Kandy Land

I am in the mellifluous ancient city of Kandy in the highlands of Sri Lanka.  This was an early capital of the island nation and it is a sacred city of the Buddhist because a tooth relic from the Buddha is enshrined in the Dalada Maligawa temple here.  Yesterday I joined a huge crowd of mostly foreigners to view one of the thrice daily presentations of the casing which once held the tooth, a procedure so ritualized it reminded me of high mass.  Drums, then flutes, opened the ceremony in which monks and priests processed through the temple entering a bejeweled doorway with rice, flowers, fruits and maces.  I regret not having hired a guide to explain more of what was happening, but I will continue to try and find out more of what was happening. Starting 11 August is the annual Kandy Perahara and then the actual tooth will be paraded through the streets of Kandy for 10 nights with dozens of elephants all dressed to the nines.  I am planning to return to Kandy for the first day or so of the Perahara.
Getting to Kandy from my last stop in the coastal city of Trencomalle was a trip, in every sense of the word.  I took an intercity bus for the 5 hour ride and soon after the bus departed the station we were stopping every few minutes for  more passengers.  Before long the aisle of the bus was filled with standees and more and more standees continued to board turning the bus into a sardine can of travelers.  I was glad to have a seat but it still was an ordeal I will remember as one of the most uncomfortable bus rides I have ever made.   Adding to the mayhem the on board entertainment was blasting Bollywood music from a speaker right above my seat.  I am not complaining.  Experiences like this are the spices of adventure travel.
Speaking of spices, eating curry every meal is getting pretty monotonous and I was glad to find a KFC incongruously located on the main street of Kandy.   The chicken was fingerlickin' good.

Sorry the photo not better centered but I was scared to get too close and he just kept moving

I am traveling with ipad, iphone, laptop, hand phone and camera, all of which need to have batteries charged on a regular basis.   Here is an assortment of the electrical adapters I have to keep my toys up and running.  I miss the days when my back up plan was a spare pair of AA duracells.

In the tea plantation