Mandy in Kandy
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2005
1
8
27
Trip End
Apr 30, 2006
Where I stayed
Kandy, Sri Lanka
Friday, November 25, 2005
It's lucky that I like Kandy, since I have now spent 12 nights here altogether!
Kandy is a large town in the hill country of Sri Lanka, so it's a bit cooler than the coast. It's become my home town in Sri Lanka since it has all the amenities and sells whatever you might need (of variable quality of course).
I spent about five days here initially and saw all the tourist sites. The buddhist Temple of the tooth, Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, Kandyan dancing etc.
After staying at a nice but rather empty guest house I moved to The Olde Empire. Despite the dingy rooms, the cold shower curry smelling bathroom which is shared with guests and staff alike and the early morning alarm of hawking and spitting (oh, that's after the even earlier alarm when the buddhists at the temple get their funk on at five am with drumming and chanting) - it has to be my favourite place. I liked it so much that I came to think of one room as my own and they kindly refrained from cleaning it in between visits so I could recognise the pile of sand and bottle of tonic that I'd left there the time before. The wonderful wooden floors are polished daily and heady incense is swung round. The house plants and floral desplays are lovingly tended by their betel chewing guardian and the front balcony is a great place to meet fellow travellers.
I was keen to get on with the project and was lucky to arrange to be picked up from kandy a few days early.
