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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rochel1977" data-source="post: 18677057" data-attributes="member: 371">Kandy: Jewelry, temples, bats, and elephants <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m121_DSC_5396.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> If there's one picture that we saw a lot of, it's this! Sri Lankan street life is dense and active and awesome. Lots of tuk-tuks and diesel fumes (of which we were of course an equal contributor). <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m122_DSC_5402.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We've now driven north to Kandy, which was the most touristy town we visited, although the great majority of visitors were Sri Lankans on holiday. This giant Buddha-on-a-hill has a staircase up his back and is visible from everywhere in town, yet oddly doesn't get a mention in Lonely Planet. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m123_DSC_5404.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is a Buddhist temple, so keep things under control! My colleague Nalin translates this as "Loitering in the upstairs is entirely prohibited for the young men and women who are couples." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m124_DSC_5467.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Christmas eve in Kandy! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m125_DSC_5503.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Heidi is shopping with Astro, so Finn and Piper and I take a boat trip around the lake in the center of town. The inlet pipes around the lake are populated with 5' long monitor lizards (!). <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m126_DSC_6012.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And what do we see from the lake? A million fruit bats! They were the most amazing things ever... I mean, these are not your basic American bats which are the size of a sparrow. These are the prehistoric, megalithic pterodactylic Indian Fruit Bats. Which have a wing span of SIX FEET! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m127_DSC_5676.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> When sleeping in trees, they look about the size of a big housecat. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m128_DSC_5752.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Most sleep upside down, but this one preferred not to. Despite trying, I was unable to get any photos of the bats in flight. They take off around dusk to go in search of fruit. We saw a few loners flying during the day the day, but the majority were sleeping. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m135_IMG_2012.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Egg hoppers! OK, these are really one of Sri Lanka's best culinary inventions. These are basically a crispy rice-flour pancake, made in a hemispherical pan, with a cooked egg and some sambal (like a salsa). My god they're good. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m136_DSC_5944.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Walking around, everyone wanted to pose with Piper and Astro. They wanted to pose with Finn too, but he was somewhat more vocal in his opposition ("NOOOOOOOOOOO! GET AWAY!!!!") <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m137_DSC_6025.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Nice cow in the Peradeniya botanic gardens outside of Kandy. Finn and I were walking closer to it, until I looked on my exposed legs and found three leeches. I quietly removed them and carried Finn out of there before he noticed anything, lest he start puking from the anxiety of it. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m138_IMG_2020.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> One of the things that Kandy is known for is jewelry. Apparently they dig up a lot of rocks from across Sri Lanka, and cut / grind / polish / set them in Kandy. As one might expect, there were a healthy number of expensive and tourist-oriented shops on the downtown circuit that did this. We eventually ended up much less commercial place on the edge of town, run by a family, and spent at least an hour there watching them grid rocks, talking with their welders, and so forth. It was really cool... a process I've never seen outside of my 8th-grade Industrial Arts class at Highland View Middle School (*). (*) In that class, Dan Tate, who was tall and mean, stole the rock I was working on. I told the teacher, and the teacher busted Dan. Five minutes later, Dan cornered me by the rock grinder and decked me in the face, leaving me with bloody cheeks from breaking my shop safety glasses. Then Dan got suspended. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m139_IMG_2035.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Heating the silver in the fire. The white things that look like bricks to the side of the fire? Those are actually freeze-dried cuttlefish (for real!), which provide the workers an easily-carved surface to work their designs into. They feel like lightweight foam, or balsa wood. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m140_IMG_2055.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Selling roadside corn. Same idea as Mexico and South Africa, though in Mexico they're usually fire-roasted, which is really good. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m141_DSC_6035.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Fruit at the Kandy market! We couldn't talk this guy down in price and may have paid above market value for his bundle of short red bananas, but they did get nearly all eaten. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m142_DSC_6044.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Muslim butchers at the Kandy market. Since this was Christmas, many of the other stores were closed. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m143_DSC_6062.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> More in the food stalls in the Kandy central market. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m144_DSC_6074.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Kandy Central Market. Downstairs = food; upstairs = clothing. This was a great market, even if we missed much of the action by coming on Christmas day. That's the big Buddha on the hill. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m145_DSC_4527.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Whoa! OK, anyone used to traveling through 2nd-world markets is used to seeing knock-off name-brand clothing. But wandering around a different market in Kandy, we found these stalls, selling legit merchandise. It really was real North Face, Columbia, etc... plus some Jack Wolfskin for the Germans. What's the deal? "Black market, my friend! You see, the factory is in our country, to the north. They make one million jackets, they have some extras. I buy them for a good price, and I give them to you for a good price." Indeed, these were all made-in-Sri Lanka products, being sold for maybe 1/4 the US price. A few had the tags ripped out (like what you'd get at a factory outlet in the US), but most were new. While there were a lot of booths like this, there were also plenty of regular knock-off Nikes, Louis Vuitton, etc, just like any good market. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m146_DSC_6088.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Five of us can fit in the back of a tuk-tuk! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m147_DSC_6138.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Perhaps Kandy's most well known historical object is a single tooth, alleged to be from the Buddha himself. The tooth is stored deep within a nested chamber within the appropriately named Temple of the Tooth... Thousands of people were in line and excited to go through the temple -- mostly Sri Lankan tourists and families on year-end vacations. Finn was in line but it was a bit overwhelming for him, so we made our way out soon after this. The lotus flowers are available for an offering of about $1 US. Every large temple has multiple vendors selling flowers and other objects. Piper gave hers to the priest. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m148_DSC_6164.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Our guide for the temple tour, MG Nishantha, gives Piper a lotus flower. There must be some massive lakes with commercial lotus-flower farms, although I never saw them. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m149_DSC_6176.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Selling mangos outside the temple... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m150_DSC_6189.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> One more day in Kandy. This is at an elephant 'sanctuary' outside of Kandy in Pinnawala. Based on one awful experience with one of these so-called refuges in in South Africa, I had expectations that were not very high. Sympathy is not Finn's strongest point, but even he clued in to something being wrong here. "Why did that man put chains around that elephant? I think it wants to go walk around in the forest -- not be stuck in this building with all of the people." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m151_DSC_6201.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Things admittedly did get better for the elephants as we moved up the hill, and found them free-ranging. There are roughly 100 elephants here, and they are bred successfully in captivity, which much attest to some sort of happiness. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m152_DSC_6215.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> These are Asian elephants, which look a whole lot different than the African elephants which we see at home. The Asian ones are smaller, more hairy, and have tiny ears. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m153_DSC_6275.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Also, African elephants don't have all the pink and brown spots. The population of Asian elephants in Sri Lanka is I think around 3000. They're not really endangered, but they're not exactly living in their nativate habitat either. Most of them are for ceremonies, or rides, or for carrying things... not just hanging out in the forest. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m154_DSC_6317.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Here, the elephants from the 'sanctuary' are being taken on their daily river swim. They walk down the road about a 1/2 km and then walk into the river. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m155_DSC_6346.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper, the elephant, and the mahouts (elephant handlers) are all very interested in bananas. Finn, not so much. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m156_DSC_6360.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Three mahouts with their elephants. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m157_DSC_6369.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> I do like this photo... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m158_DSC_6381.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m159_DSC_6391.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m160_DSC_6292.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper and Finn go look for souvenir tuk-tuks after we're done with elephants. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m161_DSC_6518.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Back in Kandy, firewalkers. This made Piper keep talking about Mythbusters:     "I know how they do it!! So, if you watch them carefully, they're not going to be running across, because this will push their feet in too hard. But if they instead walk quickly and gently, without disturbing the coals, they can do it." </blockquote>

Verification: Dahaya deken beduwama keeyada?

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