Kandy is Sri Lanka’s first UNESCO heritage listed city. An astute observer would find UNESCO stamps and imprints on buildings all over the city. It’s a bustling city of 800,000 with squat concrete buildings lining streets full of buses tearing through and tuk-tuks weaving.
I visited Kandy on my #sqaudSQ tour with Singapore Airlines. I had spent the morning at Sigiriya Rock Fortress and Pidurangala Rock Temple so my legs had had a really good workout.
Paramount 200 Spice garden
Once we were rehydrated we headed south back through some towns that were familiar like Dambulla towards Matale. Just before Matale was a spice garden with a huge assortment of different spice trees that are used in cooking in Sri Lanka.
The spice garden was way more interesting than I was expecting. There are actually a lot of spice gardens through this area. This one, called Paramount 200, seems setup for international visitors but didn’t come across as being overly touristy or inauthentic at all.
Someone from the garden walked me around and showed me what must have been over 20 different plants and what they were used for. Some were familiar to me like aloe vera, nutmeg, coffee, lemongrass, cinnamon and vanilla, while others I’d heard of but didn’t know much about the plant like rubber trees, turmeric, sandalwood, and cardamom.
I was astounded to learn that pineapples, that I pay $3 for at the supermarket, stay in the ground for 5 years before they are ready to be eaten. 5 years! Who’s making money in the pineapple business??
Also really interesting was the rubber tree. Sri Lanka is (or at least were) the largest producer of rubber in the world. It looks like any other tree but my guide cut a strip in the bark and the sap that drips out is stringy — like rubber. He showed me some that was stuck on the tree and sure enough, it had the consistency of glue or rubber and bounced right back.
After the tour, the guide pulled out a whole bunch of the products made from their trees to show me that they did in fact exist. Contrary to my default state of mind, throughout the tour, I was thinking to myself “I hope they have a shop because I wouldn’t mind buying some of this stuff”. In years gone by I would have spent the whole time thinking “gee I wonder when he’s going to put the hard sell on me to buy something after this free tour”.
I was offered a cup of complimentary spice tea, which was delicious and led to a sale that I more than happy to make.
Matale drive-by
I didn’t stop in Matale, but it was pretty fascinating watching through the car window. It is mostly a Hindu and Muslim town which was obvious driving through it. The dress of the locals was noticeably different from other areas I’d visited in the last couple of days. They dressed in the tunics you often see traditional Muslim men wearing as well as more headscarves on women.
Arriving in Kandy
My guide and I parked in a street not too far from the Sacred Tooth Relic Temple and headed straight to the markets. We’d return to the temple later. I walked the street with my guide, Thushith, past many local stores. He pointed out so many fruits and vegetables that were so incredibly foreign to me. It is amazing that with all the types of fruits and vegetables we have on offer at home, there are so many more than I don’t even know about, let alone consider eating. These were fresh food stores along the street well before making it to the good market.
Kandy Markets
The official markets were pretty typical markets with stalls for bags, knock-off brand t-shirts, crap toys, snacks, leather goods, crappy trinkets. You know the type; in my opinion, the most fun markets.
I have spoken previously about how much I like markets and these were in the same ballpark — if a touch on the pushy side. Although, I kinda didn’t help myself since I wearing an extremely fun shirt that was bright sky blue with pink flamingos on it. It’s my classic Caribbean shirt and I was wearing it this morning to hike up the mountains because the material is so light.
Anyway, they sell those sorts of shirts in there as well so everyone was like “oh hey tourist, you like those shirts? Come look, I have some.” I sound annoyed, but let’s be honest, I wanted one and I bought one with Sri Lankan elephants on it. I also bought a small bag of mango tea, which smelled amazing.
We went through an underpass to get to the produce markets. There were a lot of fruit and vegetable stalls, an equal number of fish stalls, and disconcertingly, a fair few beef stalls, with beef fillets just out on the bench waiting to be sold. I know this is what butchers do, but their displays are at least refrigerated.
Kandy Cultural Show
By now it was about 5 pm and we were aiming to visit the Kandy Temple at 6:30 for the evening Tooth Relic Ceremony. To fill in an hour before then I went to a cultural show at the cultural centre for 1,000 rupees. I changed into long pants in the car in preparation of going into the temple and we hightailed it through the temple to the show.
The cultural show displayed around 4 different dances done by alternating male and female groups, mainly to fast playing bongo drums. The beat was pretty cool actually. For one of the girls’ dances, one of the drummers pulled out a small wind instrument similar to a flute or clarinet called a horanawa. You’ll be able to picture the sound; it’s the type that is reasonably high in pitch, tinny, and the notes are played really fast. Think snake charmer music.
I think the most impressive dance was the plate spinning lady. Well I thought they were plates, but in fact, they were rabans, which is a one-sided drum that looks a bit like a skinned tambourine. She had one raban spinning on a stick on her chin (which she set up first), 3 spinning on one hand, then the final on her other hand.
After than dances were over, some guy said something unintelligible and started asking people to move towards the stage. I was thinking “uh oh, is this some sort of group participation activity? Because I am NOT up for that.” Thankfully he was just moving people on to the stage so they could see the action better. The show finished with some fire rubbing on the skin and some casual hot coal walking. After that, a giant tip jar came out to signal the show was finished for sure.
The cultural centre is right next to the temple and the entrance ticket to the temple is 1,500 rupees (about AUD$11).
Kandy Temple
Unlike most places of worship, the Kandy temple didn’t have one dominant impressive facade. It was more of a complex with walls, and all the action and attention happened on the inside. We walked up the stairs inside, just by the main shrine and got in some kind of queue. I don’t precisely understand what was happening or why we were queueing but there were a few other white people with cameras so that made me feel a little more at ease.
I still felt a little out of place though, since I was still wearing my incredibly fun Caribbean shirt. It was highly inappropriate.
The Tooth Relic Chamber
After about 20 minutes, a bit after 6:30, the line started moving. Moving towards a window through which Buddhist devotees would give an offering to a monk. Thushith gave a small basket of flowers, others gave a complete outfit for the monks to wear. Thushith jokes this guy was giving such an expensive gift to ensure he goes to heaven.
The window opens to the Tooth Relic Chamber and is only open for the length of the ceremony — half an hour. So you had to keep moving so that everybody had a chance to see in and give their gift. Through the window was an incredible room of glittering gold, with a small casket shaped like a stupa, which is essentially a bell-shaped, gold-covered casket. This particular one is said to contain 6 other stupas inside it, finally housing the Tooth Relic of the Buddha. You literally get about 5 seconds to take a look inside the window at it and keep moving.
These ceremonies happen 5 times a day at this temple: at 5 am, 6:30 am, 9:30 am, 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Every temple is different, but this is a major temple in a populous centre so it caters to a lot of people so it has a lot of ceremonies.
Alut Maligawa
We finished in the Alut Maligawa a large hall with a Buddha at one end and hanging pictures depicting the story of the tooth relic around the walls. I must admit I didn’t fully absorb the details of the story.
Amaya Hills Hotel
We got to the hotel Amaya Hills by about 7:30 and it was stunning. I was greeted by the front desk manager who personally introduced herself and handed me her card.
The girl who welcomed me motioned for me over to where she was, which I misinterpreted as please take a seat. What she meant was please stand here ready for the welcome candle lighting ceremony. I didn’t quite understand it, just that it’s something of a tradition. On a large multi-armed candelabra 5 small pieces of wax were placed. I used some sort of metal lighter to light them all.
I was shown to my room and when my suitcase arrived shortly thereafter I grabbed my swimmers, put on a robe, and headed straight to the pool to wash off the day’s adventure. It was surprisingly a little cool in the water. I mean, that’s what I wanted — to cool off — but we were now at an altitude of 500m and in the hills, and the sun had well and truly set, so the air temperature in addition to the water had cooled.
I dried up, clothed on and headed to the dining hall for my 6th buffet in 6 meals in Sri Lanka. Yeah…this is sorta getting out of hand.
Let’s keep in touch
Sign up for the mailing list below for the chance to become best friends.
