by Lianna

Nick had good reason to be lazy after he returned from Adam’s Peak, so we decided to shell out the cash for a taxi ride to Kandy and avoid the routine of standing on an overcrowded bus getting a headache. When we arrived at our wonderful guest house, Mcleod Inn, we went for a walk and ended up spotting tons of wildlife in the second largest city in the country.

Kandy is situated around a man made lake where we spotted 5 monitor lizards which are the worlds second largest lizard (next to Komodos.) We even saw a giant pregnant mama sunning herself on a log. Then we walked alongside a huge pelican swimming along the lake fishing with his giant bill, filling it with water and fish and draining the water before swallowing the fish whole. Not a good way to go if your a fish I imagine, but pretty impressive to watch!

We didn’t go to one of the main attractions in Kandy, which is a temple that holds the believed tooth of Buddha (the temple of the tooth) because we had been told by more than one person that it’s not very impressive. Instead we opted to go to a cultural show, which is something we don’t normally go for. We changed our minds because we were told that besides the cultural dance and music, there were fire eaters and people walking across hot coals so we decided to reserve front row seats. It was a really cool experience that we recommend.

The next morning we joined a couple from Boston and woke up early to see elephants! There is some controversy surrounding the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage as there always seems to be at any kind of rehabilitation center. That being said, if we listened to every criticism from anyone with an internet connection we would never get to see any animals so we decided to give it a go. Elephants are truly one of my favourite animals, so we when first arrived and I saw two babies chained up to be bottle fed I was upset because I had read that the elephants were free roaming. We decided to skip the feeding because it wasn’t something I was interested in seeing, and we arrived to the field where about 40 elephants of all ages were walking around eating. I got to get up close to some of them and it was a great experience, I would swear that they love getting their pictures taken.

Some of the elephants were rescued from inhumane situations, such as the two that were found (separately) roaming around near Jaffna. One elephant had stepped on a land mine and had it’s right leg from the knee down blown off. His left supporting leg is very bowed resulting from the extra elephant weight it carries. The other elephant was a mature male (75 years old!) who had his eyes gouged by poachers looking to steal his enormous tusks. They didn’t end up getting his tusks, but he was wandering blind when he was rescued. It was really sad to see such a wise looking animal that had lived so many years having one of his most important senses taken from him. Thankfully they seem well cared for at the orphanage and we had an overall good day at the center.

One of the highlights of the day is when the elephants get bathed in the nearby river. Everyone had to stand up on the curb while all the shops close their doors and elephants come hurdling down the hill excited for their scrub down. It’s very cute to watch them plunk themselves down in the water and patiently wait for a mahout to come give it some attention.

On the drive back to Kandy we stopped in at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens which were pretty amazing. I had fun running around from tree to tree trying to guess what part of the world they were from before reading their tags. There were none from Canada but we did see a rubber tree which when tapped, pours rubber instead of maple. Although I would personally go for maple any day and right now I think I would pour it all over any food, it was really cool to see rubber oozing from a tree.

The highlight of the botanical gardens was by far a giant Javan Fig Tree that has taken the number one spot on my list of favourite trees. The branches covered 2500 square meters, and one of the branches even spawned a whole other tree! It was truly breathtaking.