Kandy (Part 1)

Day 2. Continued from here

A few years back (5, maybe) a (then) random stranger who commented on my old blog told me that he didn't blog because he figured that by the time he got up to posting a post about a certain topic, the topic would have lost all relevance. Today, as I sat in front of the computer, intending to blog about a certain incident that happened recently, I realised that it has lost all relevance. Nevertheless, I am saved by the fact that travel posts may still hold some relevance even though they are more than a year late. At least I hope so. 

We left Sigiriya for Kandy, which was another long, long drive through the *unanticipated rain. Now, as mentioned in the very first post, the people in this trip were my parents, my sister and I, all full grown adults, all equally stubborn and short tempered (except for my mom - she's only stubborn, but not as quick tempered as the rest of us) I mention this only because it may explain what I might decide to write in the next few paragraphs. 

Not too far into our journey we drove in through a gate where there were lots of cars parked, which resulted in us being unable to get a parking spot. I had no idea what this place was (the guide was not very chatty like other guides we've met in other places), and my dad asked me to get down and take a picture of the building behind it because it was raining. Me being blur as I was, duly got down in the rain, took the picture and then we drove off without any question. Looking back, that was a bad move. What was that place and why just take a picture and not go inside? 

Sometime later, we ended up in a wood work shop. Having been to Indonesian wood work shops before, I thought the stuff here was rather similar and couldn't think of anything I'd like to buy. However my parents thought it was the best place they've been to in the whole itinerary (at least I thought they thought that) There was no way prying them off the displays of the shop. They got excited at the sandalwood powder, and a host of other things. It's one thing if they just bought what they wanted straight away, but they didn't. They made at least a few rounds before deciding to get just one small item! My sister and I got annoyed and left the shop hoping that the parents will realise that they've been in there for far too long, but it didn't work. So my sister and I decided to converse with our non-chatty guide who was also waiting outside about the Dambulla Caves (one of the Unesco heritage sites) which we're supposed to visit. 

Guide: We already passed it just now. 

Me/Sis: Huh, when? Why didn't we stop? 

Guide: We did. It's where you took the picture.  

Dambulla Caves :(

Apparently, towards the front of the van (while my sis and I were sitting at the back, oblivious to what was going on) my dad had remarked that it was OK if we didn't stop at Dambulla Caves and the guide had taken his word for it despite the fact that it was in the itinerary and the fact that the people who took the effort to plan the trip (me and my sis) were not consulted. How could they?! 

 This was followed by a long and drawn out argument between us and my dad after we all got seated in the van. If the guide was feeling uncomfortable at all this (our argument was in English, and even if it were not, our voices would have given it away) he didn't show it.

 The next stop was a spice garden in Matale. As expected, even with umbrellas, you can't help getting wet in a spice garden. Nevertheless, due to the rain, the temperature was cool enough for us to walk around without too much discomfort. Though Malaysian cooking uses quite a bit of spices, we don't really get to see the plants where these spices come from unless they're local, so I thought this was one of the more interesting places though I didn't take much photos except for the cocaine plant. Ahem. Towards the end, we were given some hot spiced tea, and ended up buying a whole lot of stuff from their little store. We had lunch at the restaurant in the spice garden itself where they cook with the spices from the garden (I'm just saying, but it makes sense, I think)

The Cocaine Plant

 *Though unanticipated, rain is a recurring theme throughout the vacation in Sri Lanka.