Made my way to Kandy today with several more stops at Buddhist and Hindu temples. They’re nice to see, but you do tend to get a bit ‘templed out’ after a while. Lots of Buddha statues sit prominently on mountain tops in the area. Also lots of Buddha statues and frescos can be found in caves. There are often lots of monkeys running around these shrines. We managed to hit a Hindu temple while a big celebration was going on inside, which was interesting. Today being Friday was Muslim holy day and we saw huge crowds of Muslims leaving their services as well
My driver told me that about 32% of Sri Lanka is Buddhist, 12% Hindu, 12% Muslim, and all others, including Christian make up the remaining lesser percentages.
I also stopped by a herb garden on our travels today. I knew it was going to be a sales pitch the moment I hopped out of the car and was greeted by a personal tour guide. He showed me all kinds of things growing including vanilla, cocoa, coconut, nutmeg, turmeric, almonds, and lots more. He also discussed how each was used for medicinal purposes in traditional Sri Lankan Ayurveda alternative medicine. Of course by the end he was pitching products from their pharmacy. I politely declined and he graciously backed off, but then proceeded to prod me for a tip. On the way out my driver was slipped some free bottle of potion, so I suspect there was some incentive for him to bring me there. I had a similar experience at a ‘gem museum’ yesterday which was really a showroom to buy Sri Lankan gems from, but they also politely backed off when I told them I wasn’t interested in buying any.
On the whole Sri Lankans have been consistently friendly, warm, and accommodating with minimal hassle factor. Also, younger Sri Lankans seem to speak and understand English much better than their elders. English is taught in schools here and I was told 80% know it, but I think many have forgotten all but a few words like with me and Spanish. Sri Lanka reminds me of elements of Egypt, India, and Thailand so far.
Kandy is the cultural capital of Sri Lanka, but it does seem a bit smaller for being 2nd in size to Colombo. Kandy is on a beautiful lake and is full of busy bustling markets, temples, and chaotic traffic. I spent a few hours running errands around town this afternoon and lost my driver in the process. Unfortunately, I was forced to call my hotel back in Colombo to have them contact him – which didn’t make him look very good, but I really had no other choice.
All good now, but for some reason I’ve found myself in a hotel with no other guests. Hmmm…
