Mission 1:
Arrive at Bandaranaike airport late evening, stay in a small guesthouse closed to the airport, and take the train to Kandy the day after.Our first step was to buy a local sim card, and trust me, this is something you have to do. Sometimes wifi connections are really really bad in Sri Lanka. After that, we decided to take a super car (not really, just a tuk-tuk) because taxis are a bit expensive at the airport. From the exit, we went right and walked for about 100 m. Tuk-tuk’s are not allowed to stay next to the departure/arrival doors.
We woke up early the day after, walked for a few minutes to the Katunayaka South Railway train station and Bingo!, the train was minutes away. It was a good start :) There was no room for passengers at the station, except for third class and standing up until we reached Colombo Fort station. There were so many stops along the way that after 20 minutes the train was fully packed, no kidding. And there is something we learned right away: be fast! Yes, this is your ‘Lesson 1’. If you take your time to think, in a matter of seconds you will be the last one in the queue and you risk of not having any place in the train, not to mention a seat. The locals jump into trains before they even stop, so you have to do the same.
And speaking about trains, book in advance for second and first class if you can, just go to the counters at any train station. We were there in February and a couple of times we had a hard time finding tickets. Of course, it depends on the period of the year you decide to visit Sri Lanka.
After we arrived at the crowded Fort station, we waited for the next train that would take us to Kandy. This time, we had a seat and it was in second class, hooray! It took almost 5 hours to get to Kandy.
Approaching Kandy the landscape changes drastically, you see hills, plantations… so much greenery. There are lots of tunnels and an endless number of bends, all the way until Kandy.
Because the doors on trains are open most of the time, I decided to sit by one of them to take some videos and photos, while taking everything in. It was really awesome.
Five hours later our mission was accomplished: we had finally made it to Kandy! We were now ready for…
Mission 2:
enjoy 3 days in Kandy and learn something new.. . . and the challenge began. First taxi offer: 1000 rupee for 1.5 km… what?? No way. Twenty meters further and we got a new offer: 500 rupee — better than before but still expensive based on usual prices (we did our research). Then, just as we walked outside the station, we met an awesome local guy… his name: Lqbl. Yes, you read that right, 4 consonants. Final price: 200 rupee.
Lqbl was our driver for the following 3 days. Instead of going to the popular places where most tourist go, we opted to do something different and it payed off. Lqbl knew many temples and places where it’s very unusual to see tourists. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to see tourists, it’s just that in order to visit notorious places you usually have to pay a high fee, you have to deal with big masses of other visitors; so if you take “the road less traveled”, you get closer to the locals, talk to them and learn about their culture. Our driver knew many, rarely visited temples and places, so we arranged to visit Kandy and its surroundings for two full days with him. It was a really fund adventure.
There are many places in Kandy where you can go and get close to elephants, and bathe them! I highly recommend you do it. It was a rewarding moment for us.
Do you know what those things are? The miniature version of Batman :). Well, they reach 50cm wide when they unfold their wings.
During those two days, we did saw plenty of things and got to try plenty of traditional food for local prices. Lqbl was a good adviser and he was a good interface to overcome the language barrier. It helped a lot, but not when it came to spicy food! “Not spicy” was synonym of “a little spicy” sometimes, and even though I can tolerate it a bit, my wife has the worst of times whenever she gets close to chilli. Allergies are not fun. Solution: ask a local to write on a paper “not spicy because of allergy, please”. Easy and effective. Keep that in mind!
And after an exhausting day, why not to take an ice cream, right?
Where? Cool Corner, there were many options and they were so delicious.
Kandy is lovely and its locals are fantastic people. We hope you enjoyed our adventure tales and liked our photos. There is more to come because the mission is just half way to conclusion, so don’t go anywhere…