Hotel Topaz Kandy

... mais arrive la, c'est pas mon hotel! En fait la veille le tuc tuc m'avait depose a un autre hotel et j'avais pas fait gaffe an nom! Donc l'autre a voulu m'embrouiller, mais je le savais car dans mon bouquin ils en parlent de ces mecs qui veulent te depouiller. Je suis un peu vert cependant car ce gars m'a dit que tout le monde voit qui je suis avec mon piercing et mes tatoos aux mollets....<br>Suis alle au lachmi boire une biere et reserver un tour pour aujourdhui, puis suis ...

... occasions takes place here) and Pallemale Buduge (lower floor shrine). This latter contains a large gold-plated seated Buddha and a small crystal Buddha shrine. A very friendly monk talked to me here and I told him how the temple was very reminiscent in style to the Tibetan Buddhist temples. A Cambodian monk also appeared and was chatting to me in a very broad American dialect!<br><br>I also went into the Pattirippuwa (Octagon), which contains a library of ...

... mobs. At the Elephant Orphanage motherless calves are raised by human foster parents who ply them with bottled milk five times a day and give them an occasional swig of beer in an effort to help preserve Asia's dwindling wild-elephant population. There was even one elephant who had stepped on a land mine and had 3 legs! It was an interesting place but the handlers looked as thought they ruled by ...

... a bond with couple of these beauties. One huge ele was fascinated with Tom's bead bracelet, convinced that it was something yummy and spent the best part of ten minutes wrestling with him. Another called Homily had stepped on a land mine a few years ago out in the wild which destroyed half her front left leg. She was found and taken to the Orphanage and since then has adapted to walking/hopping on three limbs. As a result her spine ...

... new technique that day; if you get on a bus and there are no seats; keep your bag on your back. If you are pitched backwards it can provide a useful cushion and if you remain upright it terrifies anyone within swing range. It's amazing how quickly a seat becomes available. We arrived in Kandy with no idea where the hotels were situated, far less a reservation but one place had been recommended, the Sharon Inn, where half of all westerners are claimed to stay. It appeared to be ...

... the name from Manjula, but forgot.) Then we passed through curd and treacle country. There literally was a stall selling the ceramic pots of buffalo curd (creamy yoghurt like) and pineapple tree syrup (treacle) every few feet. I eventually sampled the delicacy and it was devine. The curd was nicer than the creamiest and loveliest greek yogurt that I became addicted to in my last few years in London. We stopped at many Buddhist temples ...

... whacked' on the head to calm it down, Nic almost fainted. As it was my birthday we decided a little celebration was in order so we headed off to the local pub to have some beer - to be honest, the lankans know how to make a decent drop and the view over kandy lake was wonderful. The tooth temple issue The most famous thing in Kandy is a temple called the 'temple of the sacred tooth', as it contains 'the tooth of the buddha'. The Lankans are ...

... on the soil the colour of baked blood and read everything which Nalien hands to me. In response, I help him translate some sentences from German into English. <br><br>Soon I must leave. I have set myself a time limit and the time has come to start on the journey back to the north coast, back to what is called civilization. As yet nobody knows that I will presumably be the last foreigner, Hudhu Hura, to come here for some time. The sun is shining through the foilage, casting ...

... almost content crackers and she had left me more than normal to clean. 30 minutes of shifting 8 foot palm leaves and throwing vast amounts of poo down an embankment does tend to clear the head but I am not sure we could really market it as a hangover cure and it's certainly the most bizarre way I have ever spent News Years morning! After a well earned breakfast the next job on my list was my washing, since I was here last year the ...

... the next day. That night we got on it again on a second wind, and as it was Friday night, the local nightclub, Lords, was apparently worth checking out. What the hell. So it turned into another night of debauchery, dancing to cheesy dance with the DJ's sud spray gunner churning out clouds of bubbles over the dance floor. The odds of meeting my future Swedish travel babe were very much against me - 10 guys to 1 gal. Disappointing. I did meet two geezas from Essex though, Darren and Lee ...