Kandy, Sri Lanka

We spent a rest day in Kandy, situated on a lake at a higher elevation with a cooler climate than the hot coastal regions. Kandy had been the capital city of the Sri Lanka Sinhalese when the British colonized the area. They promptly moved the capital to the coastal Colombo where there was more economic activity. We stayed in an upscale hotel situated on a hill overlooking the city. I spent the day visiting tourist sites: the large beautiful well maintained botanical gardens located outside the city where I saw many different species of tropical trees and plants, a greenhouse with orchids, many nurseries of large bats hanging from the branches of trees, and a large snake slithering across the path ahead of me; a dancing event with many of the traditional Sri Lankan native dances including fire walking, and the Buddhist Temple that reputes to house one of Buddha’s teeth.