4. Onwards to Kandy 🛕

 

Giant buddha statue on the hilltops overlooking Kandy 

After a very relaxing two day stay in Pinnawala we felt about as ready as possible for our next ride. 

My new garmin watch is starting to pay dividends and my back seat navigation has already saved us from a few wrong turns 😉. Max is relieved that I'm no longer asking him how many miles/hills we've got left - I prefer to know whereas he's the exact opposite!

Based on the total elevation it was clear this was going to be a fairly tough ride. The main sting came at about 10 miles into the ride. Thankfully we had a fair bit of shade along the route and for the most part we were cycling along fairly pleasant country lanes.  

As we reached the top of the first tough climb we spotted quite a few monkeys up in the trees and crossing the overhead wires. I was thinking about stopping to take a photo but, before I had the chance, one of the cheeky blighters pooped from on high and it landed right on my back!! 

Max tried his best to to scrape it off and, as we'd stopped beside a small waterfall, I took off my cycle shirt to attempt to wash it as best I could.  Just as I'm standing there, the road (which had been very quiet up to this point) turned into a mini rush hour 🫣🫣. A bus swung round the corner and stopped to let a crowd of passengers off and a tuk tuk driver simultaneously decided to stop and chat to Max. I was suddenly surrounded by crowds of people all staring at me standing there in my rather unflattering sports bra 😬!!. I battled to put my now soaking wet cycle shirt back on, which despite my vigorous attempt at cleaning was still sporting a large sludgy brown stain across the back!! On the plus side, as we continued with the rest of the climb I actually welcomed that cold wet shirt - it kept me slightly cooler than I would otherwise have been. Also, Max noted that, by the end of the ride, I seemed to have completely got rid of the stain with my sweat. Yuk!! 

Overall it was tough climbing but we just about coped. Lots of nice locals cheered us on along the way, the scenery was pleasant and the roads nice and quiet until we approached Kandy. On the outskirts along the river there was plenty of evidence of damage from the recent cyclone which we'd heard had hit Kandy pretty badly. We joined a main road and had a nice pitstop at a traditional Sri Lankan cafe. The food looked really good (and has since been recommended to us as one of the best of it's kind in Sri Lanka!) but we just settled for a lovely cold fresh mango juice - only 50p for both of us 🥰. 

This set us up for the final steep climb into Kandy through very heavy tooting traffic most of the way. We were very relieved to reach our next stay - the Sun Dove Suite (situated up a very steep and windy road) - where another warm welcome and a lovely room awaited us 🤩. 

We'd booked a three night stay here to give us enough time to both rest and explore. We'd skipped Kandy on our last visit to Sri Lanka so were very keen to see it this time round. We quickly realised that, although our hotel was less than twenty minutes walk into the centre, it wasn't going to be a very practical or peaceful experience and so decided to rely on tuk tuks (and the local pick me up app) to get around instead. Every time we went out/returned I wondered how we'd ever cycled the steep, windy road up to Sun Dove Suite in the first place and I was desperately trying not to think about the descent back out again when we left 🫣🫣. 

One of the absolute highlights was breakfast here. The hotel was run by a lovely family - she was an amazing cook and we sampled many different types of Sri Lankan foods each day. Her husband, Prabah would explain the dishes being served and what to mix with what and as a result I found myself starting to really enjoy it 😋.  It was certainly the best food we ate while in Kandy and, although we did try a few traditional restaurants, while the food was pleasant enough, it didn't come close to the very high bar this had set each morning. We did have a really nice experience at a dosa restaurant on the first evening though. The owner was very friendly and welcoming and insisted we sat upstairs to enjoy the view (there wasn't one). Though the restaurant was very basic, the food was very tasty and incredibly cheap. We ordered enough food for three people and paid a fraction of what we went on to spend afterwards on coffee and ice-cream at an italian cafe round the corner. 

At breakfast on the first morning we chatted to a young couple from Bedford who'd arrived in Kandy the day before us and were on a whistlestop tour. They'd crammed a lot into their day but when we asked for their top recommendation they cited the botanical gardens. We decided to follow their lead and, having dropped our washing off at a laundry place in town, we negotiated with a tuk tuk driver to take us there. It didn't disappoint and we spent a couple of hours wandering round the most beautiful grounds with a huge variety of displays - the Orchid House, the Avenue of Palms, Giant Javan Fig Tree and the Giant Bamboo to name but a few highlights 🤩. It was so serene and with plenty of shade too - the perfect antidote to the full on hustle and bustle in the centre of Kandy.

The next day we arranged with another tuk tuk driver to take us around the main sites in Kandy. Over the course of about four hours we took in: 

- Asgiri Maha Vihara (a stunning buddhist temple)

- Sri Maha Bodhi Viharaya (a huge Buddha statue on the hilltop which can be seen from everywhere in Kandy) this was my favourite site 🤩

- Sri Dalada Maligawa (a large temple and the site of the sacred tooth relic of Buddha) 

- Buddhist Museum (which was really interesting and informative)

At the end of the tour we went to a traditional dance show at the Kandyan Cultural Centre. Whilst not dissimilar to shows we've seen previously in both Kerala and Laos it was certainly a very colourful and energetic hour - stunning costumes and very skilled acrobatic dancing (one involving fire 🔥). At one point a bat appeared in the theatre and was flying around all over the place - we'd noticed hordes of bats flying around in Kandy the night before which was a very strange sight. Anyway, being distracted by this bat in the theatre we then noticed some spare chairs at one side of the theatre which, instead of being neatly stacked, had simply been thrown bonfire style into one huge heap at the side! 

No sooner than we'd stepped outside on the first morning Max spotted a flat rear tyre 🫣. Never one to leave a monkey on his back he was itching to fix it asap and promptly set about doing just that. It didn't take him long to deduce that it wasn't a puncture but more a case of the inner tube having disintegrated in the heat! Luckily he'd brought a spare so the problem was easily fixed but we both agreed that it might be a good idea to get hold of another spare at our earliest opportunity (yet still wanting to believe the old adage that lightening never strikes twice!!).

This was the cheeky monkey 😂

The waterfall where I then tried to wash my cycle shirt 

Beautiful views as we climbed into the hills

Road closed due to cyclone damage on the outskirts of Kandy 

The botanical gardens in Kandy 

Giant bamboo in the gardens 

The Avenue of Palms

Inside the temple Asgiri Maha Vihara 

Vista of Kandy from the Giant Buddha site 

The most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen 

This bridge was damaged by the cyclone 

Sitting by the lake in Kandy 

The sacred tooth relic 

Posing by the lake 😂

Kandyan dancing 

Kandyan dancing 

The edge of Kandy's lake at night 

The view of Kandy from the rooftop terrace of Sun Dove Suite