Kandy & the Ceylon Countryside

A.M.S…
On the second day in Ceylon, we were up early again: 6.45am (Gad how tourists have to take it) to start on a 70 mile trip up to Kandy. We went up by auto and returned by train. Each way it took us about three hours. On the way up, we saw much of interest such as: a tea factory, tea plants, rice paddies (but not growing at this season), rubber, banyan fig, banana, coconut and bread-fruit trees, along with many flowers.

Pleasing Sights, Sounds & Smells

A.M.S…
We saw elephants working in sawmills and one of the most exotic, beautiful and fascinating Botanical Gardens we've ever seen. I don't suppose there is an orchid in the World that hasn't been sent here to be cultivated in this garden, bulbous or parasite, white, black, purple, pink or, what not. Trees with every known aroma, such as cinnamon, clove, camphor, bay and all-spice.

This barely describes the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya. There is also a university giving courses in engineering, law, medicine, for both men and women. The campus and buildings are simply beautiful. The students are very well dressed, better than on American campuses.

Shopping - Not a Favourite Hobby!

A.M.S…
At Kandy we lunched at the moderately fair Queens Hotel, where there were the usual tourist trap shops selling wood carvings, textiles, precious stones, jewellery and miscellaneous junk. We have been allotted so much time on these Cook's tours for visiting shops and bazaars, and yet more shops and bazaars, that I have developed a violent allergy against them.

This to the point where if somebody offered me a bonafide $100 bill for $10 I'd either want to haggle to get it for $5, or consider it a gyp even at that price! I started on this trip with a very tolerant, even good natured view of shopping which has turned, or rather “curdled” into a distaste for which adequate adjectives suitable for decent writing are not at hand.

Nothing, but nothing, quite so irritates me as to land at some interesting port or town and hear some “dear old ladies” say: “What can you buy here?” Not, what can you see, or what can you learn - but what can you buy. Lois, God Bless her, can see, learn and shop and give each its due and proper share.

Another Scenic Idyll

A.M.S…
The train ride back (three hours from 4.15pm to 7.15pm) despite the sticky heat, was without a doubt one of the high spots of the entire trip. We think no other land trip quite equalled this because of the combination of scenic beauty and interest.

Madeira, the Corniche drive, as well as the drive from Taormina to Catania, were as beautiful, maybe even more so, but here was the exotic touch of the tropics and the irresistible appeal of people of another world to add to the fascination of this journey.

Again, we saw but much better, the rice paddies, the elephants and water buffaloes, the tropical palms, bananas and cocoanuts. The train, hugging the sides of the mountains and hills, gave us a view as though one were in a low-flying aeroplane. We were going through a country of clean little villages, clean cheerful people, industrious people at work, not lying around.

Enchanted by the Children

A.M.S…
Green verdure as distant mountain ranges loomed up at unexpected intervals; thatched roofs, cool little rivers and streams with bathers probably getting cleaned up and refreshed after a day's work. At times our train stopped briefly at a small station and always there were children as well as grown-ups awaiting the train; cheerful, smiling, radiant kids.

You can see they are honest, well behaved and properly disciplined. We haven't seen such nice looking people, though dark (but not black) in skin since we left home. The kids were seeking gifts, sweets or money, but weren't begging.

Nor did mothers with simulated suffering, twist their babies’ arms to make them cry to evoke sympathy and alms as they did in place after place from Tangier to Bombay. These kids were laughing and having fun, and if a windfall came, fine; if not, life was still swell! You felt you were a President or a hero being acclaimed as the train went by passing through these little villages.

Later, as it got towards the day's end and the pink sunset kissed the tops of huts and trees and cast its long eerie shadows, you felt this couldn't be quite real. It was real and so very wonderful to have had the privilege to see it.