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the English brought them here. Now that I’ ve seen them, I notice them everywhere, it is bizarre, as for a few seconds, in some places it actually feels like home.
Back on the bikes we were headed toward Kandy which included road which we were on the day before and the rest of the route was, according to Nemo, ' boring ', so we took a 2.5-hour detour through more mountains. This side of the mountain had commercial tea plantations as far as the eye could see, some of the roads were that rough, it felt like my teeth were going to fall out!
It was funny, when we travelled through the villages, people did a double take, especially the kids. Their heads almost spun backward as they kept walking forward. Our bikes stood out, not the normal 150cc clapped out dinosaurs that most ride in the villages, I suppose I stood out, full gear, with a go pro stuck to my helmet, and then the colour of my skin. The expressions on the kid’ s faces were of sheer disbelief. If I smiled, waved and said hello, they giggled, pretended not to stare and kept moving, sneaking back a couple of final glances to confirm what they had just seen, it was a really beautiful innocence from humble people. I liked it a lot!
We spent a night in the ancient kingdom of Polonnaruwa, another UNSECO World heritage site. It was the second capital of Sri Lanka after the destruction of Anuradhapura in 993AD. The ruins and gardens are dated back to 12th century and are absolutely amazing!
Climbing the mountains and arriving in arriving in Kandy at school time was just mental and chaotic. To get through it alive, my goal was to keep moving forward through the traffic and not to stop. In this traffic I was often‘ Finding
Nemo’; sorry, bad pun. It took a certain amount guts, a bit of skill and a whole lot of luck to ride in that kind of traffic. I was learning very quickly how to ride like a local.
I ' m not sure how Nemo originally found the accommodation for the trip, every day he continued to nail it. In Kandy I was fortunate to stay in absolutely gorgeous room overlooking the outskirts of the city to the mountains we had just spent all day riding in.
That evening we took a short Tuk Tuk ride to Kandy Lake to the cultural centre to watch a dance show, then we’ d visited Sri Dalada Maligawa temple to see where remnants of Buddha’ s teeth are kept in a crypt within a gold stupa inside the temple, which in turn is inside a palace which is surround by a large fort. There are loads of information on this particular temple and the journey of Buddha’ s tooth,
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