Nearby the elephant rides place there was a woodcarving workshop which was interesting, also a showroom full of all sorts of woodcarvings including many elephants
On the way back this evening we passed some rice paddy fields and an old British red post box, there are many relics and customs left over from the colonial days, they drive on the left of the road ( the correct side ) and the electric power sockets are various British ones. We come across a lot of mislaid colonies on our travels
Yes I have baked with it Chrissy and though I felt a bit odd eating the cookies I never got any stoned effect, maybe because I am already chilled anyway. I have given up trying anyway, though I guess I would see if it worked for relief of pain if and when that happens.
Awesome pics as usual, Terry. I'm sure I could have found some elephants to add to my collection there. I have saved these pics because my 6 yr old grandson in Illinois is an elephant collector too, along with other animals but elephants are his favorite and he can tell you everything about the Asian ones and the African ones.
One of the many things I liked about Sri Lanka was that the food was mainly vegetarian. Things are much better these days for us veggies, but it often used to be the case that you had to hunt around for something decent to eat. I still shudder when I recall times in the 1980s when restaurants seemed to imagine that vegetarians would be ecstatic eating a runny omelette and if a soggy lettuce leaf could be found, well positively Nirvana. No such problems in Sri Lanka. I couldn't tell you how many curries I've eaten in my lifetime, but I would say that the one I had in the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo surpassed any of them. The fruit is something else, too. I liked the red bananas and the mangosteens were gorgeous. The wood apples were quite interesting and needed a bit of perseverance, but I liked them as well. Nuts were plentiful (insert own joke here) and cheap, although it was a stop-over in Doha on the way back that had us staggering under the weight of cashew nuts when we got back to Heathrow. You could buy about five kilos for what it would cost for a 150g bag in the UK.
Apart from the fact that Sri Lanka has so many species of birds, one good reason that we saw so many was thanks to a local expert guide who accompanied us on a boat trip. He spotted goodness knows how many, but I had a little triumph right at the end because I glimpsed a red flash in a tree and pointed it out. We discovered that it was a red-backed woodpecker (not my photo, I hasten to add).
We arrived in Kandy the second destination on our Sri Lanken tour, earlier this afternoon. We are staying with a family high in the hills above the town. Kandy is the second largest city in Sri Lanka and typical of most Asian cities noisy, busy with traffic and not that interesting really, though there are a couple of temples a lake and some interesting places around to visit. The Lake The family we are staying with are lovely and the dinner they cooked for us was superb. Lisa went with the man of the house looking for clothes shops, while I relaxed on the balcony with a beer and watched the sunset, when the calls to prayer started all around me, it was a truly magical moment. Within minutes lots of large fruit bats started flying across the horizon, which made it even more special. A photo of the sunset and an earlier view from the balcony side.
Which destination did you like best? Kandy or the previous place? Kandy seems prettier but the culture of the previous place was fascinating.
Having been here for a week now one of my impressions so far is a sublime peace, wherever we go there is stillness to be found. We walked in a large arboretum a few days ago and the following day in an ironwood forest when it started to rain, this feeling of peace was almost unbearable, this I have never encountered anywhere before. Maybe there's something in the beer Another impression is that of the warnth generosity and tactility of the people. Even the traffic cops that stopped us on a couple of occasions to check our drivers papers, shook me by the hand and welcomed us to their country, I was especially touched by this.
Loving Kandy now for it's culture and sites, a completely different experience to the previous wild country peasant style of living in Dambulla Love them both equally for different reasons Lara. The situation in the hills and the superb food that the lady of the house Achina plus very fast WiFi adds to the enjoyment here.
We got caught in a tropical rainstorm and got utterly drenched. Some people invited us into their house to shelter and offered tea and towels. I'd say that was typical of the friendliness of Sri Lankans in general. It was some soaking - my tee-shirt was so wet that it took me about ten minutes to haul it off.