Travelogue - Chennai to Colombo Part 6

Travelogue - Chennai to Colombo Part 6

24th December 2007

It was a cold night and we found difficult to sleep. Some how we managed to wake up to chirping of birds, wake up call of crow and found misty sky everywhere. It completely changed by 9am and sun light was out on full swing.

We started our day with Buddha Temple in Kandy where the relic of Buddha was kept. Good crowd and we took a walk around the temple. The structure was very good with indian pillars and kerala roof on the top of it and kind of tibetian finish to it. We liked the temple very much.

There is also a Museum attached with the temple which showcases the history. The entrance fee is LKR 250 + 150 for camera (around 4 USD).

We again went to the small hill above lake which we visited on 23rd night and had a good view of Kandy town. We came down and went on with official work by 9:30 or so and came out around noon.

The sun was shining bright and town was bustling with activity. It was like any other indian town. Platform shops, traffic jams, narrow road. It was funny to see one road cutting the railway track in the heart of city and the gate was manually operated !!! We walked fully to get some lunch and did some shopping at Laksala (government owned craftmaker like Poompuhar or Cauvery) for Souveneirs. Clothing shopping was not that impressive in kandy. We had buffet lunch at Diwan Hotel.

We finally drove down to see the University of Peradeniya which was like one huge IIT campus. The difference was landscapes, widely placed departments. The best part was kandy river runs through the campus and it has one rail way station too connective Colombo. Very spacious campus and it has green look and the terrain was hill. The campus also had one church, mosque and hindu kovil !!!

We sipped tender coconut on our way back and it was not having much of sweet taste. Bit disappointing when compared to our expectation :)