We took the train to Sri Lanka's Hill Country this weekend, exploring both Kandy and Pinnawala. It was a weekend of eclectic exploration, wildlife watching and adventures in transportation, as the following photos albums will attest.
Kandy is a picturesque town in central Sri Lanka, with a lovely lake at its center, refreshingly cooler temperatures, and Sri Lanka's most famous Buddhist temple, the Temple of the Tooth. A walk around the lake is great way to spot monitor lizards, birds and monkeys. While exploring Kandy's hillside following tea at the artists' retreat Helga's Folly, we encountered a surprising number of random cows, as well.
The train to Kandy was an experience in itself, as was our trip to Pinnawala by TukTuk. There was a problem on the tracks that required our train into Kandy to stop operations one station - and about 17km - ahead of our destination. This unexpected turn of events required some creative problem solving in the form of two TukTuk drivers willing to take us into Kandy. The traffic going into the city was nothing short of crazy. TukTuks also carried us the 40km to and from Pinnawala to see the elephants from the Pinanwala Elephant Orphanage take their daily baths. Good thing Kandy is a fairly walkable community, because we were Tukered out from TukTuk rides after the Pinnawala trip.
Watching the elephants play in the water was amazing. They bathe for about 2 hours each morning, traveling to/from the river through a crowded shopping area. The male elephants wear chains for safety, but the daily procession is basically 5 smallish Sri Lankan guys with sticks shepherding a couple of dozen sizable elephants through a crowd of 500+ locals, vendors and tourists. Somehow everyone manages to behave, with the help of a couple of tourist police.
Topping our time with the elephants was a high bar, but the unexpected surprise of being serenaded by a Sri Lankan mariachi band singing John Denver's Take Me Home Country Road while enjoying a drink at the Queen's Hotel was a pretty good ending to a great trip.
Kudos to our wonderful host, Kalum, at Anna Shanthi Villas for helping us with our transportation needs, recommending the Kandy Garden Cafe for great kottu, and generally making sure we had a lovely stay.
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