Kandy

I went to Kandy last weekend to tour the second largest city in Sri Lanka and some of the surrounding area. On the way there I stopped at a tea factory, where I had a tour of how they process the leaves into tea. They dry them first, which makes sense, and then grind them several times and sort out larger parts and stems, also makes sense. What I didn’t realize was that black teas are fermented! Actually oxidized, but everyone says fermented. Which, my tea factory guide told me, is why black teas have more caffeine than green or white tea, because only black teas are fermented. However, a quick online search sort of disproved her and said the oxidation process doesn’t really have anything to do with it. It’s more about where the tea is grown, what types of leaves are used, how finely the leaves are crushed and mostly how the tea is brewed. Anyway, then they continue the drying and grinding process to make it even finer and sort it to be sold.

After that I went to the botanical gardens outside of the city, which was quite large, had a few different rows of palm trees, lots of giant bamboo, a pond, and an orchid house. I wish I had brought a lunch in with me and could have sat in the gardens for longer. I walked along the scariest suspension bridge I've ever been on also. There were a bunch of baby monkeys playing in the water at the pond as I was leaving, so I did watch them for awhile.

Then after a bit of rest at the hotel, which was sub-par this trip unfortunately, I went to a cultural show, where they did several different forms of dance as well as fire walking! All of a sudden towards the end of the show, a man started waving at the audience to stand up and move closer so we could see where they had laid the fire on the ground. I’ve seen fire walking before, but never from this close!

On Sunday I went to the Temple of the Tooth Relic. The story goes that when Buddha died in India, his body was cremated, and someone saved his tooth, which was given to the King, and it became a sacred, royal possession. However some king’s fought over it and eventually some were going to invade the one who had it and destroy it, but that king sent away with his daughter and son-in-law to Sri Lanka. Then it was passed to different kings who treasured it and built temples to keep it safe. It played an important historical and political role in Sri Lanka when the British came as well. These are some pictures from the temple in Kandy where it currently resides.

After that I went to Pinnalawa Elephant Orphanage, where we watched elephants bathe in the river. I had lunch by the river as well, and the second picture is the view I had during my lunch. Then I got to bottle feed a baby elephant! He drank it very quickly so there wasn’t time for a photo.

Finally there was a long drive back to Colombo.