Having left our bikes in Colombo, we caught a bus into the centre of the island to Kandy, wanting to experience something other than the beach life Sri Lanka had to offer.
Waking up on our first morning we were greeted by the sun raising his head from behind tree covered mountains; light was flooding into our room through full-length windows; the city of Kandy sprawled across the undulating terrain below us. We had chosen accommodation up a hill on the edge of town, meaning we were both at a great vantage point to enjoy the landscape and, as we were soon to learn first hand, in a prime spot to get our daily exercise!
If you remember my previous post, you may recall that we’d gone to bed the previous night with empty bellies. So, of course, our first port of call that morning was food. After waking, we were soon making our way down the hill to see what we could find. We came across a place which served a variety of soya and vegetable based foods such as soya rolls and samosas, as well as some very satisfying vegan ice cream. Happily satiated, we spent the next few hours wandering around the city looking for nothing in particular, only to begin to gather our bearings in our new location.
After our first few nights in the accommodation up the hill we decided to move, not because the hill walk was too much (though if you wanted to go to town and back more than once in a day it began to feel a little much!), but because although the view was great, the room wasn’t the most comfortable and there was a draught coming through a gap in the ceiling.
The search for our second accommodation became a mini adventure in itself when taking a lift from a tuk tuk driver who, it turned out, loved to talk. After pulling up near our new abode it was a good few minutes before we were able to exit the vehicle, as we were shown a number of photos of some other western friends he had made in recent times and were assured he could help us find somewhere else to stay should our new place not work out.
Though the view was not so grand we were now more of a walking distance to town, and the place felt much more homely. It was, in fact, someone’s house we were staying in. The woman running it had four children who were now all living abroad (mostly in Australia) and making her proud. They had however, left her a little lonely so she had opened the guesthouse to meet others and share some of Sri Lanka with them. While we were there she made us feel very at home, and did her best to give us a range of (vegan) Sri Lankan food to eat for breakfast each day – an interesting experience for our stomachs to get used to such a high level of spice first thing in the morning!
While in Kandy we mostly just explored the city, an interesting mix of more generic urban streets placed beside a large temple, popular with both religious and non-religious tourists. There was also an expansive lake which filled the space between one hill and the next.
We were a little disappointed to discover there seemed to be no natural areas or parks which we could visit that we didn’t have to pay for. We did consider entering Udawatta Kele Sanctuary, an historic forest reserve, on the north east of the city. A wonderful escape that was walking distance from the centre, but which led into a completely different world from the noise and traffic below. We decided against it when the guard at the entrance gave us a price around 300% higher than it should have been. Instead we loitered just outside the park, quietly watching as monkeys appeared here and there, sometimes barely an arm’s length away.
Walking up the road towards the entrance we’d had an amazing experience. A troop of monkeys were gathered on the ground spread across the road we had to walk up, and we slowly walked right through the centre of them. Slow enough that they didn’t leap away, but stayed continuing with their monkey business. In all honesty, in that moment I felt a little fear in case one of them decided they didn’t like the look of me! It was, however, an incredible experience to be so surrounded by such wonderful creatures.
We did attempt (and half succeeded) a day out of the city. I’d told Miki of the wonderful train ride on my previous trip to Sri Lanka and wanted him to experience some of the trip through the mountains by rail. So, to the train station we went, purchased our tickets, and we were on the way! Or so we thought… We weren’t far out of Kandy when the train stopped, and didn’t start again for at least the half hour or so that we waited. In the end we gave up, we were only out for a day trip and at this rate we wouldn’t have time to return. So, jumping out of the train, we now had to work out exactly where we were and how to get back to the city. We had a walk along a dusty track beside the railway line, then made our way through the centre of a busy town. We tried bartering with a tuk tuk driver (but couldn’t agree on a reasonable price) and then passed by a large botanical garden. As we reached the outskirts of town our luck turned, a bus to Kandy was just pulling up, and charged a fraction of the price of the tuk tuk!
One thing you may have realised I haven’t mentioned up to this point is COVID. This was news that we had originally begun to hear about while we were in Weligama. Firstly, as it began to take hold in China and then as it spread to Italy. Something obviously of particular concern for Miki whose family and friends were near the epicentre of this terrible disease. When we had arrived at our accommodation in Kandy we’d had to reassure the guesthouse owners that we had already been in Sri Lanka for a while, as fear was beginning to spread and people were starting to refuse accommodation to Italians.
At that time, it wasn’t something that affected daily life in Kandy, but we were listening to the news closely every day as we were debating the best option for our next move. COVID was spreading through Europe, so we were currently safe where we were. But we knew things could be much more difficult if it reached the island, and we also felt that we would prefer to be closer to our families. Eventually, we decided to move our flights and leave sooner than planned. It wasn’t possible for me to enter Italy due to the tight restrictions there, and so we decided to make our way to the UK.
Leaving turned out to be less easy than we’d hoped for. Planes were being cancelled; restrictions over Europe kept changing; we had two bicycles we were trying to find boxes for, to pack, and to find a plane we could take them on that wouldn’t class them simply as oversized luggage and charge a fortune… Eventually, somehow, we were sorted and after a very stressful few days made our way in the early hours to the airport, where we found something very close to chaos.
It was a nerve wracking time, we still weren’t completely sure we were going to successfully make it out of the country. The woman behind the desk asking Miki if he had a visa or a ticket out of the UK (neither of which were needed) added to our stress. It was with great relief that our bags and bikes were taken from us and we were given our flight tickets. Though, as we waited amidst a room filled with nervous and panicked people, witnessing tears as flights were cancelled and people were left stranded, I couldn’t quite believe we were leaving until the wheels of our plane left the ground.
