Tourmaline Hotel Kandy

... a pretty slow pace around here, there are also a few remnants of the just finished civil war, road blocks ready at major intersections and buildings and plenty of Military walking around with Fully Automatic Assault rifles.<br><br>Once in Kandy we settled down at the hotel, went to tailor to get some clothes for the wedding in 2 days and went to the temple of the sacred tooth to view the Rajah Tusker. All of this was a silly silly idea considering how much we'd slept in the last 48 hours.<br>

... area sampling all the new foods. Sri Lanka is all about curry dishes. A typical meal consists of rice and about 4 small sides of curry some of which are: a yummy mashed potato type dish, a diced up spinach dish (that we never really liked), a boiled potato dish that was usually pretty yummy, slices of barely cooked squash (one of my favorites), and a few others that varied on the region. The curries didn't really range too much ...

... don't travel by public transport (that's ******* a budget - so I dismiss that one) and stay clear from large crowds! This crowd was one of the largest possible in Sri Lanka, and I heard a figure of 800,000 pilgrims on the day I arrived! Strangely enough it was easy enough to find accommodation (I assume most pilgrims are day trippers). The next day I heard the display of the Tooth was cancelled, because the police couldn't control the crowds anymore. Luckily enough there had ...

... area outside the airport was very confusing and we strolled up and down the path looking for a bus for over 45 minutes. It seemed as though there weren't any, and we were knackered, so we succumbed and hired a taxi to take us to the nearest big town, Negombo, for a rip off fee. 10 minutes later we were at the bus stop and boarded a local bus, for one tenth of the price we paid for the taxi, bound for Kandy. My first impressions of local transport in Sri Lanka ...

... when he took us to the meat market and we legged it... there were camel heads, goats heads, cow heads.... you name it all on display.... hung up for the world to see and it stunk- yuck, not really what a vege wants to see!! Kandy is the 2nd biggest city in Sri Lanka and it's very busy at the moment as the new year dawns near, everyone is out shopping to buy themselves new clothes! It's a traditional thing, they start the new year with the a new outfit.... people after my own ...

... ticket back to Colombo. On the short walk down to the station I must have seen 2000 monkeys, even having to walk round groups of them rummaging through bin bags at the side of the road, now I realised why the waiters were bemused by my fascination. The return ticket to Colombo cost 75p second class, I was going to spalsh out the extra 50p for first but it was full. Still the extra $78.50 did let me see the elephants eh? So the next day I left my nice ...

... I am in search of the aboriginal people of this island. I know nothing about them, not even if they still exist. But, travelling into the unknown is always exciting. I have no luggage. I am travelling with only a hand bag I can sling across my shoulder. Having innumerable pockets I always open all of them, when I am looking for something, even though I have taken memorably few items along. A ball-point pen, a camera, a map, a notebook, one hair and toothbrush, my mobile phone ...

... pay a silly amount of money to reserve a seat for the festival considering how many people there are at the Festival - or you need to sit on the floor and wait all day so you dont loose your spot (there were some peope there from early morning). However, we were incredibly lucky/cheeky... I spotted some random security check point right next to where the Festival starts and decided to walk through... i got searched but they must have presumed i was supposed to be there.. the ...

... and as we will have a number of Vets in attendance we said he could bring the cow as well as his pet dog (note to self must mention the cow to the Vets before the Clinic) At this point I must say a very big thank you to those people in the UK and members of the Refuge internet forum www.rykat.org that have sent donations for the first clinic. I will be talking photographs and videos of the entire day so you can see what you have all ...

... heads adorning the walls that's now used as a breakfast room. The huge balcony overlooks beautiful Kandy Lake and the floorboards creek with an age of wisdom. I've been to Sri Dalada Maligawa temple (or Temple of the Tooth) which supposedly houses a sacred tooth of the Buddha. For centuries the tooth has been passed from pillar to post, the Portuguese in one of their spoilsport moods in the 16th century, decided to take it and burn it with Catholic fervor in Goa, but little did they know ...