005 - Sri Lanka. The botanical garden in Kandy and our first bus ride

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The botanical garden in Kandy and our first bus ride

We wake up at 8, the street noise is considerable again. But all is well, breakfast is waiting for us. Toast with omelette and tea.

The night was noisy, a bit uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we all slept well. I'm already looking forward to today, if everything goes well, the botanical garden is on the programme today.

We run. Kathi has found out that it is only a short 6 km stretch. So we walk in preparation for our walk to Adams Peak. We walk along the road. 6 kilometres along the officially 2-lane, but unofficially at least 5-lane main road. It is noisy. It is hot. It is dusty. And sometimes it seems dangerous. But the Sri Lankans see it quite differently. The traffic here is one or two, maybe even three, numbers too heavy for our ears and for our minds. But if you look closely, it looks like water, which always finds its way easily and smoothly. We don't see any accidents. Everyone glides past everyone else. I have observed that there seem to be only 2 rules here that everyone has to bring along as a basic requirement. Your horn must go and you must be 100% willing to overtake, whether it makes sense or not. The main thing is that you are one tuktuk ahead. That is the "flow" here. Honking and overtaking, in short. The fact that you also like to push the others away a little is not important. Because they'll overtake you again in a minute. Honking, of course.

Finally we arrive at the Botanical Garden and walk over a beautiful suspension bridge, Gerd doesn't really like suspension bridges, but it's okay. Beyond the bridge, a dream awaits us, a dream in peace. No noise, no honking, no dust. Instead, oversized bamboo bushes, 200-year-old Ficus Benjamini, which are estimated to be 20 metres high and have a treetop like that of a semi-detached house. Flying foxes hang and flutter everywhere. Monkeys sit at the bottom of the trees. Many little monkeys. They catch each other, they play with each other, they dangle from branch to branch and are simply adorable. We watch a mother monkey carrying a mini monkey. It clings to the front of its mum and its little tail twists around her tail underneath the mum. So she toddles around and we find enough time to watch her.

The botanical garden is apparently the second largest of its kind in Asia, wonderful old trees which are rooted in each other. Shrubs, palm avenues, cannon palms and whatnot. Some plants we have never seen before. The colourful parrots are also beautiful to look at, but not as numerous as the monkeys or flying foxes. Further back, a few bony (slender?) light brown cows with horns lie lazily. No sooner have we gone a few metres than we see something new. The camera snaps non-stop and when we arrive at the orchid house, I still hope that we have enough memory. One orchid is more beautiful than the next.

At some point, we are driven to a restaurant, eat sandwiches and omelette and wait for the short rain shower and move on. At some point we have seen it all (probably not everything) but for us it is enough now.

Outside we actually want to take a tuktuk, but we don't really feel like negotiating. Negotiating is not really my thing anyway! We walk a bit and then get on a bus. Party music at full volume. We ride a few stops for a fare and are grateful not to have to walk the whole way back.

In the evening we go back to the noisy city centre, beaming with joy. Somehow we need it. We go back to our regular Indian and eat almost the same as yesterday. But it was also really delicious.

Now we want to ride a tuktuk again. There are two right in front of the restaurant waiting for customers. They want to drive us to the hotel for 300 each. I think that's quite expensive, but I can't bargain like that. I ask if they are serious. They smile and say yes. Okay, then I say okay too.

It's exciting how I can't act. It gives me a funny feeling somehow. I mean, 300 is about 2 francs. That's really not much.

The drivers smile and we get in, women's and men's tuktuk. Kathi seems to enjoy driving much more than I do. So the young driver smiles at us. I wonder if he is old enough to drive, but then I refrain from asking. The Sri Lankans all look quite young.

He laughs, shouts "yeah!" and rolls up his sleeves. "Yippie, that is Sri Lanka!" he shouts, turns up the tuktuk and makes a U-turn at breakneck speed between hundreds of other cars, buses and tuktuks, laughing and whooping as he does so, and shouts to me: "Don't worry, Madame! I claw my way first into Kathi's arm (she doesn't seem to like it that much) and then into the beautifully decorated tuktuk linkage. Afterwards, the metal pieces have my handprints. It definitely needs an overhaul. Every one. Really every one. The others see it the same way and then overtake us again in their turn. Left. Right. No matter. If they could, they would also drive over the top. Eventually, after ages, about 2 or 3 minutes, we arrive at the hostel and I no longer have to have coffee or tea. I am wide awake and fit again. My pulse is going at triple speed and my heart is pounding. But: we have arrived happy and in one piece. Strangely enough, the others just arrived. Without any fuss. I have the feeling that they were driving other tuktuks in a different traffic situation. Or simply have a completely dreamy perception. Somehow it must be like that.

We spend the evening playing Uno with other Germans in the hostel. It is a fun evening, which we end laughing. For once we don't have to get up so early in the morning and snuggle into bed.

Shownotes for iTunes: https://www.leben-pur.ch/005-sri-lanka-der-botanische-garten-in-kandy-und-unsere-erste-busfahrt/