After leaving the blistering heat in Kandy, we were only too happy to arrive at our next stop on our trip across Sri Lanka which turned out to be an indoor event. In retrospect, I probably would have preferred it outdoors but I can’t even pretend – I was far too grateful for that air-conditioning! (Okay enough about the heat… )
The event in question was a tradition Sri Lankan Kandyan dance – Kandyan because of course, it’s from Kandy, which is where we were.
Each dance routine is intended to tell a story, and there’s a meaning behind every single one, all of which you actually have explained to you when you’re there so you don’t have to guess too much when it comes to figuring out what they are.
Remember the masks I bought here? Well I got a lot more context into their meaning and symbolisms from the dance too when the masked performers came out to play.
I have to admit, I didn’t pay enough attention to the backstories as I was far too intrigued by the dancing. I’m a huge fan of dance as watching these amazing dancers do their thing help far too much interest from my end to be distracted.
The entire evening at the dance ended up with an original Sri Lankan favourite – fire walking!
Now we’ve all heard about fire walking but in all honesty, I had never quite associated it with Sri Lanka so this was something of a surprise when we were all ushered out to see it.
It didn’t last long (not shocking, given they were walking on hot coal) but boy was it a surprise to see!
Done for the evening, we headed to our new hotel for some rest, relaxation and a few beers. Except, as it turns out, due to the full moon (remember I mentioned it here?), no where in Sri Lanka is allowed to serve alcohol so we skipped the beers and more than made up for it in delicious food. (I may have had upwards of 5 helpings of dessert…)
This was of course after a much needed cool down in the pool and soaking in our surroundings. (There’s just something special about an outdoor bar – even when you’re not drinking!)
The next day was spent pretty much just relaxing – which as it turns out, was the one thing we hadn’t really done on our trip so far. Each day had been packed with one activity after the other and although I didn’t realise it at the time, the opportunity to have some downtime was soooooo welcome!
No early wake up calls, no running from breakfast with pancakes hurriedly crammed into my mouth (because I never really know when to stop when it comes to pancakes), no agendas… It was brilliant!
Eventually though, it was time to say goodbye and we got picked up by our Evaneos-organised driver (you can find out more about Evaneos here) who took us to the airport. It’d been a fun week in Sri Lanka – one filled with amazing experiences and brilliant sights that made us all so chuffed we’d decided to book the trip the way we did.
We created our itinerary yet didn’t have to do the whole hassle of trying to figure out everything else about the logistics. Local knowledge is always invaluable when you travel and boy were we grateful for it.
Random aside: seeing as we’d come to the end of a long holiday involving Madrid, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, we decided to throw caution to the wind and upgrade to Business Class on our way back to the Maldives.
Okay, fine, we didn’t ‘throw caution to the wind’ as much as we realised that we had enough miles saved up to upgrade for free. FYI – totally worth it! The lounge access here was fantastic – we’re talking endless champagne and more food than you can shake a stick at.
The champagne didn’t stop there either.
As it turns out, our flight ended being delayed by over 3 hours and usually this would be an annoyance but this meant an extra 3 hours of being spoilt silly!
I’ve gotta admit, it was a pretty brilliant way to finish up what happened to be an amazing trip to Sri Lanka!
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