Middle-aged flash packers

After finally getting rid of my hangover headache and pledging allegiance to the “I’m never drinking again, at least not until tomorrow” club, it was time for breakfast.
All very nice apart from the caramelised onions and pancake. Steve, rather nastily, pretended to enjoy his but really only wanted to see the look on my face when I bit into mine. Usually out of politeness I try and stuff everything down, but this morning was not the sort of morning it could be done.
Of course the totally charming staff came and asked me how I liked it and I just garbled some rubbish about how I loved caramelised onions and used them a lot in cooking at home. Which of course didn’t go anywhere near explaining why I’d left my pancake. The problem is, people here really care what you think about the food. It’s not like at home where nobody gives a poop whether you liked it or not. I’m beginning to long for the anonymity of Southern England.
After much bumbling around, steve and I headed for the botanical gardens. What an oasis of calm and tranquility! Another Nirvana!
The young Sri Lankans also enjoy the gardens – much canoodling going on. Nice that there is a relaxed attitude to youngsters getting together.
The number of flying foxes (or fruit bats) roosting in the trees were unbelievable. Plenty of monkeys around too. A lovely, well tended place.
Our tuktuk ride back was the scariest one yet. The young man driving us was obviously a frustrated racing driver as he overtook, undertook and generally refused to be stopped by anyone. If I was ever in a hurry, he’d be the tuktuk to get.
The tuktuk driver who took us to the gardens however, would probably get my vote overall as he had a bottle of Jacobs Creek discreetly placed just by the drivers door. Brilliant idea. I wonder how much he wanted for it?
Bit of lunch in Kandy then a meander down the road. I made the stupid mistake of wandering down a side street selling tourist tat. It was like being besieged. It felt as though every trader had honed in on us like a swarm of wasps. One guy was very unpleasant when we said no we didn’t want whatever it was they were flogging.
We are used to people wanting our trade and having a hard sell – Turks aren’t known for their soft selling tactics – but this is out of order. People come up to us all the time – ” where are you from? ” and you just know you’ll be asked to buy a trip, have a guide or just give money. We are not walking wallets Sri Lanka. (Can you tell I might be getting a bit fed up?)
A calming walk around the lake was next on the agenda which started well but then it began to pour down. Apparently the rains are late so this is to be welcomed by the locals but it did stop play for us for a bit.
On our way back to the hotel some German girls stopped us and asked us if we knew how to go about getting from Kandy to Ella. We were happy to help.
After some research for the next part of our trip, we popped out to the “White House” ,a restaurant near the lake, for dinner. We had an excellent curry. This was Indian, not Sri Lankan. Delicious. No beer of course, but neither of us were complaining!