Today is our first opportunity to try a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast; most guest houses don’t offer it, serving instead the ubiquitous standard fare of stale, lightly toasted bread, jam, eggs – usually fried – tea or coffee and fruit. A Sri Lankan breakfast consists of coconut milk rice served with either a sweet syrup or juggery which is a very sweet fudge and/or chilli sambal and fish curry. We draw the line at the fish curry, not being able to face it for breakfast, but try the rest. Rice and chilli sambal works for me but Andy prefers the rice and juggery; perhaps not the best combination for a diabetic.
Kandy is probably the most picturesque town visited so far. The town centre is the usual unprepossessing array of small, open-fronted shops with a jumble of signage and streets teaming with people. But the setting around the serpentine lake with the steeply rising jungle-covered hills all around is really quite lovely. The lake was created in 1807 by Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the last ruler of Kandy.
A walk along the south side of the lake reveals a huge amount of wildlife including pelicans, heron, 4-foot water monitors, hundreds of birds, bats hanging in the trees, and an amazing number of fish. The only thing that marrs a lakeside walk is the pollution from the heavy traffic that crawls along belching out thick black fumes. Sri Lanka has a long way to go in terms of emissions control.
After spending some time in one of the markets and having a look round the centre of town we finally locate the train station and purchase tickets to Nuwara Eliya (pronounced Nureliya) for the 28th. We walk up the hill to the Raya Wasala Park also known as Wace Park and are pleasantly surprised to find a beautifully tended formal garden quite at odds with the surrounding down-at-heel city centre. It’s another place frequented by young courting couples who seem to occupy almost every bench in the park. In fact apart from us, there are only young couples and we feel rather like intruders.
In the late afternoon we go to the Kandyan Art Association and Cultural Centre of the north side of the lake for a performance of traditional Kanyan and Sri Lankan low country dances. There are nine dances performed by a troupe of men and women accompanied by a drum ensemble. The performance finale is a very impressive display of walking over hot coals. The costumes are wonderful and whilst it’s interesting from a cultural perspective, much of it is poorly rehearsed and choreographed.