After a really stupid row last night when Maggi accused me of not loving her any more. I decided not to go with her to yoga but have a little more sleep.
We met up again at breakfast. Today I had a full breakfast because we are travelling and there is no planned lunch stop. The theory behind the full early meal, nothing for lunch.
Our cases arrived at the exit of the property where we paid for all our extras. Our new driver, Caesar, introduced himself and for a Sri Lankan drove carefully. A typical Sri Lankan overtakes on a bend, pushes other road users over to a narrow part of the road and turns around to talk to us in the back seat, without a thought.
Caesar wanted to inform us about the history of Sri Lanka and tell two English people what a wonderful legacy the British had left and the local politicians had messed things up. Hopefully he says the new group in power won’t be corrupt.
First stop Kandy
Kandy is the second largest city in Sri Lanka according to Caesar. We drove up to a nice viewing point where we could look down on the city and see a) the man made lake b) The Temple of the Tooth (one of the Buddha’s teeth lies here), c) the main shopping street d) the statute of the Buddha overlooking the city from another high point.
As we left Kandy after our brief visit we stopped at a roadside pharmacy to buy some post mosquito bite medication. The pharmacist spoke excellent English and charged a lot less than we pay at home
Coconut Juice
Caesar suggested we stop at a coconut store where you can drink coconut juice directly from a golden coconut . When we pulled up but the place was shut. The weaving business next door called the proprietor who quickly arrived. He chopped one of the nuts from a bunch hanging by the roadside. He proceeded to chop the nut so that we could insert a straw and suck out the juice.
Our roadside salesman then then cut the coconut in half and we ate the thin layer of flesh inside, which had very little flavour.
Spice Garden
We travelled on towards our destination and our driver asked if we would like to visit a spice garden. We said yes and he soon pulled up at a car park with a few other tourists busses and cars. Caesar introduced us to our garden guide who showed us a variety of plants growing in the area. We smelled and hewed on various plants including cardamom, cloves, citronella and cinnamon.
He talked about the various Ayurvedic remedies that they produce for all sorts of conditions like varicose veins, itching, baldness and most of the regular infirmities that humans regularly suffer from. Of course the tour included the shop and we bought a bunch of stuff.
The Golden Statue
Our next stop in Dambulla to see the Golden Statue below the Cave temple. An enormous statue covered in gold leaf looks down on the road outside. At the moment the statue is partially covered by tarpaulin to renew the gold plate from the dirt caused by wear and tear and the monkeys.
Arrive – Kumbukgaha
We left the main road down a side road which then turned into a dirt track running through paddy fields. On either side we see the rice plants standing in water which leads us to be scared of mosquito bites and malaria.
Caesar stops outside our accommodation which looks fine and quite intimate. We immediately realise however that the standard of English of the staff is much less than at Santani. We are shown our room which has air conditioning a large double bed and is spacious. However the shower, basin and toilet are all outside at the back of the room. We’ll see how that arrangement works out.
While the room accommodation is okay the little things let the place down. Such things as toilet paper, sheets and towels are all cheap. In the room we have 3 hangers for two people staying for 3 nights and one shelf to lay out other items of clothing.
At 7 we walked across to the outside to have our meal. Both of us are disappointed with the quality of the food. The vegetables that accompanied the lentil curry are watery and tasteless. The food at Santani seem to be even better now that we have something to compare it with. The soup starter alo fell into the bland and uninteresting category.
I returned to the room hoping that tomorrow we will enjoy our trip with Caesar because we won’t be returning for food that is any good.