Colombo/Kandy, Sri Lanka. Day 1 of 2

The ship got cleared at 2pm, but the first shuttle to the gates was supposed to start at 3:00pm.
I booked a private overnight tour to Kandy, Sri Lanka where Buddhist temple with Buddha tooth is located. As it happens, we arrived to Sri Lanka on their holiday called Vesak.
It is the most important Buddhist festival. The festival commemorates the birth and death of Gautama Buddha.

The ship was cleared at 2:00pm and we decided not to wait for the shuttle to get to the port gates, but got a taxi and $10 and 3 min later met our guide. So far so good.
We settled comfortably in the van and our journey began. According to the Google maps we checked before the trip should take 3 hours. Unfortunately, we did not realized the complications due to the holiday. The traffic was horrendous. People everywhere in line for free food, ice cream and drinks due to the holiday. Parked motorcycles and Tuktuks along the road, traffic jams. Our driver was a magician. He managed somehow to navigate through the traffic and we slowly moved to our destination.

On the way we stopped for 30min at elephant orphanage and could get close to elephants and observe them eating and bathing.

We continue toward Kandy, was getting dark and the traffic was getting worse close to the destination. By 8:00pm we reached the Temple. We had 30min to see it grounds and go inside. The closing time is 8:30. On the plus side due to the holiday it was decorated with lights and hanging paper lotuses. The mood was very festive.
Boris could not go inside because everyone must remove shoes.

By now we had only 5 minutes before closing to get inside. We had a quick look inside the room with “Buddha tooth” richly decorated, but could not take pictures.
After visiting the Temple we drove to the hotel. After a quick bite, straight to bed.
Tomorrow will be another busy day of sightseeing.Læs mere