Day 7 – Kandy
First stop a gem stone museum and jewellery shop. Learnt how precious stones are mined by hand and no hard hats. Lots of pretty stones, gold and silver and then the sales pitches. Mr MasterCard was sweating in my wallet and just when he thought it was safe, he got hammered.
They kind of lock you into the shops (for security) and it makes it very difficult to leave. I swear if they installed a whisky bar, they’d make a killing as it’ll be somewhere for the other half’s to hang around, whilst the better half’s are looking at shiny stones.
Then onto the Giragama Tea factory. Fascinating to see 1960s British machinery still in action. We learnt how tea types depend on how high they are grown, how the leaves are picked (mostly multiple farmers sell to the factory here), graded, air dried, ground, fermented (not green tea), roasted (using a wood burner burning rubber wood specifically), ground again and stalks removed for compost, graded again and then (the only modern bit of machinery) laser zapped to ensure purity (duff stuff is taken out). Bagged and then off to either auction houses or direct to the big producers. They then add their flavouring to make our PG Tips.
Finished with a tasting session and the obligatory shop sell.
The rest of the group decided to head back to Kandy whilst Mrs Dude and I and another couple got dropped off halfway at the Royal botanical Gardens.
An amazing collection of manicured gardens and green houses. Stopped for a lime and soda, and banana spilt (incorrectly spelt for our amusement).
The gardens are well worth a visit for some downtime.
What followed was a crazy tuktuk ride for 5-6km into Kandy city centre. These guys have no care for driving on the correct side of the road or the pavement. Passengers waiting for buses on the road had to dodge out of the way of our crazy tuktuk driver. But that’s how they all drive and there are no accidents seemingly!
We wonder through town on our own finding a clothes market and then the Central Market. The central market was shop after shop of spices, clothes and sweet things, with everyone wanting to be your friend and entice you into their stall.
But all very pleasantly.
At one fridge magnet stall, I spied a Sri Lankan scout logo. The stall holder was very happy that I was a fellow Scouter and informed me that the local Scout hut was just up the road. He reconned it was open today so with poor directions interpreted, we headed off in search.
We found it quite easily but unfortunately it was all closed up. A tuktuk was parked in the carpark. A few wrong handed handshakes later, turns out he was a Scouter and he used the carpark to park up when he was off duty. He showed me round the building and was very apologetic that no one was in. They meet on Sunday afternoons, but we’re booked to be on a train tomorrow morning, so bummer. As his tuktuk was there and waiting, he brought us back to our hotel.
A quick turnaround and we headed off to a Cultural Show at the local Red Cross building. I didn’t really want to go but glad I did. Wow. Dancing, drums, acrobatics and a mental fire show at the end.
Dinner was at Senani by Oak Ray. Rooftop terrace, live music, western food (actually made a nice change), good vibes and amazing views and a good finish to our time in Kandy.
Train tomorrow, better get packing!
Travel Dude 