Tuesday February 12, 2019 – Travel west To Kandy stopping in places along the way.
Through the hotel we arranged for a taxi driver to spend today and tomorrow with us and take us to Kandy today and Galle Tomorrow. He was very pleasant, did what he could, but was not overly knowledgeable or perhaps the language barrier was the issue. He tried and was as good as he could be in English as our Senegalese was non-existent. However, the main problem was the crazy way he drove. It certainly was way past scary, overtaking on a blind curve traveling at 60 MPH on a one lane highway while holding a phone to his ear chatting away, was but one of the minor offenses! On many occasions incoming traffic had to get onto the side of the road to avoid a head on collision. Anne spoke to him and he seemed to slow down a bit, but the overall experience was very distressing, and we were glad to get through the ordeal alive. Despite this, we had a terrific day of visiting the sites on the way to and in Kandy. The travel time to Kandy is about 3 hours despite it being 116 kilometers from Colombo due to the road and traffic. A motorway is being constructed between the two cities by the Chinese and should be ready in about 3 years.
Kandy lies in the center of the island and is the Capital of the Central Province. However, it was the seat of power and Capital under the last two Kings of the country. It is famous and a UNESCO site as it is one of the holiest sites of Buddhism – The Temple if the Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) housing the tooth of the Buddha. It is built on the grounds of the former Royal Palace.
Our first stop on the way to Kandy was at the Karunanayake – Geregama Tea plantation and factory. It is built on a hill and we climbed the 100 odd stars to the top to see first the Tea plants. The harvested leaves go to the Withering area and are placed in one of three, concrete troughs (80-foot-long by 6-feet-wide and 4-feet-high, each with a capacity of 1450 Kg) that have a wire mesh half way up the inside on which the leaves are placed. Large 3 HP 1970 fans blow air from one end under the leaves to dry them. However, the silver and gold first leaves are left to dry on the roof in the hot sun then packaged.
The main batch of leaves are then transferred to the Rolling room and into circular roller machines that complete the dedication. The leaves then pass through a vibrating sieve / fiber mat made in 1970 by Walker & Co with an output of 300 Kg per hour, to sort the different leaves. They are sent to the Furnace Room where the leaves are heated by forced hot air from a wood fired tubular heater / kiln. It was interesting that the equipment was mostly manufactured by Sirocco, a trademark of Davidson & Co Ltd Belfast Ireland. The leaves then pass through an “Endless Chain Pressure Dryer” a 1965 Chota Sifter, A Senvec color separator before being packaged in nine different classes. The Golden and Silver Tips are the best, others are Green Tea, Orange Pekoe, Flowery Pekoe, Black Orange Pekoe, Black Orange Pekoe Flowery, and finally dust used for tea bags and the refuse which can be made into a very low quality tea. BOPF – Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings is a symbol of quality of Sri Lanka Teas. After acquiring some Gold tip tea, we went in our way to the Botanical Gardens.
The 147 Acre Royal Botanic Gardens In Peradeniya Bear Kandy is located on the river Mahawell and renowned for its orchid collection and has 4000 different species of plants. It dates to 1371, but the current form was started in 1821 and at that time was mainly used to grow Cinnamon and coffee. By 1843 many other species were introduced. One of the walkways we wandered through was the “Avenue of Palms” of which one item – The cannonball Palm was planted by King George V and Queen Mary in 1901 and often laden with fruit resembling cannon balls.
However, the part that really took our breath away, was the enormous size of certain palms, trees and the Giant Bamboo all near the lake. Anne stood by some of these for a picture and was dwarfed. A selfie by one of the trees showed that the trunk of the tree was wider than both of us standing side by side!
The driver took us to a scenic restaurant that overlooks Kandy lake and the Tooth Temple. A perfect view and lunch. We loved the children all dressed in white and see the construction – particularly the sign and it’s background!!!
Next to the Rajanima Craft factory of wood and Batik. It was interesting to see how the different layers of wax and color dyes are used to create the finished Batik product. The wood carving factory started with a demonstration of the woods being used. They work with Ebony, Royal Ebony, Teak, Coconut, Mahogany, Mara, Jack Fruit, Pathangi, Toona and Kaduru. However, of the lot, the one that was the most interesting during the demonstration was the Pathangi. Here the chap used a rasp to get some powder from a sample of the wood. He put these shavings in half a glass of water, and it turned red. A natural dye. He then cleaned a piece of metal with a lemon and introduced the metal stick into the water and it turned black. When he then added some lemon drops, it turned yellow. All can be used as natural dyes. We were very taken by how gorgeous some of the items were and a few happened to find themselves into our suitcases, no idea how!!!
Finally, we descended the hill and were dropped off at the Temple of the sacred Tooth Relic. There are monks of the two “orders” – Malwatte and Ashiriya that hold services and are joint custodians of the Tooth Relic. We crossed the moat and entered the main set of buildings through a tunnel. Inside there is a two-story structure on one side of the courtyard with the lower side having an “altar” and 8 large mounted Ivory Tusks in the veteran space a gold and red cloth with Stupa hides whatever is behind. Ornate wood and gold carved ceiling beams provide a non-ostentatious reverence area. Ascending the stairs, a very ornate and reverential space with many pilgrims praying has a long 30-foot table filled with flowers. The holy site where the tooth relic is stored is under a golden canopy, and behind a golden plaque with a Stupa decoration and within seven Stupa shaped gold caskets engraved with precious gemstones.
What was a bit confusing was that there was a separate room further inside the complex and beyond the inner quadrangle that was far more impressive with Gold Buddha statues and highly carved panels giving the appearance that this was the main prayer hall. A Golden Stupa was placed in front of the large seated gold Buddha, which we (erroneously) assumed the location of the relic.
The entire place seemed, correctly, more like a shrine with demure attitude and tasteful opulence. Many of the other Buddhist temples we visited were far more ostentatious and showed an almost distasteful albeit awe inspiring opulence for its own sake. A pleasant change.
We then headed back to the Hotel in Colombo, now in the dark with the crazy driver. A tiring but very interesting day.
Roger & Anne Travels 