We are staying an extra two days in Kandy, mainly to slow down after the rather hectic three-day tour of the ancient cities, but also to do justice to Kandy.
The bus fare into Kandy sets us back 6 rupees, which puts the tut tut fare of between 150 and 250 rupees into perspective. Our destination today is the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya about 6km from the centre of town. But first we take a look round the central market. It is surprisingly well organised and clean by Asian standards. It is arranged around a well-cared for central courtyard garden with a pond. There are the usual food stalls here on the ground floor – meat butchered on premises, fresh and dried fish and stalls heaving with fresh fruit and vegetables. On the upper floor are stalls selling clothes, household and leather goods, toys and so on. I’m looking for a sarong and one of the stallholders is very keen to ensure I find what I want, taking me from stall to stall until I find a rather nice, piercingly blue silk sarong. Of course, having bought something I become a prime target and in order to get to the exist we have to run lhe gauntlet of the rest of the stallholders all eager to sell their wares.
The intention is to get a bus to Peradeniya, but like many of our intentions it is quickly thwarted. There is nothing so sophisticated as numbered bus stops or anything at all in the way of signage giving information about where to catch the bus you want. Asking passersby only results in being told some contradictory flimflam about how full the bus will be, that there are long queues, we will have to wait hours and the buses only leave when they are full. All leading to the inevitable pitch for a taxi or a tut tut. One man offers to drive us for 300 rupees, which at less than two pounds seems like a bargain until we see the state of the rust heap he wants to take us in. In the end we take a tut tut for 300. Once on our way the driver skillfully sells a return trip including waiting time for 1000 rupees. And once again convenience wins out.
The Botanical Gardens are quite spectacular and very well kept. Again rather at odds with the general infrastructure of the Kandy which is anything but. It’s a shady haven of peace away from pollution and noise outside. At 60 hectares, these is the largest botanical gardens in Sri Lanka and are bounded on three sides by the longest of Sri Lanka’s rivers, the Mahaweli Ganga. There are avenues of palms, a flower garden, a suspension footbridge over the river, giant bamboo and a delightful orchid house. A splendid Javanese fig tree, which although showing signs of age, dominates the Great Lawn with a span of some 2500 square metres. But the strangest tree must be the Canonball tree which has flowers growing from the trunk and round hard-shell fruits the size of cannonballs and and pretty heavy too!