onsdag 29 januari 2020

Sri Lanka - part 7

Kandy turned out to be a busy and quite modern town, partly set on a very steep hill. And high up on the hill was where we found Le leopard d 'argent.




A number of buildings surrounded by, or rather in the midst of, the jungle. Sometimes visited by silver leopards, and more oftenly, like today, by monkeys.




The proprietor turned out to be a French expat with culinary ambitions. It suited us quite well since we didn't really feel like driving all the way down the hill for thirty minutes to get some dinner. It was actually the first non-Sri Lankan food we'd had since coming here (apart from the odd pizza). The Sri Lankan food is fantastic, but this was a nice change nonetheless.

After a good nights sleep and a morning spider scare we set out on a day full of excursions on the long road to Negombo.

We started with Kandy's famous Royal Botanical Garden. Their renowned collection of orchids left lots to be desired, but there were plenty of other things to like.






Before we left the Kandy area, we stopped at a wood craft shop. Exquisite work, but a bit bulky for  light travellers. They showed off theor magical skills in making different dyes from nothing but sawdust, fruit juice and electrolytes.







Next stop - the gem store. We learned that Sri Lanka is the only place in the world where there are blue sapphires. And everything else about traditional mining methods.



It was all very interesting but we refrained from buying anything.

We could not help ourselves at the next stopt hough - the ayurvedic spice garden. Super interesting tour topped off with buying an assortment of remedies to cure almost anything.






Final stop before hitting the tarmac was an elephant sanctuary. We learned about elephants, we rode elephants, we washed elephants.




And then we hit the road.

We arrived in Negombo just in time for the goilden hour on the beach.




Early next morning, it was time to say good bye to Sri Lanka for now.

A truly wonderful country, well worth a second visit.

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