Thursday, 7th February,2019
This was a really strenuous day spent driving only to end in an oasis up above the city of Kandy.
Originally we had planned to go back to Sigiriya to have a last attempt at climbing the boulder rock but then we found out that 36 km further south from Pasikuda, there was an original Dutch Fort dating back to the VOC age. For those not familiar, the VOC or the Dutch East India Trading Company was one of the first companies in the world back in the 16-17th centuries set up with shareholders participation’s. This company set up trading posts all the way to Indonesia and Japan and hence also in Sri Lanka. Actually this specific Fort was first built by the Portuguese in 1628 and 10 years later taken over by the Dutch.
Within the fort, there are administrative buildings still being used, however the outer bastions of the fort are sadly crumbling away. We did see a cannon dating back to the British rule in Sri Lanka and a ruined bell tower. None the less, the view from on top of the fort across the lagoon is magnificent. After taking some pictures we were ready to resume our drive. Indika had the choice either to go back to our starting point and pick up a good road to Kandy or take the road which was more direct, however part of which was in a bad state. We chose to take the latter…….
Well leaving Batticaloa wasn’t a real problem – it’s only when we hit the main road that we got into problems! Besides the fact that every bridge on this road was being repaired, the road surface was really uneven and to top it all, cows were roaming all over the road. This is Tamil land and Tamils are Hindoes and hence cows are sacred and can roam wherever they like. Some rice paddies had been harvested and here we saw buffaloes followed by white birds grazing in the left overs of the rice fields……
After about 80km of really bad road, which incidentally,is being repaired and widened, we stopped to stretch our legs and some refreshment at a wayside (government project) restaurant manned by women only and selling local snacks. We were served our herbal roti with coconut and pepper Sambal on a banana leaf in a wicker basket. Every woman had her own cooking unit so we had to go to another unit to order our fresh papaya juice. No napkins but a sink with running water to wash your hands after snacking. And this is the first time ever on this trip and in a long,long time since I’ve been travelling that I had to use a hole in the ground in the toilet …….. all was clean and well maintained and when I came out the woman looking after the restrooms just said one word to me with her big smile – money – ain’t showed me the palm of her hand – there she had written 50 rupees! Well, I thought, back home if I use the restroom at a fuel station, I normally pay €0,50 but then of course we have proper western toilets there; that’s the difference!
Back on the road again, we were soon on another good road leading us to Kandy – we had taken some 2.5 hours to drive 85km and we still have some 100km to get to Sri Lanka’s previous capital city. According to Indika, it should not take us more than 3 hours to get to Kandy.
This part of the drive was quite interesting as we then were driving through the mountain range – it was uphill, downhill, hairpin bends and at one time we came to a signpost saying that we would be driving along 18 hairpin bends as we climbed upwards and the view was even more breathtaking with each bend in the road.
Soon we saw the sign that Kandy was only 10km away…… great we would soon be reaching our next stop at Haranthi House which was situated in the hills just on the outskirts of Kandy. We stopped on the way to admire the view. As we were quite high in the hills, we had Kandy lying at our feet – the lake being the center point with a statue of Buddha high up on the left hand side.
The last few kilometers were exhausting – we were all tired and Google maps seemed to have sent us to the wrong direction – we ended up by the Kandy hospital…… Indika phoned up the guest house and the last couple of kilometers we were guided by the guesthouse owner as we were going up a winding narrow road….. and finally there was Haranthi House.
We were welcomed by the host and his wife with a glass of fresh mango juice and we were shown to our room which had a magnificent view over the hilltops covered in palm trees – it was an oasis of peace and tranquility. Indika left to get to his own overnight place and we were going to have dinner at the guesthouse.
We had dinner with two other couples staying at the guesthouse. One couple was from Italy and another younger couple from Denmark. We all chatted together and shared our experiences and gave each other tips as what to see and do. By 10.30 pm we had to call it a day and went up to our room – we were both dead tired and needed our well earned sleep.
Tomorrow Indika will be picking us up for our tour of Kandy!
