Sri Lanka - Kandy November 2

We are sorry to do it, but, today, we must checkout of this oasis, Water Garden Sigiriya Hotel.

9:30. On the road. Destination: Heritance Kandalama Hotel. We are stopping only to check it out, (en

route to Kandy), particularly the swimming pools.  23 years ago, the hotel was built, more like affixed, onan elevated ridge of boulders one kilometer long. It has three swimming pools. One, an infinity pool, appears to hang over a cliff with a vista of a jagged shored lake and Sigiriya rock, (Wes took a dip in this one). The second pool incorporates the existing smooth boulders into it's bottom. The third pool is conventional, but surrounded by trees full of monkeys, large, small, huge and tiny. Posted signs warn against leaving your windows open unless you want company.

2:00 PM. Another stop on the drive to Kandy: Euphoria Spice. Ruwandi Perera, the proprietor went

to American University in Washington, D.C.  After two semesters, she returned to Sri Lanka for Euphoria Spice, a forest which produces spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg — our American winter holiday spices. A guide walked us through the forest. He spoke of medicinal qualities of the spices while my pleasure obsessed brain imagined delicious swoon-inducing flavors. We made the walk in the pouring rain.

3:00 PM. After the spice tour we stopped, across the street, for buffet lunch at "En Famille", an open sided A-frame. They seemed happy to have customers for their 400 rupee ($2.70) buffet. For the first time, our driver ate with us. Typically, he eats apart from us.  It was very good. Curries and such, but mostly vegetable dishes. One dish resembled beef chunks. It was breadfruit. (Or was it jackfruit.) We piled our plates. The driver sat down. I sat down. I picked up a fork. He plunged his fingers into his food. I put my fork down and did the same. For finger eating, I learned you need an effective balance of wet and dry things. And the fingers need to work as if you are making dough: pinching, gathering, swirling.

4:30 PM. Arrive at Kandy. We are racing against the clock. We want to make a 5:00 dance show and make a 6:00 PM temple visit.

Check-in at the Thilanka Hotel, change clothes, quickly.  Note the patio door sign about curious monkeys. Take a short walk to a theater for traditional Sri Lankan folk dances. The costumes were great. The music was good. The dancers were good. For their dramatic finale, we went outside to watch them walk over freshly shoveled hot coals.

6:00 PM. We arrive at the Dalida Maligawa, the Temple of the Buddha Tooth. It is the home of a tooth from Buddha. He died over 2,300 years ago. The relic is kept in a solid gold cone encrusted with rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The cone is in a small room where long elephant tusks rise from floor to ceiling.  Inside the door, a priest, in a saffron robe, greets the worshippers. There is a basket for flowers and money.  The room is in the center of a three floor building. The three-floor building is a gem in the central courtyard of the outer temple building.

We approached the outer building.  We left our shoes with a shoe clerk and walked barefoot up wide stone stairs. The air was hot and heavy. The cool chiseled stone felt good underfoot. Inside, someone was beating drums. Loud. Insistent. Slow. Steady. Then faster. A reed instrument wailed; it's sound was raw. We switched from stone stairs to wooden stairs. The drums beat faster. We arrived into a long wooden-floored ante chamber. A marble topped table ran two-thirds of it's length. It was covered with flowers. Lotus in fuchsia and in white. Heaps of jasmine perfumed the steamy room. It was crowded. Worshippers, palms together, fingers up, hands at their sternum, white pants, white shirts, somber faced, waiting for it to happen. When the decorated metal door opens. When they can see for a second the brilliant gold reliquary. There is a queue. It is long; across the room; down the stairs. That is on one side of the flower topped long table. On the other side, a swarm of people; tourists, backpackers and Buddhists. Some jostle, mostly the tourists, for a good sightline to the door. Others are content to be in the presence of a sacred relic. When the door opens, they feel an energy, presence, spirit without needing to see it. The drums repeat their cycle of slow pulse moving to quick pulse. The night air is sweltering, but in this setting more like sultry. I do not know how often the door opens on the reliquary, but we are lucky it occurred for us. Today, is also a full moon. Sri Lankans celebrate a three day holiday every full moon.

We wandered through other parts of the building. There are rooms and rooms of Buddhas. In one room, three walls are lined with large paintings with words beneath them. Together, they tell, from start to finish, how the Buddha tooth found it's way from the mouth of Buddha to this temple.

The crowds thinned out. Closing time approached. Walking toward the outside, my feet enjoyed the cool stone. They did not want to get back into shoes. Outside, the night air had cooled to perfection. We returned to the Thilanka Hotel. Secured our door against the monkeys and drifted off to blissful sleep.