St Andrew'S Hotel Kandy

... They all seemed really happy squirting water at each other. There were a few tiny babies, a massive old blind one called Raja and one with only 3 legs.<br><br>After lunch we went into the orphanage itself to see them being fed. The older ones grazing on the grass and the tiny babies being bottle fed by the keepers. It was a bit bizarre watching these little elephants guzzling bottle after bottle of milk, but very cute.

... disappointed. That didn't take away from our experience, though. The temple itself is really beautiful and the parts that were repaired because of a bomb blast (civil war suicide bomber) fit in decently. The tooth itself is encased in a huge silver casket which is locked away in a room on the second floor. So be warned, you never see Buddha's tooth. We ended up coming back to see the temple later that night around 6:30pm and the room where ...

... inside. There is quite a large population of Tamil's in the hill country - a lot of them brought to SL from India by the British to work on the tea estates. However the Tamil culture in the Hill Country is very different to that in the North of the country and the Hinduism practiced here is not as strict with less support for LTTE. Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage I know that there were elephants last weekend in the ...

... the rock - the mouth had long since gone but the paws remain. Unesco has build some stairs and platforms along the rock but it was a pretty precarious climb - luckily there was a handrail.! At the top there is the supposed ruins of the Kings Palace - historians aren't too sure about this but whatever the outcome what a Palace with a view it would have been.! It was totally fogged out for the first 30mins we were up there but the ...

... soon to be beaten out of him) for what was to be his first full tour. Now what he lacks in cricketing knowledge he makes up for in his Steve Harmison-like all action style, with a love of Puressence bordering on insanity. So off we set in a tuk tuk. Arriving in Negombo the plan was to take the commuter train to Colombo Fort station then hop on a train over to Kandy. However as with so many things it wasnt quite that simple ...

... matter. Sign language and smiles have largely taken their place. Siril´s Motorrickschaa is the swiftest, he claims. Indeed, from the inside it is freshly painted in red, while the windshield is decorated by a wildly sprouting bunch of pink, plastic roses. This seems very convincing. I jump aboard and quickly, building up a speed of 80 km. per hour we race into the dusk. My hair is tossed to all sides by the wind. I am nearing my destination. Finally.<br><br>We drive to Dambana ...

... well mostly the excrement of large fruit bats. The gardens are all in all some of the best I have seen on my travels, plus have more monitor lizards and monkeys!!! The evening I spent at the impressive tooth of Buddha temple, watching the ceremony and getting a brief look at the golden vase that holds Buddhas tooth. The temple has recovered from the tamal bombings a couple of years ago, but the tension is easy to gauge here ...

... 2 walks afterwards and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. On our last day we did a Sri Lankan cookery course so if you don't want us to cook you any Sri Lankan food when we get home, you should hide because we are very keen! From Ella we moved to Nuwara Eliya and as it was coming up to the Sri Lankan New Year, it was like a carnival town. They have horse racing, abig fayre ground and lots of stalls. It was like Blackpool in the middle of Sri Lanka. It started to rain and it didn't ...

Well here we go - grab a beer, some popcorn, sit back in your cosy recliner and enjoy the ride...cause if you're with me all the way, and I hope you will be, make yourself comfortable and relax! First things first, let me give you a brief intro on Sri Lanka, so you might have a vague idea of where it is and understand some of what the hell I'm waffling on about. Sri Lanka lies just off the south east coast tip of India, and is a pretty big island by anyone's standards. Marco Polo thought ...

... the train up to Kandy for the 2nd test.  We had expected the train to be rammed with fellow England supporters.  But no.  It seemed most had taken the bourgeouis route of hiring their own taxi for the 7 hour journey.  As it happened, the train was absolutely heaving, with more locals than Soft Mick, hanging from anything and everything.  Ill-advisedly, we had chosen to travel on a public holiday.  And in amongst this throng were Mr &amp; Mrs R and a diamond geezer named ...