Monsters in the Lake!!!
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2006
1
167
172
Trip End
Jul 01, 2007
Kandy,
Sri Lanka
Monday, June 4, 2007
I didn't think you could get these things outside Indonesia, but in Lanka there have big f##k off monitor lizards. I thought I had come across a croc at first...these things are huge...like lots of the wildlife here as I am starting to get used to...spiders, snakes, monkeys...plus of course elephants everywhere!!!
The morning I spent around the old part of the town, watching evil troops of monkeys raiding offering left on Buddha shrines. I took a long hike to the top of a hill to the white Buddha look out for views across the Kandy hills and then a crammed local bus to the near by botanical gardens.
Actually here the nature hits you in the face, 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, as soldiers line the streets with automatic weapons and even white folk are searched completely before entering buildings.
My second day was top again.....first visitng some hill top temples. A high light due to meeting local school children, takig photos and of course I will send them back to the school at some point. Later in the day I did an elephant ride and bathed with the elephants, which was fun...although toursity. However what was much better was my trip to the herbal farm, to look at where everything comes from...for example never knew vanilla comes from a parasitic tree weed!!! After I went to a tea plantation, watched where you get your tetley from and ever wondered around the tea fields with the tea women picking away at the bushes...until I can across a massive snake nest and decided that this wasnt my environment to mess around in.
