was not raining! And finally, after 9 hours of riding.... we made it back to Hikkaduwa at midnight, tired, hungry and with splitted butts.
This was where we both spent our Christmas eve 2005, along the beautiful Esplanade riverfront. We decided that making a little picnic dinner of sushi and champagne was our idea of a romantic Christmas eve dinner instead of dining in overly expensive restaurants for Christmas turkeys.
