Princess Cruises - Colombo Sri Lanka.

Princess Cruises - Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Kandy, Temple of the Tooth & Botanical Gardens Day Tour.

Today we are in Sri Lanka (once known as Ceylon) and we are venturing on a 12.5 hour tour, to the north east of the capital of Colombo to the old capital of Kandy about 110 klms away.  Kandy is noted for its temples, halls and palaces of the last Sinhalese kingdom and it is nestled in a steep valley encircled by Sri Lanka‘s longest river, the Mahaweli Ganga at an elevation of 1,600 feet.

We are up at 5.15am to leave on our tour soon after 7am. We have been informed that because of traffic and the condition of the road (narrow and steep) that it normally takes up to 4.5 hours to get to Kandy but to ensure that we return in time for the Sun Princess to leave on time - the Sri Lankan tour company has organised a police escort for all the six buses going on this tour. At this stage, as our procession leaves the port with sirens and horns blasting, I must say that I had my doubts about how this day was going to pan out. As we travel along we literally cause all other traffic to come to a standstill as we have right of way through traffic lights and at roundabouts. Our tour guide jokingly says that they usually save this kind of police escort for visiting international cricketers.

The Rice Fields and Coconut plantations on the way to Kandy.

Our journey takes us through interesting countryside, past small rice paddies, rubber plantations, fruit and vegetable orchards and colourful villages. I do not get the feeling that the people are as keen to greet us as the people in India – but this maybe because of all the noise our procession is making.

The Entrance to the Botanical Gardens.

 

Inside the Gardens.

Our first stop is at the Royal Botanical Gardens which were established in 1821 by the British colonial government and it is home to more than 300 varieties of flowering plants, tropical flora, medicinal herbs and shading palm trees. We had a delightful time strolling around the different parts of the gardens, the highlight was definitely the orchid house.

Inside the Orchid house.

 

There were many lovely plants in the Botanical Gardens.

 

Fruit Stalls Outside the Gardens.

Our next stop was the Royal Palace Complex in the heart of busy Kandy. Here, in this large complex situated next to Kandy Lake is the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha. This is a magnificent Temple and it is said to house the left upper canine of the Lord Buddha. It has been long believed that whoever has possession of this tooth holds governance of the country. The exterior of the temple is not very ornate, but the interior shines with intricate, richly carved inlays of ivory, wood and lacquer. Many Pilgrims visit this Temple every day and place lotus blossoms and brightly coloured water lilies around the main shrine.

The Exterior of the Temple of the Tooth Relic.

 

The Entrance to the Temple of the Tooth Relic.

 

A Carving of an Elephant.

 

Statues in the Gardens of the Temple.

 

The Shrine holding the Tooth Relic. Two giant gold elephants and huge ivory tusks decorate the Shrine.

Buddha inside the Temple.

The flower stalls outside the Temple gate.

After a very late lunch at a lovely hotel we start to head out of Kandy for our long drive back to Colombo but we have one more stop and that is at a Spice Garden. Herbs and Spices are one of Sri Lanka’s great industries. This would have been a very interesting stop but unfortunately it is getting very late and there is not sufficient time to really watch and listen to the talk and demonstration properly. The sun is setting as we leave this stop and we are still over 80 klms from the ship.

The hotel where we had lunch.

 

Tuk tuks race up the road in Kandy.

We now have to travel as fast as we can, behind a police motor bike (with two policemen on board,) with sirens and blue lights flashing and the policeman (with long white gloves on) riding pillion madly waving both hands trying to direct local traffic out of the way and a red police car with his lights and sirens also going. The bus driver has his hand on the bus horn most of the time as he swerves and passes other vehicles trying to keep up with the police. It is an exciting but very dangerous ride and after two plus hours (and one hour after the ship was due to sail) when we eventually get back to the port it is a great relief to be in one piece. Needless to say I have very mixed feelings about this tour – what we saw was great but it was far too long on the bus and the ride was not enjoyable at all – in fact it was very scary.