We read that the train journey from Colombo to Kandy was supposed to be a beautiful sight, as I mentioned in the last post. Well, I can tell you the last hour or so was spectacular! I took a load of photos but they don't do it justice. The train took around 4 hours and was quite a bumpy ride but good fun if you like a bit of excitement. As we chugged away from the city, the air instantly changed and everything became twinkly green. Mainly because it was raining, but that kinda made it look all the more pretty.
 
Heading up the mountain to Kandy on the train
 
We rolled into the station all ready to check out the place, but had no idea where to stay on our backpacker budget, and since we were feeling wild we actually put our trust in the first tuk tuk driver we saw. He drove us through the country to the hub of Kandy town, the picturesque lake that runs through it. We were dropped at a local family homestay called Hotel Kantaya. A lovely woman greeted us and showed us a spare room upstairs with shared bathroom, which we took for 2000sr (£10) a night. The WiFi was unreliable and the mosquito nets weren't wonderful but it was nice to have a lounge area and spacious bedroom.


 Hotel Kantaya, a homestay in Kandy
Elephant traffic, standard Sri Lanka
 
We went for a nice little stroll around the lake, which takes under an hour to circle, and had a look at the infamous Temple of the Tooth. It looks very majestic in the sunlight, and it was nice to see the locals going about their daily lives in prayer. The admission was around £7 so we decided to peep through the railings instead of wander through the grounds. A couple of museums are also in this area, but charge similar high fees for entry, which is a complaint we've heard several times online about Sri Lanka, with its crazy price difference for tourists. I guess it's good for them to benefit from all of us snooping around, but it did put us off a few places. To be fair, we did fork out on a couple of decent meals (fork out, get it) but ya gotta eat!
 
 Monitor Lizard on the lakeside
Kandy Lake in the sun
Peeping through the railings at the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy
 
Happily walking along the lakeside and enjoying the atmosphere, we came across our second con artist. A skinny, sweet looking old man waved at us kindly and asked us if we recognised him as the chef from our hostel. A bit clueless and feeling guilty, we were like 'ohhhhh, ok!' and let him show us to the local market, where we were heading anyway. He showed us some spice shops, another common thing they love to tout you for here, but it just so happened that I fell in love with an adorable little leather rucksack in the same market, and Mr Chef helped me to get the price down to my highest offer, 2200rs/£11. He did ask for some money for his family after, but I was happy with my bag so a small tip was worth it.

Feeling cheery, we decided to be adventurous and headed for The Muslim Hotel, a crazy cheap slap-up café/restaurant selling local food. We had some sort of curry and a couple of snacky bits for 200rs/£1 each altogether, bargain! This was also where we ate our first 'sweet cake' as we called them, a yummy chewy sugar-coated bread thing that they sell everywhere for around 20rs/10p. A drink at The Pub (actual name) round the corner was a lovely finish to the day, though expect tourist prices.
 
 Local market place in Kandy
View of the street from The Pub bar in Kandy
 
 After the chaos of Colombo, Kandy is the perfect destination. We spent a couple of days here so I've split the info into two posts to make it easy on you! Next post is on the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage and Botanical Gardens near to Kandy.
 
I'll include the whole summary thing at the end of the Part 2!