We woke after a good nights sleep and went for breakfast…a feast fit for the King….after which we needed a lie down!!! With fresh laundry and a lovely ambience the Hotel Elegant was certainly relaxing. Although we have to admit on going for a swim we hadn’t expected the water to be quite so cold!!

At 3pm Suminda collect us and we drove through Kandy to The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The temple is built near the ancient royal palace. The left canine tooth of Buddha is enshrined here and it is this that draws thousand of local and foreign devotees and tourists. A lot of flower sellers outside of the Temple do a roaring trade as locals make gifts of flowers to Buddha. This artefact serves as a significant symbol of Sinhalese identity and pride. Annually in August during the Esia Perahera procession the relic casket is paraded through the streets atop a male elephant. The 10 day festival is one of the largest Buddhist festivals in the world. The rest of the time the relic casket can not be viewed, it is kept in a chamber hidden securely behind closed doors.

The site contains a museum portraying the history of the tooth. There is also the building where the Kandyan Convention was signed in 1815 with the British Government. The last king of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Ragasinha was so disliked that the people were pleased when he was deposed and the British took over the ruling of the Island.

On our way out we passed some beautiful murals of the Esia Perahera procession and the buildings looked even more majestic from another angle.

On retrieving our shoes we walked a short distance to a theatre to watch a cultural show of music, singing, dancing, fire dancing and acrobatics. It was very entertaining.

As if this wasn’t enough we then went into Kandy and met a lady who took us around 3 different street “cafes” for us to try 6 different Sri Lankan street food dishes. They were all very tasty, although a little too much egg in virtually everything for my liking…..we did however get to try battered mushrooms which were my favourites….we swilled it down with some ginger beer….Finally back to the hotel with full to overflowing tummies.