Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
The Hotel +94812235585 kandycenterin@gmail.com
Adequate twin room for LKR 1,500.- or US$ 13.50 per night.
The Olde Empire Hotel +94812224284
Nostalgic twin room with a great communal balcony for only LKR 890.- or US$ 8.- per night.
Click below for an interactive road map of The Hotel in Kandy and for directions:
Click below for an interactive road map of The Olde Empire Hotel in Kandy, which we would recommend, and for directions:
Exploring busy and noisy Kandy with its distinctively Kandyan style of architecture, getting infected with the typically Sri Lankan nosiness and, as a result, learning (i) that Buddha’s tooth (which is kept and safeguarded inside the famous Temple of the Sacred Tooth, admission for foreigners: US$ 10.- per person), the traditional symbol of Sinhalese sovereignty and an object of supreme devotion for many Sri Lankans, is at least three inches long, unlike any human tooth ever known, (ii) that Kandy’s Maligawa Tusker, the male elephant which has to carry Buddha’s tooth during the Esala Perahera, must fulfil very distinctive physical requirements (all seven parts of his body, the four legs, trunk, penis and tail, must touch the ground when he stands upright), and (iii) that already Robert Knox in 1660 CE, a British traveller, observed about the proud, aristocratic Kandyans: “They make no account nor conscience of lying, neither it is any shame or disgrace to them, if they be catched in telling lies; it is so customary.”
Hiking around Kandy and visiting three 14th-century CE Kandyan village temples: (i) the rustic little Embekke Temple aka Embekka Devalaya (admission for foreigners: LKR 150.- per person), dedicated to Kataragama, famous for its fine pavilion with its intricately decorated wooden pillars (a marvellously carved assortment of peacocks, entwined swans, dragons, dancers and horsemen), (ii) the Lankathilake Temple (admission for foreigners: LKR 200.- per person), an imposingly solid-looking structure built on a huge rock outcrop, founded in 1344 CE, with its magically atmospheric shrine, and (iii) the Gadaladeniya Temple with its pronounced South Indian appearance - an excellent foretaste for our upcoming trip to Tamil Nadu.
Passing successfully the last hurdle in the bureaucratic steeplechase of purchasing our Indian tourist visas, which was preceded by the following: (i) queuing up and applying for the right forms and meta-forms at the outsourced India Visa Application Centre, (ii) queuing up and supplying two pictures each plus numerous passport copies, filling in oodles of irrelevant details [in capital letters with black ink] from our previous [!] passports and other nonsensical information [e.g. father’s birthday, own home address, donor’s address] and paying in cash the non-refundable visa fee plus service fee (LKR 5,244.- or US$ 47.25 per person), (iii) overcoming the secretary of and filing complaints with the good-natured visa officer of the Assistant High Commission of India, (iv) bridging the obvious communication gap between the Assistant High Commission and the disappointingly performing India Visa Application Centre VFS Global, (v) queuing up and handing in our passports ten days, seven personal visits and a dozen of phone calls/emails after the actual application, and eventually, picking up our (maltreated) passports with a valid 126-day double-entry tourist visa for the Republic of India, touted as the world’s largest democracy but probably also the world’s largest bureaucracy; namaste Incredible India, here we come!
Taking the Ravindu Travels express bus from
Click below for a summary of this year's travels:
Click below and see more Konni & Matt Pictures:
Recommended books - click below for your order from Germany
