Kandy, please get off

Welcome back, dear ones, and greetings from Kandy.

We spent yesterday lazing around and hanging out at the beach in Negombo, after we had to navigate through Negombo's city center in the morning. It was really loud and hectic there. A billion people, buses, and tuk-tuks created a thick smog and the heat was scorching.

We had to go through it because my credit card wasn't working, and I was hoping that at least a real bank or an employee of a real bank could help me solve the problem. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Besides the statement that my card doesn't work here, there was only sympathetic shrugging.

Too bad, so our current travel budget has shrunk by a larger amount, and the special highlights have to be a bit smaller.

Anyway... a day at the beach, under a bright blue sky and about 30 degrees in the shade, cost us nothing. The only expenses of the day were two tuk-tuk rides, a cup of coffee, a fresh fruit juice, some delicious pastries from a street vendor, and fried rice for dinner. All together for about 17€, not bad at all.

This morning we checked out and initially wanted to take a tuk-tuk to the train station in Negombo, from where we would take a one-and-a-half-hour train ride to Colombo and then another three-and-a-half-hour ride from Colombo to Kandy. But this plan didn't work out because backpacking also means spontaneous plan changes and flexibility of the traveler. Our tuk-tuk driver asked us why we didn't just take the bus from Negombo to Kandy. 'Can we do that?' we asked, and he said 'sure, it's much faster and cheaper.' Well then...

Actually, all travel guides and travel blogs advise against taking the bus. Too fast, too loud, too crowded, too dangerous. But we didn't think about that when the tuk-tuk driver mentioned 'faster and cheaper.' And so we found ourselves in a blue intercity bus shortly afterwards, with bright interior decoration, loud Bollywood music, and about a thousand other local passengers, without knowing how long the ride would actually take. It was kind of like being fish in a can, except that every now and then one fish would be taken out and replaced with two new ones. At every bus stop, we thought, no, no one else can fit in. But they did. The ticket collector kept pushing through the people and arranged the newcomers in such a way that there was room for more passengers at every stop. Truly bizarre and surprisingly entertaining, we survived the three-and-a-half-hour ride quite well. By the way... three-and-a-half hours on the bus for only 175 Sri Lankan rupees per person, which is not even 1 euro!

Our conclusion: You can give it a try. Of course, it's incredibly hot and you might experience some strange situations, but all in all, it was actually the fastest and cheapest option to get to the mountainous interior.

Now we are here in Kandy for three days and will visit temple complexes, the botanical garden, and the markets. We probably won't get bored.

You can find some first impressions of the last two days in the pictures. More will come in the next few days before we head to Ella in the mountains by driver and train.

Feel embraced. We say goodbye and see you soon, Sina and Matti.