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AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, GOD CREATED ANTI-FLAMME!
"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it." - William Shakespeare
To get from Galle back to Colombo we opted to give the trains a go so we headed to the station to climb aboard. I'm told the scenery was spectacular; however we were jammed in between the section where the two carriages adjoin, sitting on top of our bags for the duration of the journey. Ah well, at least we were actually inside the train!
After a brief stop in Colombo (in a failed attempt to arrange visas for China) we hopped back on another train to Kandy. This time though we pushed and shoved our way in, along with all the locals, and managed to get an actual seat! Fortunately the scenery on this leg was absolutely stunning too and we were kept further amused by a sundry of salespeople selling passengers pineapples, breaded prawns, corn on the cob and an assortment of other goodies to stop tummies rumbling. The only down side to this service was that as soon as people had finished feasting all their rubbish was flung straight out the window!
The city of Kandy is a quaint township high up in Sri Lankan hill country … and with hill country comes RAIN! We spent our first morning wandering the botanical gardens (in the rain) … Joel wishes to point out that it was a very 'manly' botanical garden as it was full of bats, monkeys and big lizards! We then headed to one of the many tea factories to check out how Ceylon tea is made and to sample the finished product. After a nice cuppa we wandered through a traditional ayurdervic herbal garden (in the rain), learnt about local remedies for various ailments and had a rather unconventional massage-treatment on a bench in the middle of the garden. Feeling very relaxed and smelling like coconuts, we tuk-tuked up to the big Buddha statue on the hill above the city and took a few snaps of the view then went to check out a traditional Kandyian Dance Show complete with flamboyant costumes, impressive acrobatics and crazy fire-walkers! To top off a very busy (rainy) day-trip around Kandy we checked out the famous Temple of the Tooth, home to a tooth-relic that is believed to have come from Buddha's ashes.
Our next destination was Polonnaruwa, the ancient capital city of Sri Lanka where we spent a couple of days chilling out and of course viewing the ruins. It's a fascinating place to explore and the Buddhist temples are something quite special. We stayed at a lovely local lady's little homestay and enjoyed chatting with her about life in Sri Lanka, sharing some of our stories with her and of course eating the delicious home-cooked specialities she prepared for us. A hilarious highlight was watching a monkey steal a loaf of bread from a man's shopping bag and running high on to a roof-top, cackling in sheer delight, knowing that the man couldn't get to him. Gotta love monkeys!
From Polonnaruwa we decided to brave the hike up Adam's Peak to the site of the famous rock formation that Buddhists believe is the footprint of Buddha, Hindus believe is that of Shiva and Muslims and Christians believe is the footprint of Adam. After a couple of 5-hour, sticky bus rides and a lengthy but super-scenic tuk-tuk ride we finally made it to 'The White House', a charming little guest house at the foot of Adam's Peak.
Between December and March it is Pilgrimage season at Adam's Peak and sometimes an excess of 300,000 people PER DAY climb this hallowed mountain to pay homage to Buddha and observe his holy footprint. We were up and out the door by 2am to try and beat the rush and trek up the 5431 steps (2243m) in order to see the eminent sunrise. It felt quite bizarre being dressed up in our hiking clothes, hauling our sleepy selves up a mountain at crazy-o-clock in the morning but we were certainly not the only ones doing it. In fact, after hiking up, up and up for an hour and a half we suddenly came to a standstill, stuck in an colossal queue made up of tens of thousands of pilgrims all waiting in a very slow moving line to get to the top. After two and a half torturous hours (and a bit of barrier hopping) we managed to reach the temple at the summit just in time to see the sun rising over the mountains in the distance. It was truly spectacular and thoroughly worth the grind, although the surging mass of people at the top did get a little overwhelming. We were later told that over 100,000 pilgrims had chosen to climb the peak at the same time that we had!
Coming down step after step after step whilst trying to weave in and out of the hordes of people resting, walking and praying was taxing on the muscles and two days later our legs have still not recovered - I think I frightened a local man today, letting out a loud groan, when stepping down the curb to cross the road! Hobbling to the bus station, we made our way from Adam's Peak back to Colombo to (hopefully) get our visas for China.
Highs: The amazing tea-plantation scenery between Hatton and Adam's Peak, the predictable conversations with tuk-tuk drivers ("Ahh New Zealand, some little problem with cricket!") and the sleeping Buddha in Polonnaruwa.
Low: Shuffling up and down the two flights of stairs of our hotel … after Adam's Peak, I never want to see stairs again!
Next stop: Beijing, China (in'shallah)!
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