From Ella we had a wonderful train ride through the mountains and their picturesque tea plantations. We reached Kandy’s beautiful colonial-style train station after about 8 hours of travel. There we organized a shuttle to take us and all our luggage to our accommodation.

The city is very busy. There are lots of tuk tuks at the train station and the traffic is enormous. Our accommodation is on the mountain, so our taxi has to fight its way up a few hairpin bends through the heavy traffic. The entrance is on a side street.

Welcome to Kandy!

I’m already wondering about the sign in the kitchen of the accommodation. Why so much panic about the monkeys? They’re so cute! But a short time later we notice that the monkeys are never far away. They are very curious and go through open doors. They grab everything that’s lying around, flee and find out in the next tree whether the stolen goods are even edible. The monkeys can’t really be driven away either. After a short time I understand the concern about the monkeys.

In the hope of finding something to eat, the large toque macaques grab everything that isn’t nailed down. Even as I sit on the balcony, a few monkeys brazenly try to get closer to me, their eyes glued to the smartphone and cup of tea in front of me.

Shortly after I chase them away, which is not without baring its teeth and screaming, a monkey demonstratively jumps up and down with a bottle of buttermilk that he stole, as if to tell me “and I made it after all“.

From our accommodation on the mountain we have a beautiful view of the holy city of Kandy and Lake Kandy.

It’s not far down on foot. We just have to get across the street alive.

We are on our way to get something to eat and notice beautiful graffiti on the walls around Kandy Lake. There are pictures of traditional dancers and elephants. And then suddenly there really is an elephant standing in front of us.

That’s unbelievable! What is an elephant doing here in the middle of the city? Leon is amazed. This is the first living elephant he has ever seen. It is probably a temple elephant that his guide is taking to a new task.

The lake is a popular photo subject. We see wedding couples posing here. It’s the weekend, but it’s still very busy.

Sara and I visit a nice café for breakfast. Are there actually candy shops in Kandy? Nobody seems to have thought of the joke, at least we don’t see any candy shops.

We visit textile shops to do this. There we stock up on beautiful fabrics for the home. These fabrics are very inexpensive here.

It is very hot and humid in Kandy. It is very tiring to walk through the city and we regularly try to cool down with a mango lassi.

About 150,000 people live in Kandy. Nevertheless, the interesting places are limited to a small radius around Lake Kandy. There are also nice accommodations there, like ours. The holy city with the Sri Dalada Maligawa is located here.

On a nearby hill, Buddha looks down on the city from the Bahirawakanda Temple. Also right on the lake is the Kandy Center, a shopping center where you can find everything you don’t want to buy at the market, from food to suitcases.

Kandy is the cultural capital of Sri Lanka. The most important Buddhist temple, the Sri Dalada Maligawa, is located here. And exactly on the days we are here, an important festival is taking place on the full moon weekend. According to tradition, Buddha was born on a full moon night in May, so every full moon night is holy.

Check out more from our family trip through Sri Lanka!

Most people visiting the temple today are wearing white. There is a very long line of people waiting in front of the temple to pray today.

Leon immediately makes friends with a child of the same age and plays on the sacred lawn while I talk to the parents. They have come from Colombo for the long weekend. Yesterday, Friday, was also a holiday. Today a holy relic of the last king of Sri Lanka is being venerated.

Meanwhile, Sara is getting annoyed at the entrance. We have to cover our shoulders and knees. Normally, temples provide shawls for this, but not here. Sara has an orange shawl that causes trouble with the security guards – the color orange is reserved for monks!

We explore the temple grounds, but stay outside. As tourists we each have to pay 20 USD for entry. We’re too stingy for that.

Instead, we’d rather take a few nice family photos as soon as Sara finally manages to enter the premises.

By chance we pass the Kataragama Devalaya and find this Hindu temple fascinating. We leave our shoes at the entrance for safekeeping and enter the grounds. Leon refuses to take off his shoes, so I have to carry him. The Hindus show no mercy, even with children, when it comes to the barefoot requirement.

The temple is beautifully decorated and the priests on site are busy performing rituals and blessings for the believers. The temple is very colorful and full of beautiful flowers. Unlike mosques or churches, there is not one large hall in which ceremonies take place, but rather there are numerous small shrines in the temple where the believer can speak to the deity of his choice.

At the entrance there are plates full of fruit for sale. A Hindu has to buy such a plate for some ritual and then distribute the fruit to the other guests in the temple after the ritual. It is very strange to suddenly be given pineapple and melon.

In the Hindu temple you regularly receive fruit as a gift!

After we have paid a visit to the Hindu gods, we must of course also pay our respects to Buddha.

We are still in the Sinhalese part of Sri Lanka, where most people are Buddhists.

From almost anywhere in the city you can see the large, white Buddha statue of the Bahirawakanda Temple, which stands on a hill above the city. We climb the hill together in a tuk tuk and get entry to the temple for 300 rupees (about 0.90 euros).

Even the steps up to Buddha are impressive. At the exact time of our visit, just before sunset, the sun is directly behind the statue and creates a corona around the figure.

There is not only a Buddha temple here. In the temple there is a small shrine where we can get a Hindu blessing. In the Hindu temple of Kataragama Devalaya there was also a shrine for Buddha. These two religions go hand in hand.

We receive a blessing from Buddha and the Hindu gods!

In the evening we sit outside and enjoy the view from the terrace over the city as the lights come on. The monkeys go to sleep, but huge fruit bats circle above us again. At least they don’t snatch the beer out of our hands.

We stay in Kandy for three days before we set off again. The next destination is the legendary Lion Rock of Sigirya. Before that we make a short stop at the Buddha Caves of Dambulla.