Onwards and upwards.

The vibe changes as the roads start to wind upwards. The towns we pass are busier and more modern. Roadside shacks give way to glass fronted stores and modern supermarkets. The traffic is slower and more aggressive. Less cows, more dogs.

Eventually we reach Kandy, a sprawling busy city that fills a valley and spills upwards into the surrounding hills. Our hotel is the Elephant Stables. Charming and perched on the hillside.

Before we’ve unpacked Dhiravamso has arrived. He’s an old friend from uni now living in Sri Lanka as a Buddhist monk. As far as we are concerned he’s Kevin. As far as the staff are concerned he is to be honoured and they gather to kneel before him and touch his feet as we leave to do our sightseeing. It is perplexing to say the least. Do they even know he’s from Swindon?

We went to the temple of the tooth. Tim forgot to change out of his shorts so was given a fetching cerise sarong. I’m hoping he’ll keep it.

The temple is the 3rd most sacred site in Sri Lanka according to Chandana. In a gold box, within a box, within a box…you get my drift…there is the tooth belonging to the Buddha that they found in the ashes after he was cremated.

I’m not a fan of relics. So many catholic churches in Europe claim to have a piece of the cross or the shroud, that Jesus would have had to be on a cross 50m tall and wrapped in a cloth the size of a football pitch. But this one is different. Whether or not it’s the real tooth inside the box in a box in a box etc, it is more symbolic. In India the Hindus tried to destroy it so a princess hid it in her hair and took it to Sri Lanka over 2000 years ago to keep it safe. For centuries it was shifted from capital to capital as the powers that be changed. All of the incoming aggressors wanted destroy it or claim it. The tooth was a prize and a negotiating tool. Keeping it safe represented freedom from religious oppression, and against all odds they managed to do it. Is it the original tooth? Who knows. Is it significant to the Buddhists of Sri Lanka? Yes. And that’s what counts.

We headed up to a viewpoint to take in the city and let Dhiravamso get back to his monastery (not actually his as he lives in a hut in the forest in the middle of nowhere but they seem to have a monk Airbnb situation going on here)

Then we went for a food tour in the city. We ate carbs and egg. Lots of both. It was delicious but after one round of egg hoppers followed by string hoppers, then off to another place for egg roti and kotu roti, we were done in. I could explain them all but you’d be bored. Let’s just say it’s great food. We finished in a bar in an old colonial house for arak and even more food. Coconut chicken and chick peas.