Road Trip to Kandy

Our road trip to Kandy (pronounced 'candy'), Sri Lanka's cultural capital, was long and interesting. We started out from Mt Lavinia, Colombo at 6.00 am while most of the city folk were in slumber or getting ready for school or work. The rising sun painted beautiful warm hues as we made our way out along the Colombo-Kandy (A1) Road, passing interesting villages/districts with names like Kamuthagala, Kadawatha, Kirilawatha, Yakkala, etc.

                                          Sunrise over Colombo

As it got lighter along the way, we spot people going about their businesses. I made passing observations of the life on the road; including some school children walking past little quaint shops and a big Buddha statue along the way at Kadawatha.

Our driver/guide Mr Atta pointed out ananas (pineapple) as the local produce at Belumahara, cane products at Radawaduwa and cashew nuts at Cadjugama (50 km from Kandy). We did stop by a little shop here to buy some (nuts) to munch during our stay in Sri Lanka.

We made a detour to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage just in time for the feeding and later bathing of the elephants at the nearby river. These beautiful and majestic creatures warrant their own separate blog post, I'm sure you agree!

During the long road trip, we passed by many padi fields in various stages of growth. Below is just one of the many that we saw. Sri Lankans love their rice with curry. They do not grow enough and so have to import this staple.

But Sri Lanka is the fourth biggest exporter of tea in the world. The tea is mostly grown in the high country, especially between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. So a visit to a tea factory is a must, given that Ceylon tea is the tea of choice for many. Lipton comes to mind? For Thomas Lipton and his ubiquitous Yellow Label, it all started in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. We visited the Glenloch tea factory which also had a museum. More on Ceylon tea in another blog post.

Vishaka, our guide at the
Glenloch Tea factory

We also stopped by the Island Spice Grove in Mawanella, for our lunch break. Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old system of natural healing that has its origins in the Vedic culture of India. Ayurvedic traditions in Sri Lanka flourishes in the many herb and spice gardens/groves found all over the island, which promote all the various products of natural healing. Here we spot the spice plants of vanilla beans, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and black pepper not unlike the ones we have in Malaysia (except for the first, or do we grow vanilla beans?).

At Kadugganawa, just after the road makes a very scenic climb, we also spotted the pillar erected in honour of Captain Dawson, the English engineer who built the Colombo-Kandy Road in 1826.

Other than Buddhist temples along the way, we also observed many mosques along our route. Below is just one of several mosques we saw. In a 2009 reference, I read that there were some 1.8 million Muslims in Sri Lanka then. They are mostly descendants of Arab traders who settled in the island from the 7th century.

We also spotted some shops/houses that were interestingly colourful and seemed surreal.

And... after about 8 1/2 hours from Colombo, we reached Kandy... in the rain. Ces't la vie.

12 February 2015