April 20

Today we were up and had eaten our breakfast of Muesli and yogurt by 0900. Yesterday we had booked a tuk-tuk tour of Kandy. A driver showed up, but it was not the same guy. He said, the other guy, is his brother and Jeff talked to the original driver on the phone. The original driver confirmed they are brothers. We got in and started our day long tour. This new driver is named Padeep – according to his WhatsApp number. He was prompt. We had a little trouble understanding him, but got enough to follow the gist of what he was saying.

We started our tour going up, up, up to Asgiri Maha Seya. It is a large Buddhist temple complex. We had to doff our shoes. The first place Padeep – who is Buddhist – took us into was a large room with a large meditating Buddha, cloaked in a red robe. Next, we were taken to the large stupa. The outside wall is of 3-D panels of Buddha going about to locals teaching. The inside… well, it was gorgeous. You enter through large, carved wood doors. Then you are looking at a central small wooden stupa-type alter? Beautiful wood flooring and intricately carved wooden walls and panels with wood inlay, that are dramatically lit. There are Buddhas atop the inlay panels in meditating, teaching, and others sitting poses. Then the domed brightly painted ceiling, that is over the top, colorful – almost too much, a bit cartoonish. But Padeep said we could take pictures, so we'll post one and see what you think. Third place of this complex was a Meditation Center room. It went into detail of how one is to meditate; the two kinds of Buddhist meditation; etc… too much detail for passersby, but if there to meditate, would be helpful the first few times, I image. Lastly the complex had a one room Museum. Padeep turned the lights on for us and we perused from 400's AD to Kandy's period that lasted 1480-1815. Kandy was Sir Lanka's Capitol during this time, to the last King of Sri Lanka. Anyway, we finished and loaded up to the next site.

We go up some more to one of Kandy's highest places, the Bahirawakanda Temple. Of course, we had to doff our shoes again. The stairs going up to the large sitting Buddha were painted red and black. It was a nice contrast to the white statue, but made for hot feet and some interesting fast hopping, running of stairs. (There were some carpet pieces on one side, but not on all of the stairs.)  Once up there is a large area to view Kandy. But there were also stairs (in shade) behind the statue that we also climbed. This gives a more elevated view of Kandy, but it is obstructed some by the Buddha statue itself! (We are supposed to be here for the Buddha statue, but all you see from this vantage point is the back of his head. The Kandy view is better🤭🤣!

Anyway, we loaded into our tuk-tuk and moved on. We are taken to a suspension bridge. It is a walkway over a river, that is connected to, but separate from the driving bridge – which also has a walkway, I'm gonna add here. We set out to cross the separate walkover. Jeff is in front. I have trouble with these, but then I noticed a wooden board missing here and there. But I saw the two metal strips of support under the missing wood planking, so I could justify it was okay. I thought of an Indiana Jones film. Then I can to a spot where three boards were missing and one metal strip was dangling… well, I now remember the Indiana Jones movie and the bridge broke. I turned around and hauled up to the motor vehicle bridge with a built in walkway and crossed here. When I got to the other side, I saw stretches that Jeff went across where 6-20 feet of wood planks were missing!! I'm not going to write anymore about that!!!

Next we were taken to Kandy Spice Walk, 101. Here we were given a tour of spice trees and vines that are grown in Sri Lanka and  told of there uses in food as well as medicinal uses, while sipping a cup of tea given to us. I was even given a treatment to remove hair, that took ten minutes as we were toured through. Next we were taken to a table spot. My hair removal treatment was removed (I was not that impressed). We were given a demonstration of typical kitchen supplies in Sri Lanka, and how to shave out coconut flesh from the husk. Then a lady prepared a snack with that shaved coconut, adding ground/powdered chillies, red onions, tomatoes and squeeze of fresh lime. This was all mixed by her washed hand, placed in a small warm roti, and presented to us. It was great! We were given a flyer with three recipes and list of 25 uses of natural medicinal herbs that our guide had talked about. But next we were given a massage of our face (whole head for Jeff, but not me☹️ – hair factor, I think is why not me!); our neck; shoulders; back to upper hips; and our arms. (We had to doff our shirts right there in the kitchen area, kind of “caddywhompous” from another couple. That was surprising!) That was an awesome massage💯!!  After our massage (and putting shirts back on), we were taken to a shop to buy any products that we wanted. We did buy a small tonic that is supposed to decrease our sweating. If it works – GREAT! We tipped our masseuses and our guide, getting out while we still had money! I'm kidding, mostly. You could drop some serious dough in these places!!

Now our driver took us to Saubagya, One Stop Super. It is a local Sri Lankan restaurant, grocery store, and a nursery to buy plants/trees. It was buzzing with activity in all three areas – it is Saturday. We ordered a rice curry with some scary looking chili topping (we scooped out about half on it to NOT eat); two breaded fried jack fruit 'cutlet' (more of a croquette); a string hopper; and a local honey millet cake-type square. We also had a watermelon juice and a mango juice. It was a nice assortment of Sri Lankan food for lunch. After we ate we did explore the produce store and the nursery. We saw a red-headed lizard here as well on a tree. We loaded up and moved onto our tour stop for the day.

We were taken to Thilona Crafts. A local family who does wood carvings runs the establishment. We were shown three kinds of wood: Mahogany, Teak and Ebony – all found here in Sri Lanka. Next, the lady demonstrated how color for paint was derived from the inner shaved pulp of wood (I don't remember what wood it was! My excuse is just having a great massage followed by lunch!!). Water is added to the pulp dust and then stirred. Viola, a color! Next she stirred it with a nail and it changed color. Then she added lemon and the color changed again. This is how they make their paints she said. It was fascinating. She added other things for other colors. Anyway, we were then taken to their shop… and, well, we did buy a refrigerator magnet. Their 13 year old daughter had painted it! We will donate it to one of our stays here in Sri Lanka.

We left and moved on to the Royal Botanical Garden. Our entrance fee was 3,000 Rupees ($10)/ foreigner adult. It's 200 Rupee (66 cents)/ local adult. This is one example of the mark ups for some places. Anyway, we did enjoy the gardens. We were given a three hour visit time, which we would normally have appreciated, and it was lovely, but it was also now the hottest part of the day– not so lovely! They had a great Orchid House. We always enjoy these. There are so many purple orchids on display here. A security guard at the entrance pointed out the Holy Ghost Orchid to us! It is also called the Dove Orchid. It looked like dove or an angel inside – pretty cool. Other areas: the Canarium Row of Giant Java Almond trees, with their buttressing roots; a couple of Palm Lanes – Royal Palm Lane and Double Coconut Palm Lane; a Cactus House; a Spice Garden; a river walk area where we saw two cows tied up? (Questions??), roosting Flying Fox Bats, and our first Sri Lankan monkeys;  some huge trees (Ceylon Ironwood – Sri Lanka's national tree, Java Fig, Jack Fruit and Sausage trees) and some beautiful flowering trees (Pink Trumpet Tree – which was a picture from yesterday's blog, Flame Tree- a brilliantly-aflame-orange, donated by New Zealand, and Pride of Burma – with dainty salmon orchid-like flowers; and lastly, the Blue Water Lily – the Sri Lankan national flower. If it would have been morning or a cooler day we would have really, really marveled at this Botanical Garden. But we were now zapped of energy, due to the heat. We bought a 7up 300ml and a 750ml water and downed them. We exited the gardens and called for Padeep to pick us up 15 minutes early! He was 10 minutes away. When he did show up. we nixed the last item of our tour agenda. It was a Kandy/Sri Lanka Folk Dance show. We have seen mixed reviews on these and we were too tired, so opted out.

Padeep dropped us off at our place and we cooled off by showering in a cool shower – felt great. Then Jeff went to The Citrus Cafe right near us and ordered noodle with chicken and spices; and a Kothu with chicken and spices. I started this blog. It started raining just as Jeff left, thankfully so because he grabbed the umbrella. The food was so good and hit the spot. It was a grand tour, adventure day here in Sri Lanka! No visible sunset, but we did not need it, as we had beheld so much of God's Great Glory already today!!!