Mon, May 8: Colombo, Sri Lanka - Kandy

We left early this morning, with six additional passengers, for a long ride through the countryside to the center of Sri Lanka.  The drive took us through the capital city of Colombo.

The destination was the inland town of Kandy.  

Along the way we ran into a procession of small floats that were out for the upcoming Full Moon Festival.  Buddha was stated to have been born, achieved enlightenment and died on the day of the May full moon.  So this is a very special event for the Buddhists and there were lanterns being hung everywhere along the route.

There were a open shops along the route... 

lot of vendors with what we thought were bright items for the festival.  Turns out they were inflatable toys.

The countryside is very mountainous and very beautiful.

Along the drive to Kandy we saw a temple with lots of Buddhas lining it's drive...

a lot of bats in a tree (and flying around)...

One of the more interesting sights was a very large hole in a rock through which the old road went.  It was too small for buses but we did see a very small car going through.

Then on to our destination in Kandy.  Kandy is in the central region of Sri Lanka and is the last capital of the ancient kings era of Sri Lanka.

The major site here is the Temple of the Tooth.  Legend has it that a follower of Buddha snatched a tooth from Buddha’s funeral pyre and it has been passed around India and then Sri Lanka for the last couple of thousand years.  The temple that houses the tooth is a very sacred one for the Buddhists.  

Unlike most temples we have visited this one had a "moat" around the front.

The interior seemed lighter and brighter than many temples we have visited...

with vivid colors in the paintings and tapestries.

was similar to other Buddhists temples that we have seen throughout Asia.

The main hall holding the Buddha relic was particularly lovely.

The tooth was contained in a small, beautiful and intricate gold casket that is displayed in front of a large golden Buddha.

And of course, no temple in Asia would be complete without some monkeys.

There were a number of vendors around the temple selling flowers to be used for offerings in the temple.

Close by is St. Paul’s Church.

We then stopped at Tara’s favorite jewelers where Melissa got a couple of Mother’s Day gifts from Scott and Mary bought some rubies and a very large blue topaz…all loose stones to be set later in Delhi or the US.  Most of the other ladies also bought items.

On the way back to Colombo we ran into some major rain and an incredible traffic jam.  Turned out that the floats we had so enjoyed at the beginning of the day were headed somewhere in the dark and rain and were totally jamming up traffic.  The crowded roads cleared out once we got past the last of the floats but the congestion resulted in us getting back to the boat quite late.  Fortunately Tara called ahead and they kept the restaurant open so we could have dinner.  One of the official ship excursion groups also got back after us, having been caught in the same traffic jam.