Woolly says – Our journey continued, the talk inside the car was all things elephant, until I pointed out that an elephant was a treat whereas a mammoth was for life, Jo sighed and patted me on the head. Our next destination was to see a tooth, I really had no idea why we wanted to see a tooth and my carer wasn’t giving anything away, I sat back and considered the fact that they might be taking me to a dentist, not a trip that I was happy to participate in. The road had started to climb, and the views of dense vegetation flashed past, I set about counting statues of Buddha but ran out of paws within seconds there were so many. As my ears started to pop with our elevation we pulled into the side of the road and the driver turned the engine off, I looked around but failed to see any teeth, before I could ask further we were out of the vehicle and inside a tea factory, I looked at Jo and could see her mouthing to Zoe, ‘we are not buying anything’, lets see how long that lasts!
A young lady guided us round the tea factory, I love tea and knew that Ceylon as Sri Lanka was once known was famous for it’s brew, maybe this could change Zoe’s future of tea drinking!
Woolly says – The tour didn’t take long, the lovely young women showed us the leaves that arrived to be processed before talking us through the drying process and then leading us down a flight of stairs to a grinding and sorting area where instead of the green leaves we had just seen we were now surrounded by baskets and baskets of small brown bits, we were apparently now going to drink this, I wondered if the bar had beer that I could have instead!
The tour took us into a tasting area where we were seated and provided with a range of teas to try, I hadn’t failed to notice a large shop behind us, as I happily sipped away Zoe proceeded to pull a variety of faces as her taste buds tried to process the experience, after her third attempt we arrived at the conclusion that she really didn’t like tea in any way shape or form.
Woolly says – Our tea factory guide had been hoovering and as Jo downed the last cup she sprang forward pointing towards the huge array of tea products on sale, would Jo crumble and give in, I watched her face as she smiled at the girl and thanked her for her time before leading us to our driver who was happily drinking his own cuppa and devouring cake, where was my cake I demanded, Jo gave me one of her looks and beamed at him whilst telling him that we were ready to go now, he looked a little startled and hastily gulped down the last of his drink before leading us out of the building, I looked at the piece of cake still on the table…… well it would be rude to leave it!
As we climbed back into the car I noticed the cake crumbs sticking to the mammoth’s tusks, you really can’t take him anywhere! Next stop would hopefully be to see the tooth.
Woolly says – Our journey continued for another few minutes before we pulled over once more, ‘Herbal garden’ our man said, I looked at Jo and Zoe, hadn’t we been to one of those yesterday! Did we need another trip round one! It appeared that we didn’t have much of an option as the driver opened the doors and ushered us towards someone else, I sighed, the girls duly followed the guide into an area covered in plants.
This time we had a Doctor of plants leading us round, he seemed most surprized at our knowledge of each plant and its herbal uses and kept moving us on to the next bush to tell us about that before we could tell him. He told us that the place was government run and took no cash for visitors, of course not I thought they would just sell us stuff to make money instead!
Woolly says – It was better than the previous days visits and Jo in particular seemed to enjoy the head massage and strange smelling tea that was ‘free’. The Doctor started to tell us that the masseuses were in training and received no money for using their skills on the human population before going in for the kill, ‘they do of course appreciate a small donation if you are able’, of course they do, I looked at Jo who sighed and handed over some notes at which point we were led into the shop so we could spend some more, the purse however had disappeared into the bag and although not rude in our haste to depart we made very short work of looking round before interrupting our driver having another drink and telling him we were ready to leave.
The head massage was pleasant, and the rupees handed over amounted to little more than a few English pounds, hopefully we wouldn’t be paying out for anything else, well except the cost of seeing the tooth!
Woolly says – A further half an hour passed, and I realised that we were now driving through quite a large city area, not a department store in sight but plenty of small shack like shops selling all sorts of items from fruit and veg to clothes and paraffin. I asked once more about the tooth and why on earth we were looking for a tooth in the first place, Jo grinned and told me to be patient. I really hoped it wouldn’t be much longer as lunchtime had long since passed and the cake had only filled a very small area in my tummy. We turned off the main road and pulled up in front of a modern glass building, I glared at Jo, it looked as though it could contain a dentist, I looked at our driver who merely said, ‘Gem museum’, I chuckled to myself, I don’t think our budget will stretch to gems so this could be fun.
Trying to show good grace when I really just wanted to get to our destination I followed the others into the building where we were led into a viewing room.
Woolly says – The five minute video wasn’t to bad, explaining about the methods that the country uses to dig for precious and semi-precious stones as well as informing us about the types of gems they find here. As the lights came on we followed a lady into another area where she pointed out hundreds of different coloured gems and told us more about the colours and the hardness that they are measured on to determine what type of stone they are. Next door led us through a workshop where ten or so people were polishing the jewels and placing them into settings for rings, necklaces and bracelets, the work looked very intricate and having glanced at my paw sit was not a career option for me. Our last room was the sales area, tray upon tray of sparkling things, I looked at Jo and the jewellery that she wears day in and day out, very ethnic and not a bit of bling involved, they weren’t going to sell much to us.
To try and show some interest I asked the women how much a random ring would cost, a calculator appeared and having pressed quite a few buttons she responded with an answer, ‘4200 dollars’, she smiled happily, I tried not to show my shock and hurried through the rest of the extensive collection that was there to be purchased.
Woolly says – I had no concept of how much that was in British pounds or rupees for that matter but even I knew it would buy an awful lot of pistachios. I spied our driver and nudged Jo, the lady looked disappointed at our speedy exit and the man in charge of our vehicle didn’t appear to be pleased to be interpreted drinking his tea as he swallowed his mouthful and headed back outside once more. We flopped into the car, this was becoming a master class in how to avoid parting with money.
Starting to feel somewhat jaded I asked the driver if we could go directly to find the tooth now, he looked surprised but nodded and we hit the road once more.
Woolly says – The city of Kandy was heaving with people, once the capital of Sri Lanka it was now a major tourist area where according to Jo teeth were worshipped, strange, very strange. We pulled into a carpark which didn’t look anything like a place to find teeth, the driver led us across the road and pointed to some gates, I thanked him and led the way towards them before Jo called for me to stop. Although getting very late she pointed out that we had eaten the sum of six biscuits each so far that day and that we needed to have something to a bit more substantial, I couldn’t agree more. Nearly an hour later we let the café that had the slowest service in the world, the area in front of the gates was a seething mass of people and we were joining them, I looked around in panic at all the bare feet within my eyeline and Jo sensing my distress picked me up, not a safe place for me to walk alone. Having been given some leaves and flowers that were quite pretty, I thought it was a rather nice gesture and if nothing else they were free, I clutched mine to my chest before Zoe explained that they were to be laid down once we were inside, I held on to them, they were mine and I was keeping them.
We stood among the crowds moving millimetres at a time whilst being pushed and elbowed from all sides, up stairs and along corridors we went, a group of older women barged through us and I couldn’t refrain from commenting on that fact that I had thought Buddhism was a peaceful and respectful religion, at this the crowd seemed to move away from us slightly. An area finally came where we discarded our foot wear and the crowds grow worse, I handed the guide sheet to my small friend to at least occupy him while we made slow progress into the temple of the Tooth.
Woolly says – I read thorough the information, Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. The tooth is believed to have come from Buddha’s cremated body and given to the people of Kandy. King Vimaladharmasuriya I had built the two storeys building in 1603 in which to keep the tooth relic, the original building has now gone and the one we were still trying to get into was a much newer build following extensive damage from the Tamil Tigers in 1998. The relic seems to have played an important role in local politics and it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Given the thousands of people trying to get in with us I really hoped it would be worth it.
Forty minutes later and we had made it into the building, I was getting tired of being pushed and shoved and finally seeing an area where floor space could be seen headed out of the main queue and towards it.
Woolly says – We paused for a few minutes and Jo and Zoe placed their flower offerings on a long table, I kept a firm hold on mine, the girls tried to take pictures in between being jostled and shoved, it was a nightmare. We appeared to be in front of the shrine room and I looked around for any sign of the tooth, not a thing, nada, just millions and millions of people trying to get round us, I saw a sign for the exit and pointed it out, it didn’t take more than a moment for the women to agree and we surged through the throng and back into the welcome relief of space, air and light, I breathed in deeply and read the last pieces of information on my soggy sheet, ‘The temple will be extremely busy on public holidays and full moons and is best avoided’, now they tell us, I kicked the nearest wall, all that and still no tooth! My companions looked hot, sticky and exhausted, I really need to train them more in the complexities of checking out information, especially when it comes to teeth!