Well what a day this has been. Definitely a day of highs and lows so best I start at the beginning. Up this morning for breakfast, pack up and be picked up by Sanjana at 9am. This time he had a jeep to load us into and off we set. The itinerary was Kandy via Dambulla and the cave temples, some other sites along the way and then on to Kandy.
First stop Dambulla for the Cave Temples….bloody hell!! We hiked up to the ticket office and then we hiked and hiked and hiked up and up these giant, uneven steps which were fine for half the trip as there was a stone wall to hold on to and landings between reasonable sets of steps. So far so good!! In fact I was even feeling cocky that my pilates was really paying off. Then, as is the way, bingo, bango and all opportunities to hang on to anything at all vanished just as the steps got steeper and more uneven…then the man selling T shirts along the way cheerfully told us we were half way….HALF FUCKING WAY!!!!!!! Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Buddha!!!!
I stuck with it though and fortunately my own personal Buddha was endlessly patient and acted as an anchor when needed. I have to add to this story that a Dutch woman in our Guesthouse last night told us it was ‘a little bit up’….I just do not know where these European mountains goats are coming from. I think they just like to see us suffer. Anyway we made it up to the Temple Caves and it was really worth the effort. They were gorgeous, filled with massive buddhas and impressive rock art. There are 5 of them in a row and they are really magnificent.
Then on we went to the next stop which was a C1 temple with lovely stone carvings in what is supposed to be the true centre of Sri Lanka. I don’t know the name and Rose has LPG in her room but it was very nice as I write this.
Next stop a Herb and Spice Garden. A ‘guide’ leapt on us on arrival and took us around for ‘free’. He was a herbalist with a daughter studying in Melbourne. He went through many herbs and spices and their powders, tablets, creams and oils, all of which he spread all over us. This ointment for Rose’s red skin(not really red), these tablets for me to lose weight…in fact if he mentioned that one more time I was going to punch him in the nose. No charge for all this except if we wanted to buy the products at the end. The tablets that were going to save my life (lower my cholesterol that isn’t up, cure my heart that is actually fine, and make me immedately lose weight – probably can’t argue with that one) were $130 for 2 weeks supply…guess I just have to die quietly!! We bought the cheapest things we could find…creams to improve both our skins and Citronella to try and keep the mozzies away.
On we went to Kandy and here our woes started. The traffic was horrible and the trip was taking ages. We then plug in the address for our ‘homestay’ (a fact that we hadn’t realised when we booked) into Sanjana’s GPS and we enter these backroads…climbing, climbing, climbing and seemingly miles away from Kandy. We took ages to find it after wrong turns and dead ends. Anyway we eventually got here and were dropped off by a very relieved Sanjana who couldn’t wait to get rid of his responsibilities. We said we thought we might have made a mistake and he just said ‘Yes’!! We paid him extra for his day so it cost $130….probably fair!!
We found our hosts and this place is weird as!! The woman is just hard to describe and the kindest reason for her weirdness would be that she was dementing. Once again I had to endure comments such as whether the two of us could fit into a Tuk Tuk!!! She kept asking Rose questions about me as if I wasn’t there and popping out to ambush us whenever we’re near. A very strange woman and by this time we both were totally despondent…this was definitely a mistake. We agreed we needed a drink…pronto…and ordered a Tuk Tuk to take us into town….an expensive ride compared to what we’re used to.
But then, as is the way with travel the worm turned once again. Rose picked out a pub from LPG … a lovely relic of the colonial era and we sat on a lovely balcony and ordered our wine and beer. Now here is the next discrimination for the wine drinker. You can’t buy a glass in Kandy (in the pub I mean) and have to buy a bottle…the price of a bottle $33 !! I asked if I could take the bottle away if I didn’t drink it and the answer was no, they have to have the empty bottle to demonstrate to the govt that it has been drunk on the premises….well shit!!!
In the midst of all this we met Bob from Bendigo who has been living in Kandy since his beloved wife of 50 yrs died 2 years ago. Bob most assuredly had the alcoholic shakes but we both loved Bob immediately. He encouraged me to take on the bottle of wine as a challenge.
So I had a couple of glasses and told them to keep it for me while we went off walking and we’d come back for a meal. They happily did this. In the meantime Bob had gone off on his pub crawl of the old Colonial Pubs in Kandy….impressive!! We went off for a walk around town and when we arrived back to eat Bob had come back ( I think he loves us too….he’s very lonely). So we ate and it was predictably easy to finish off the bottle of wine with our meal. We have arranged to meet up with Bob tomorrow night and he will take us around to his pubs and to the restaurant he likes to eat at. I think we’ve made a friend for life!!
Our Tuk Tuk driver came back to pick us up as pre-arranged….God knows how anyone would know how to get here other than this driver who lives down the road.
Rose came back to my room and as she was leaving to go to her room the mad woman popped her head out of the window and accosted her. I quietly locked my door with a self satisfied grin which soon left my face when I realised I couldn’t get hot water out of the shower…..What a day!!!