The sweetness of Kandy

After spending a few more interesting days and hilarious nights with the endlessly hospitable UN crowd on the East coast of Sri Lanka, we've moved up into the Hill Country again. Currently we're sarong shopping in the magnificent ancient Sinhalese city of Kandy, the home of, amongst other things, a much revered relic of Buddha's teeth. This allegedly original dental fragment is so important to Buddhists, in fact, that a giant fortified gold plated temple has been built to house it. Around it are countless army posts, presumably protecting it from attack from the Tamil LTTE rebels, who once before tried to blow up this sacred molar.



Kandy, like the name suggests, is home to some particularly sweet people. Elevated at 500 meters above sea level, the second largest town in the country is bustling with eager tuk tuk drivers and shop owners. The air is filled with bird noise, monkey chatter and the strain of overfilled city buses loudly protesting as they slowly climb the hills. The surrounding mountains and lush valleys are filled with temples, colossal Buddha statues and sporadically placed road side corn sellers. That's right, corn. Since we're devoid of our old faithful pop corn popper, we've been indulging in random road side corn feasts whenever we've had the chance. Bliss.