We are staying in Kandy for another two days to explore and relax. However we have found out that Kandy is not the place for relaxation. It is a small town packed full of shops in historic buildings ruined with huge plastic signs. The roads are constantly crowded with cars, tuk tuks and bus beeped and each other loudly. At night the stray dogs howl in unison with each other along with the ever beeping traffic. On top of that you have a strong Buddhist and Muslim community here so you hear the chants daily from all the different groups. Your constantly stared at or hassled on the streets by drivers or shop owners and you begin to feel you can't trust anyone that speaks to you as they tend to have a hidden motive to get money out of you. However if your able to put up with all of that then you can appreciate how different their life is, everything is so cheap here there are people with nothing ranging from people with some. The dresses and outfits are so colourful and sometimes you even get a smile back or a turn under their sun umbrellas. This is the first time either of us has explored a country like this and it is taking time for us to feel comfortable with it but I know we will eventually.

The day after we arrived we headed into town by foot and walked down to Kandy's lake, it was a Buddhist Full Moon holiday so we weren't able to visit the Temple of the Tooth, which we had planned, but instead walked around the whole of the lake spotting iguanas, turtles, cranes and kingfishers. After we headed to get some food, the bakeries here have restaurants behind them serving curries, after some crazy hand gestures our waiter finally understood that Nicole could not eat peanuts and almonds. He served us a selection of curries and rice, it was quiet hot but delicious! We headed back to rest as it was so warm in the sun, we had tried to follow the custom of using an umbrella to shelter but we only received bemused looks.... Guess We'll just have to tan, what a shame! In the evening we realised we would have to cancel our plans to head over to a town called Galle at the end of our trip, so we spent the time reorganising our and munching on snacks.

The following day we woke up hot and restless the power went off during the night so no fan! We decided not to head out until later to miss the midday heat. We went into town and grabbed some snacks from a bakery a fish bun, rock cake, vegetable roll and fish roll. We scoffed these down looking at the lake and then headed into the Temple of the Tooth. The security is quiet strict and we had to take our shoes off to explore it but it was stunning to see. We didn't really know what we could or couldn't do so we were a bit cautious. The temple had a tranquility in the ever busy town Kandy, the building and stone was ornately carved with pictures depicting Buddha or Buddhism. You can't see the actual tooth as it is only open on certain days, but this did not bother us. One off the roofed buildings is plated with gold and shines against the sun beautifully, we can see it from our room. We went for dinner and had this large onion bossa, which was like a huge fried popadom stuffed with onions and served with curry, Matt had a curry he chose against the waiters choices and was a little too spicy for him! That evening back in our room we watched the sun set and the nearby temple burning incense.