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Kande - the Sinhala word meaning hill, was an impenetrable fortress for the Sinhala Monarchs buried deep in jungle with torrential rivers, rock faces all rigged by nature to keep this cockpit of Lanka in rarefied isolation. It withstood the onslaught of three colonial powers long after the rest of the island had been ransacked for cinnamon, sapphires and other spoils. The Kandyans are a proud race, possessive about culinary finesse; incredible hosts, which is why many hotels are still family owned. Travelling up along hairpin bends you soon realize why the Brits needed to build trains to ease the strain!
There is hardly a Buddhist in Sri Lanka who has not paid homage to The Relic of the Tooth. Folded around a man-made lake, Kandy is a Buddhist version of the Vatican City where white-clad, barefoot pilgrims putting their hands together in prayer whenever they pass the octagonal gilded palladium which houses The Tooth. Buddhist monks from round the world in every hue of orange, maroon and rust robes, old and very young, pop up where ever you turn. The Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya - The Kew of Kandy - started out as a royal pleasure Park in 1747. Mountbatten was well camouflaged betwixt Orchid house and Spice gardens when it was his headquarters. Today the pavilions and summerhouses attract young lovers for clandestine games of hide-and-snog.
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