A holy tooth, a fossil tree, and more in Kandy

Thursday 23rd October

The highlight of breakfast was a bowl of vegemite and Berenberg jams and honey from South Australia. Let me tell you  that vegemite looks bad anyway but in a pristine white bowl it looks revolting! The other delicacy on offer was chicken gizzards: a queue did NOT form from our tables.

First stop was the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya: another legacy from the British,  including Louis Mountbatten.

We spent a couple of wonderful hours tramping around the gardens being overwhelmed by the size and health of the plants. I kept spotting plants I have at home but mine are about one fifth to one tenth of the size: everything grows so quickly here.

 Some of the highlights included:
- a fern palm which is a living fossil as it is known to have existed 350 million years ago. The specimen we saw was 110 years old.
- an arrow poison tree, the bark of which is very poisonous , and very effective as it kills animals quickly but doesn't stay in the animal so you can safely eat it.

- the largest bamboo I have ever seen! See if you can spot Alison who bravely offered to climb down the slope to put the bamboo into perspective.
- some sea palms from the Seychelles whose ' double coconut' fruit are 20 kgms each (don't stand underneath would be my advice!) and the plants take nearly 40 years to grow from seed to first fruit {see photo below}.

  - a ficus tree which we grow in Australia except this one covered an area of 250sq. metres which meant many of the huge low branches had to be supported by metal poles - a 230 year old jackfruit tree
- an orchid house with many of the 188 species of orchids . which grow in SL
- a row of leaning Cook's pines known as drunken trees. Their odd shapes were due to an infestation of termites in their roots.

Our guide was Professor of Botany Bandara Palipana who had a wealth of knowledge and some funny tricks to show us about the plants.
A cup of tea (vastly better than the coffee! ) and a lemon cream biscuit and we were ready to go.

The next visit was to a very important Buddhist site where many local people were worshiping. As the name suggests the Temple of the Tooth contains one tooth from Buddha which was taken after he was cremated and treasured for centuries before finally arriving in SL hidden in the hair of a princess. Every year there is a huge procession where the casket is paraded around the streets with drummers, dancers and thousands of people.

We followed the pathway around the temple buildings shoeless and covered in our sarongs,  clutching a beautiful pink lotus.

 In the main temple we carefully placed them with many other offerings.  You aren't supposed to ask anything of Buddha, just to promise that you will lead a good life based on his principles.

 A great deal of craftsmanship was evident in the carvings and paintings on every wooden post and ceiling , and an array of huge elephant tusks and golden embroidery on red cloth.

We were given tiny earthenware pots with some wax and wicking, which we lit and placed in a huge candle holder with hundreds of others. Then we lit some incense sticks and placed them in large pots. Fortunately this was outdoors as the smoke and smell was very strong!

We admired the workmanship in the posts and roofing of a huge open audience hall, where no nails were used for the construction. These sacred places have such an atmosphere of peace and contemplation.

Lunch was at the Empire Cafe and very enjoyable, particularly the pineapple and fresh ginger ice cream,  and the jackfruit and orange was pretty good too.

Feeling revived we headed for the Kandy market where we had a lot of fun bartering with the shop sellers. The hustle and bustle was entrancing. Spices, goat and silk pashminas and brightly colored harem pants were among the purchases. I have to admit that I was confused about the rupiah and almost paid someone 9000 rupiah instead of 900!!

Then it was 'show and tell' on the bus on the way home.  

As we hadn't had a chance to drink much of the duty free alcohol bought at Singapore we thought we should have a drinks session, so 18 of us piled into our hotel room (after Kerryn and I had tidied up!). Our resident GPs did consultations in the bathroom, whilst Anne lay like a princess across the bed with her injured leg propped on a cushion!  Monsoonal rain prevented us from using the lovely patio so we were a  bit squashed. It was a lot of fun and then we all negotiated the stairs to go to dinner, which was another enormous buffet.

Replete we headed for bed and an early departure in the  morning.

your gin-soaked correspondent

Dianne