April 23

After getting up and about, we had breakfast of our muesli and milk/yogurt. Then we watched some You tube – it is amazing how many couples we have found that have sold everything and are traveling the world.

Around 1300 we went out for a walkabout – around the Kandy Lake, aka, Kiri Muhuda, or the Sea of Milk. It's an artificial lake and was created in 1807 by King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. A main road rings around the lake and has a nice sidewalk around it also (A sidewalk what a concept!). The walk is nice, and you see many types of birds, including Indian cormorants, white great cranes, wood storks, pelicans, kingfishers, Asian openbill storks, and various kinds of ducks. There are also lots of fish (probably because no fishing is allowed). But the wildest creatures are the monitor lizards!! They just sit on the side of the bank! Huge, around six feet long, fat – at least these ones by this lake! We saw three on our walk about. Thankfully the bank of the lake is steep. I don' t think they can climb up it?? I'm not going to think about it… According to Asia Wild – the monitor lizard does not have a venomous bite (like a Komodo dragon). But, just the same, I'll be keeping my distance from them! 

Anyway, we diverted our trek about halfway around the lake for lunch. We had “Hoppers” in mind. It's a Sri Lankan dish, that we have not had yet. But the local places we stopped at did not have anymore. I don't recall that it is only for breakfast, but seems to be the case?🤔? So we opted for The Golden Curry Restaurant. It was more upscale, but seemed to have locals (maybe?). We were directed to a table and ordered one Madurai Mutton Chukka Biriyani, seasoned, bite-size, cubed lamb with a side gravy sauce; and one Ginger Chicken (was supposed to have been a “dry” dish, but it wasn't) with vegetable rice. There was a small bowl of yogurt covered red onions. We did not know which dish they were for, but they went well with both. The dishes were both good, and a lot of food.

We finished and went back out to finish our trek, along the other way. We noticed quite a few places were closed, but did not know why until we went to the bottle shop. It was closed, but there was a sign that said why it was closed, “Poya Day.”  'This poya, Bak Full Moon Poya Day (or Bak Pura Pasaloswaka Poya Day) commemorates the second visit of The Buddha to Sri Lanka which took place in the fifth year of his Supreme Enlightenment,' referenced from Office Holidays of Sri Lanka. Anyway, we arrived back at our place and cooled down, as much as one can with a fan only (no AC).

Supper was light – a small 8inch watermelon, crackers, and chocolate. There was cloud cover again, (but no rain) so no sunset. Bed by ten.