Another early morning for us all and we were last on the bus again! Our first stop of the day was to the famous Temple of the Tooth, a Buddhist temple in the centre of Kandy. It's located within the royal palace complex and holds the Relic of the tooth of Buddha.
We had to leave our shoes at the entrance again, since its a temple, then we all made our way inside. Our guide was able to show us around and tell us where to go but still leave us enough time to look around ourselves. The main room had massive paintings on the walls which depicted the journey of the tooth relic. Like the cave temples the day before, since you are never allowed to stand with you back to the Buddha, you can only take pictures of the actual statues.
After we had looked around the main room, we were taken further into the temple where hundreds of people were waiting in a line or praying. Our guide was able to tell us that they were waiting to get a glimpse of the tooth relic container, as it opens for 15 minutes, while everyone is filed past. We all joined the massive queue then were able to quickly see the tooth relic when we walked past it. Like many of the places in Sri Lanka there were loads of monkeys roaming around on the temple roof. After we left the temple, we saw a quick glimpse of Kandy itself while we waited for the bus to collect us, then we were taken up to a hill viewpoint where you could see the whole of Kandy including back down to the temple of the tooth. The viewpoint was called Arthur Seat, a bit like the hill in Edinburgh!
We had to leave our shoes at the entrance again, since its a temple, then we all made our way inside. Our guide was able to show us around and tell us where to go but still leave us enough time to look around ourselves. The main room had massive paintings on the walls which depicted the journey of the tooth relic. Like the cave temples the day before, since you are never allowed to stand with you back to the Buddha, you can only take pictures of the actual statues.
After we had looked around the main room, we were taken further into the temple where hundreds of people were waiting in a line or praying. Our guide was able to tell us that they were waiting to get a glimpse of the tooth relic container, as it opens for 15 minutes, while everyone is filed past. We all joined the massive queue then were able to quickly see the tooth relic when we walked past it. Like many of the places in Sri Lanka there were loads of monkeys roaming around on the temple roof. After we left the temple, we saw a quick glimpse of Kandy itself while we waited for the bus to collect us, then we were taken up to a hill viewpoint where you could see the whole of Kandy including back down to the temple of the tooth. The viewpoint was called Arthur Seat, a bit like the hill in Edinburgh!
We then visited a gem showroom where we were able to learn all about the types of gems mined in Sri Lanka,shown each different type of stone, then given the opportunity to buy a massive selection of jewellery. As tempted as I was, I think I had enough new jewellery for the wedding! From there, instead of going back to the hotel for lunch, we chose to go straight to the Royal Botanical Gardens, where we had lunch before we went round the gardens.
A guide had been arranged to show us the best bits of the massive gardens, which was really interesting and much better than us wandering aimlessly around. My favourite bit was of course the Orchid house.
On our return to the hotel, we managed to book in for a massage each in the spa, while it wasn't as relaxing as the one we had on the first day, it was lovely after all of the walking we had done. We then ate a late dinner before retiring for the evening, a little note left on our pillow!
The next day we were off into the hills, to the tea plantations and Nuwara Eliya...
Beautiful! I would love to go there someday!
ReplyDeleteIt is all so beautiful, looks like paradise.
ReplyDeleteThose orchids are stunning!
ReplyDelete