Kandy - Kandy, Sri Lanka
Kandy, Sri Lanka
Kandy 7th September Colombo to Kandy We were up and ready by 7.15am to leave for the train station. We had booked the 8.15am Expo rail train, the expensive one at £7 each for the 2.5hr journey to Kandy. We rather surprisingly found the station and the platform with relative ease so sat and waited for our train. It wasn't long before we had many of the local commuters asking where we were from and where we were going. We were also joined by a very large family and the children were fascinated with our strange faces and my painted nails. We waited and waited and were starting to get a bit panicky that we would miss our train, but we were told by a deaf man that it would be along around 9am! Steve and this kind chap were communicating by writing on each others hands! We finally boarded the train at 9.30am - an hour and 15 minutes late! but we were quickly leaving the hustle and bustle of Colombo behind us. We went through many simple yet beautiful villages and saw the locals go about their daily lives. As we climbed higher and higher the scenery was breathtaking - made all the better by being able to see it from an open observation carriage. On arrival in Kandy we were quickly in a Tuk Tuk heading towards our hotel to drop off our belongings at Charlton Rest Hotel. Another quirky hotel from the outside. We opted not to have the first room they showed us that was situated slap bang in the middle of the restaurant! And took another one in the courtyard. We ventured out to see the local sites of the lake and to grab a bite to eat at 'Devon Restaurant' a great local hangout for a cheap eat! We had bought tickets for the local Kandy dancing show (£2.50) which we were slightly sceptical of at first as it was in what looked like a village hall - but on came dancers and drummers and by the end of the performance we were in ore! That wasn't the last of the show - as outside was a firepit!!! A brilliant experience. We headed back to our hotel for dinner and I went for a quick shower! I opened the bathroom door only to be confronted by a giant cockroach!!!! It quickly scuttled out of the bathroom and under the bed! Which I very bravely kicked out of the door! I then proceed to have a shower - but kept my flipflop on for safe measure! Cockroach saga over we then had dinner! Being typically British we had a final cup of tea and hit the sack thinking of the great day we had just had! However for the next 5 hours we had to listen to several ****** up Brits getting louder and louder outside of our room- we finally nodded off close to 3am!!! 8th September Kandy Our day started off fairly late trying to catch up on lost sleep from the night before! But Steve had promised to play football (he was a stand in for one of the guys who worked in our hotel) it was the standard Sunday knock about. Two friendly lads aged about 18 picked us up to take us to their 'pitch' - first stop was one of their houses so we could meet their brothers and sisters and shake hands with all the local residents. We were definitely not a usual sight in the back lanes of Kandy. We made our way through the twist and turns of the local houses which were packed closely together and consisted of 2 small rooms. We shook hands and said hello to almost everyone we passed. Built high on the hill the views were simply stunning and we soon found our way to the local 'pitch' a large uneven courtyard nestled in between the local houses. Steve obviously was wearing his England shirt and expectations were high - we even drew a crowd! All of the local boys came out to watch. The standard was good and the uneven pitch was causing Steve a few issues even though he was the only one wearing footwear. The game lasted an hour whilst catherine was surrounded by the younger boys asking every question about her nails, London, family and going through all the photos on our phones with eager fascination. The game ended, we had numerous photos taken and were taken up above the houses for a birds eye view of Asigiriya Cricket Stadium, a previous test match stadium and considered one of the most beautiful in the world. This is what travelling is about