Off to Sri Lanka.......Sacred Tooth?

Upon arrival in Columbo....we were stunned...... minimal horns blaring and the streets were pretty dang ole clean....Can a 45 min. flight make that big a difference?

Well, straight from the airport to Mt. Lavina to a hotel we booked online on the ocean or close to the ocean, there was a railway track (their busiest) and another row of restaurants and guest houses and then the ocean. As we moved along the beach to the fishing village(poor folks) it looked more like the India we just left.

We also found it very hot (90 deg & 90% hum.) So, instead of more beach time, we figured it was time for the hill country( tea plantations, hill stations & mountains) and a little cool weather (80 deg in the daytime and 75 at night).   First Stop, Kandy........

Due to horrendous traffic in Columbo, we missed the scenic train and instead took the scenic bus......  

After 2 months of "black" tuk-tuks, we saw our first red one
then green and blue and pretty much every color.

Kandy Lake is the center of Kandy with the
gold roof being the "Temple of the Sacred
Tooth" Who knew?

Welcome Indiana Jones, step on the Moonstone
and enter the "Temple of the Sacred Tooth"

Supposedly, When Buddha went on to Nirvana, he was
cremated and some sly monk pulled out one of his teeth
from the ashes. The story goes, that in order to safe guard
the tooth, a journey the length of India, with a voyage across
to Sri Lanka, the tooth found a home. Temples were built by every king in Sri Lanka, wars were fought and new temples were built. Even a king who thought it was B.S. and went to have the tooth destroyed, only to have it fly into the heavens until he came to his senses and built it a new temple. The Dutch took it (a decoy), the British took it (and gave it back) and the 30 year civil war in Sri Lanka, blew it up......It's back and it's given offerings 3 times a day for your viewing pleasure....Don't get me wrong the temple was amazing, but it's still a tooth......

While we were walking there it started to rain...heavy rain and really the first that we've felt since Sept. in Shimla. Come to find out it became a daily occurance in Sri Lanka.

Monks monitoring the viewing procession of the tooth relic.
(and to safeguard the tooth from the tooth fairy)

The tooth is enshrined behind the silver door,
 inside the gold & jeweled cone.....
only visible to those in the utmost Buddhist inner circle.

Elephants everywhere, it's time to find some more "live" ones
for Becky 

Found them..."Big ones, little ones" at an Elephant Orphanage

I (Becky) was delighted with these apple cakes we found at a bakery. Moist, rich and chocolaty.

We took a tour of a tea museum, the industry that thanks to Mr. Lipton put Sri Lanka on the map.(Becky) 

So much for tea and cake, Stretch was most excited about finding an English Pub that served a stout beer. Yea!