We landed in Colombo Sri Lanka, and decided that after the 5 days we spent partying with my family in Paris, and the jet lag from the overnight flight, we ought to stay in a hotel and rest.
Anyway, there’s not a ton to see in the seaside capital city aside from the Gangaramya temple, which contains a hair from the Buddha.
After two luxurious days swimming and getting acclimated to the heat and humidity, we took a train to Kandy, though this sounds easier than it was.
We spent half the day trying to get tickets, walking between the hotel and train station three times, and between ticket counters at the train station. Eventually we got tickets for second class, but weren’t able to reserve our seats. When we finally boarded our train half an hour early, it was already full.
Fortunately, we got seats, because soon the train was packed. Like sardines in a can, people were squashed into every bit of space, including the few inches between the top of my knees and the seat in front of me.
It was a very basic train – electric fans on the ceiling, open windows and doors, metal floor with holes – but the ride was pretty. We passed coconut trees and banana trees and bright green hills and many shacks.
Kandy (how could someone with a massive sweet tooth not go to a city called Kandy?) has a small lake, and a temple that contains a tooth relic from the Buddha. There’s also a supposedly pretty botanical garden, but we never made it there.
For us, Kandy was the gateway to Sigiriya, an old fortress on a mountain, 2hr outside the city. In the late 5th century, after killing his father, the paranoid king Kassapa built his castle on the top of this plateau in order to provide better fortifications.
We’re not sure how people reached the top back then, but nowadays, it’s accessible via spiral staircases and metal platforms perched on the side of the rock face.
Beer of choice: Lion stout