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 ...