Sri Lanka: Kandy & Colombo

Kandy is one of the major cities enroute to Colombo from Nuwara Eliya and lies in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. It was the capital of Sri Lanka prior to Colombo.

The city of Kandy seen from Bhairavakonda Vihara.

We reached Kandy early in the morning at 4 AM. Our hostel turned down our late reservation made at 11 PM the previous night, and we kept looking around for a place to sleep for a few hours till 5:30 AM. 

The reason we need a few hours of sleep was that we had spent the previous night sitting in a very fast bus from Ella, being buffetted from side to side in the hilly ghat section, braced against handles, seats, continuously operating thigh and leg muscles, unable to sleep a wink!

  

Krishna Dosai in Kandy is a great place to have breakfast, with a familiar South Indian dosa, idli, upma and wada.

Kandy City House where we stayed. It is a very cheap hostel, while clean enough. It was quite hot because there was no ceiling fan. A very tiny rotating fan provided the only wisps of air in a city with 75% humidity that made the 32 degree Celsius feel like we were half-way to hell. The cobwebs and layers of dust on the bathroom walls made me supersensitive to touch, and my spidersense was tingling.

"Expectations verus Reality," noticed by one of my friends! The girl in the poster of the car wash and the actual man reminded me of the government's tall promises and short delivery.

 Elephants being taken out to have a bath in the river at the elephant orphanage.

 Faces carved from coconut masks.

 Elephants being given a bath in the river.

 A baby elephant reaching out to take pineapple pieces from my hand.

 Cherry Blossoms by the roadside on the way back to Kandy from the elephant orphanage.

 White cherry blossoms on the way back from the elephant orphanage to Kandy.

The hills around Kandy.

 Bhairavkonda Vihara - one of the highest points. The Buddha statue itself can be climbed from the back and there are 5 stories of stairs leading up the Buddhas ear.

 The view from the top of the Buddha at Bhairvakonda Vihara.

 
 The city of Kandy from Bhairava Konda.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple built in the 1700's, where supposedly the sacred relic of the Buddha's tooth is kept.  The container is taken out for display on rare days, and the custodianship was related to kingship of Sri Lanka.

The  Buddha was supposedly cremated, and his teeth, ashes, hair and bones distributed to his eager followers across the world who then built temples to house these remains, so they can be prayed to.

A similar condition befell Muhammad, whose fallen hair is supposedly in a mosque in Kashmir (Hazrat Bal), and one of his fallen teeth in battle supposedly kept in Topkapi.

And of course, some European churches have claimed to be keepers of Jesus Christ's foreskin from his circumcision, the "Holy Prepuce". Another claims to have the umbilical cord of Jesus. One of the reasons we can't have more such bodily parts is because Christin teaching says Jesus ascended to heaven in his own body.

Of such legends do monasteries, temples and mosques draw their enormous power.

 Kandy Lake at night.

Vito's Wood Fired Pizza was a treat for dinner, and the ambience was great too. It was situated right on top of a hill, and meant a long 10 minute walk up. Excellent pizza that one must not miss if you are ever in Kandy! The bread was a little floppy for my liking, but the rest of it was perfection. The melting mozarella, just a hint of brown at the top, the chicken pieces still juicy and tender, a smoky flavor from the wood, the subtle flavor and aroma of basil and organo...

It was the best meal in Kandy we had, and as pizzas go, world-class and better than the cattle-grade Pizza Huts or Burger Kings.

Jami-ul-alfar (Red mosque) at Pettah Bazaar, Colombo

We started out at 4:30 AM the next morning and reached Colombo by 8:30 AM and began our walking tour after breakfast in the Pettah Bazar.

Colombo's Red Mosque was made in 1909 and is one of the biggest mosques that caters to Sri Lanka's small muslim minority.

 Another view of the Red Mosque from inside the premises.

St. Anthony's Shrine which supposedly has a tiny bit of tongue of St. Anthony built in 1834. I wonder how holy the dead tissue of his shrivelled and dessicated tongue is.

St. Anthony's Shine was one of the places attacked during the Easter Sunday attacks in April 2019 and 93 people were killed in suicide bombings. The Sri Lankan government has said all 7 attackers were associated with the National Thowheeth Jamaat, a jihadist group in Sri Lanka.

To truly be motivated enough to blow yourself up and to massacre other human beings may require an absolute conviction of belief in a cause beyond humanity.

 Altair Residences, a 69 storey residential complex in Colombo

 View across Beira Lake, Colombo

At Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

At Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo. This is a19th century Buddhist temple that also has a replica of Indian temple.

 Sri Lanka's National Museum.

 A huge banyan tree outside the National Museum.

 We went to Galle Face Hotel to avoid the heat. While it was only 32 degrees, the humidity of around 75% and the stillness of the air combined to make it feel like 45 degrees. The sun was shining bright enough for not a soul to be on the beach.

A drink was all I had at Galle Face Hotel, and two tall glasses of iced water, and moved out reluctantly back to restart the tour of Colombo.

 Independence Square and the monument to Sri Lankan independence. Sri Lanka became independent in 1948 from colonial British Rule.

 Bandarnayake International Memorial Conference Hall.

A 40-foot high Replica of Aukuna Buddha (original at Anuradhapura) in Colombo.

The deserted airport at Bangalore on the way back due to Covid-19 virus pandemic.