Thilanka Kandy

... them you’re travelling will make any difference! The digs were in a lovely location.

In the afternoon I arranged to visit a number of places with Tara, but the afternoon was to prove to be a disaster in one way, yet not in another! Kandy is an absolutely lovely town. Capital of the Hill Country, at 500m altitude it’s got lush, forested hills, nicely landscaped settings and, its piece de resistance, a beautiful lake. Thankfully, there are no ...

... since there didn't seem to be any food anywhere we just pushed on. The site itself is actually quite small with about 12 wooden pillars clustered together under a wooden roof. The pillars are supposed to be the finest in Sri Lanka and they really were quite amazing with all the detailed woodwork up and down them. Even the roof had really nice woodwork. The area really doesn't need more than about 15 minutes which is funny considering the ...

... com condutor para os proximos dias e encontramo-nos na estacao de Kandy. Com o nosso condutor viajava o Karl, um jovem Alemao de regresso a casa depois de varios meses na Australia e Sudoeste Asiatico, que se juntou a nos por um par de dias. A noite estavamos a conversa a volta de umas cervejas, e a contar a nossa historia de Pushkar quando o nosso condutor Indiano completamente emborrachado, quando o Priyantha - o nosso condutor e guia - apareceu visivelmente ...

... lots of temples, tea museum, and the beautiful botantical gardens where we saw lots of huge fruit bats among the foliage. The Big Budda temple was great, and we were showed around by one of the monks there, who talked us through the temple and its history including the tree in the grounds grown from a cutting from the original Bohdi tree that Buddah found enlightenment. We were both blessed and exchanged emails ...

... evening in the Queens Hotel - the Barmy Army's base for the duration of the Test match. The beers were very welcome, as was the no-nonsense talk predominantly about cricket and football! Armed with our 'Barmy Army' tour t-shirts, and wristbands giving us access-all-areas within the ground, we eventually headed home, passing a KFC and Pizza Hut which both appeared to be increasing their takings ten-fold thanks to the newly arrived English fans.

... of the natural forces, these people have believed in for centuries, and the Buddhist faith. A quarter of a century ago the Veddas still lived practically entirely in caves and were hunters and gathers. They built primitive but impressive traps from wood and stones, shot deer with bows and arrows. Their cultural symbol, the axe, without which no male Vedda may venture out, is by no means an agricultural tool. Once, they populated the entire island, but after a long succession of ...

Having bucked the trend with not having a birthday this year I am compensating by having 2 News year's days instead Today is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and is of course a Bank Holiday (Sri Lanka having more bank holidays than any other country in the world with at least one every month) to give you an idea so far in April we have had Sunday 1st April Holy Prophets Birthday Monday 2nd April Poya Day / Full Moon Friday 6th April Good ...

... the fact I did not wish to wet myself in front of a now large group of people I stepped round the side of the building and was glad it was too dark to see the sheer drop below. The toilet was as I had expected a tradition drop/squat toilet (the name really says it all!) with no light but by then I did not care. The trip down the stairs was slightly easier and after I thanked every one we set off to the van although we stopped a few times to buy egg hoppers it still took ...