Day 8. Kandy

 This morning was spent at the botanic gardens, which was very pleasant. Once we arrived and shuffled in through the Foreigners' Entrance we piled into an oversized golf buggy which took us around for an hour or so - this minimised the inconvenience of the rain and let us see the whole gardens in comfort. It was picturesque and interesting with many varieties of palms, bamboo, orchids and various other things, and a number of trees labelled as having been planted by visiting dignitaries.

Around midday we left the gardens and were bussed into the middle of the city. We got out and wandered through the markets and some adjacent streets. The markets were interesting but discourage meat eating.

A quick lunch and then we were taken to (sigh) a gem factory. This follows the same pattern as silk factories in asia, carpets in Turkiye, glass blowing in Venice and fabrics in India. There is a demonstration on sourcing the product, then tradesmen at work and finally the showroom, where there are enough salesmen to shadow every person individually. We escaped to sit on the bus quite quickly, but several people bought jewellery, some of which involved adjustments or certificates of authenticity, which was time consuming.

A quick stop at a lookout then on to the (double sigh) 'cultural show'. Also a staple of organised tours. This is the tradeoff; the tour is easy and convenient, but you are trapped into attending things that appeal to other people and not you. This one was about typical for music and dancing and the dreaded audience participation. Neither Lynn nor I was dragged on stage though, so it gets an extra point. At the end we all trooped downstairs to a basement/carpark which was considered safe for the fire walking & dancing.

All of this got us back to the hotel about 6.30pm.