Day 4 Monday ( or is it?)

Today we had a massively outrageous start at 7.30 am!!!  We were driving up to central Sri Lanka to stay in the old capital of Kandy. On the way we stopped off at an Ayurvedic (it means the science of life) centre.  It purports to be holistic and treat the causes rather than the symptoms of ailments.  Apparently Sri Lanka has very low rates of Altzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s and the doctor who had an impossibly long name and who gave us a tour of the spice and herb garden attributed this to Ayurvedic medicine. Well he told us about all the trees and what they were able to treat   I was particularly interested in nutmeg. The doctor held up the brown oval nutmeg and said, “ Now how do you think we use the nutmeg to stop diarrhoea?” 😳.  Anyway he discoursed at length about the healing properties of Red Oil. It cures just about everything. I was sold. See  number 17

Those who wanted it could have a mini massage but I did think that some of the masseurs looked like the sales assistants in the shop and the gardeners.  

While the lady next to me was having her ankle massaged, she said she started feeling a tingle in her palm. Oooh, was it working?  But her husband pointed out that she had put her hand on the sticky underside of the bench. The man who massaged my knee gave me a real work out. When he had finished, it felt so much better but only because he had stopped hurting me. The doctor also said that if you got a curry stain on white clothes, a lime will remove the stain. More of this later!  We saw a
couple of large spiders in a tree. Su said one was a male wood spider and the other a female. He said we would have time to photograph them on the way back if the female hadn’t eaten him for lunch. Actually they were nothing like as big as the spider in the ladies’ loo. ( Hole in the floor!)


Back on the coach and the guide told us about marriage in Sri Lanka. Many marriages are still arranged but spouses are often advertised for in the newspapers. Women of middle age are advertised by their parents and interestingly the details of the family i.e. their caste as well as their horoscope is
requested. But a photo is not deemed necessary

On to the hotel through towns and villages with flags and bunting everywhere. It was Independance Day and all shops were closed, children on holiday from school, processions in the streets with all 

girl drum bands. But worst of all, when we got to the hotel we learned that it was dry!  What?  They 

actually celebrate Independance day by NOT having a drink?  Ronnie was in despair

Anyway that evening we went to a cultural show, which was very entertaining.  Traditional dances about peacocks, cobra training, hat twirling  and so much drummingyourearseang. But the highlight was the fire eating and walking over hit colals. There was no trickery, I was standing 2 feet away. Absolutely amazing