October 23 Singapore

Another slow start as we caught up on laundry. Today the pollution haze is so bad it is difficult to see buildings across the bay 1 km away. We visited a nearby park and spent most of the time in the cloud forest building. For dinner we visited Ali's favourite Curry House.

The Hippo - a local art piece.

October 22 Singapore

Singapore is an island just like Montreal. Like Montreal there are several smaller islands just offshore. We visited one today that was undeveloped and mostly forest and park. We rented bikes to get to the wetlands and then we walked the boardwalk through the wetlands. The island is famous for it's lizards but I never found one. I had to settle for pigs.

Ubin island wild boar

October 21 Singapore

Hallelujah! Good Internet! Joan and I spent all morning perusing the results of the election. I spent 2 hours on Elections Canada website checking out every province and all the Montreal ridings. Good work Canadians.

It was 1 PM before we went for a small walk outside. Singapore is currently a high smog zone due to Indonesian companies burning the forest down in Sumatra. With over 1000 fires burning the Indonesians are polluting all of southeast Asia. Both Caroline and Ali walk to work underground to avoid the smoke.

The Sail where Caroline and Ali live

It has been 2 years since we were last in Singapore and the city has changed. My favorite barber is no more. His alleyway ha been replaced by a construction site. The lighting on the Sail (Caroline's apartment building) has been upgraded. They have built a new pedestrian bridge over the river.

October 22 Singapore

Singapore is an island just like Montreal. Like Montreal there are several smaller islands just offshore. We visited one today that was undeveloped and mostly forest and park. We rented bikes to get to the wetlands and then we walked the boardwalk through the wetlands. The island is famous for it's lizards but I never found one. I had to settle for pigs

.

October 20 Fly to Singapore

We started the day at 5:00 AM again since we took the 6:30 train from Kandy to Columbo. It was a great start since we were able to board the train early and we had been warned to sit on the left side for the best view. 20 minutes after we started the sky brightened and we were above the clouds looking at peaks sticking up everywhere. As the train descended from 4000 feet to sea level over 100 km, the mountains disappeared and the heat increased. As we neared Columbo the aisles were jammed with standees. It was an effort to make our way through the crowd with our luggage.  When we saw the train depart passengers were hanging out the doors. We had gone through 12 tunnels during our trip, I hope there weren't any more before Columbo.

From the train window

Descent from the mountains

Descent frothe Mountains

From the train windows

 Step 2 of our journey was a second train from Ragama to the airport. It was third class only. The tickets for the 40km journey were 0.20 cents each. The doors remain open all the time and the cars have only benches along the wall -like a commuter train The train was fairly empty, everyone had a seat but something went wrong and the train screeched to a halt just after leaving a station. All the kids and men on the train got off and walked down the track to the rear of the train. Just from the sign language and the word death, it looked like someone had fallen off the train and lost his life.

Step 3 - We got off at the airport stop only to find we were still 2 km from the airport so we hopped a tuk-tuk to the airport terminal. I don't know whether tuk-tuks are banned from the airport or whether I negotiated too good a price for the trip, but the tuk-tuk driver stopped just short of the entrance. Step 4 We covered the last 200 meters by foot.

The flight was delayed by 2 hours!!.

October 19 Kandy

Scott Pine

Joan at Botanical Gardens

The Bat Tree

We started the day with a trip to the botanical gardens. While we were walking down the first road Joan mentioned that there were bats in the gardens. Within minutes I heard the sounds of bats screeching and we found the bat colony close by. For nocturnal animals they are very active during the day with take-offs, landings and wing flapping going on all the time. They hang from the tree tops in full sunlight with their wings wrapped around themselves. I'm surprised they aren't cooked by the end of the day.

The is the original Buddha from the 1400's and never restored

Hindu Gods

After the garden we visited 3 temple in the area. Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country with Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the minority. I can take pictures in Hindu temples but not in Buddhist temples. At the first temple we were sure they were partway through a renovation, but the temple man said no, everything was original and water damage was responsible for the rough parts. The temple is 650 years old. The second temple we visited was both Hindu and Buddhist. Hindus allow photography in their temple. Our guide explained the difference and cleared the path for me to photograph the Hindu gods. But he never showed us the Buddha. The third temple had a nice exterior and that was far as we got. It's main strength was the dance pavilion which we saw and that was enough for the day.

October 18 Kandy

Interior Shrine

We are in the cultural capital of Sri Lanka, It is the home of the Temple of the Tooth – A temple that has the tooth of Buddha locked in a casket in it's vaults. We tried to visit the temple this morning with

some success. It is Sunday and the crowds were so large that we jumped ship and strolled around the grounds before sneaking in the back door. The crowds were all Sri Lankans taking part in a ceremony that is held 3 times per day (puja). The size of the crowd and the multitude of offerings were the most impressive part of the visit. We attended a dance and drum show during the evening. I was positively impressed, The drummers kept up the beat for a whole hour and the dancing was fast and furious. Lots of fire was in the show.

Shrine

Leaving the Temple of the Tooth

October 17 Nuwara Eliya to Kandy

We took the train to Kandy this morning. Before the train arrived I was taking pictures of the station when I met the station master. He told me that the locomotive was 50 years old and it was a gift from Canada, Sri Lanka had several of them and they were all still going strong. He was urging me to take more pictures when our train rolled in – and I took off like a rabbit to get back to Joan and our luggage. We got on board safely and there were plenty of available seats. It was another trip through mountain terrain and through the major tea growing areas. Both of us were snapping pictures through the windows. When we arrived in Kandy we took a Tuk-tuk ride to our hotel. It was 6 km of heavy rain, bad traffic and incredibly bad driving, We cut off everybody, drove through the crosswalks at speed and just about killed a pregnant mother. This was unusual because most drivers in Sri Lanka

have been law-abiding drivers.

Locomotive plate

From the train window

Tea Fields

J.- Our driver from the train to our hotel was diabolically crazy, squeezing between cars, cutting off buses and respecting no one. I love riding the trains as does Tim so it was an easy decision to go to the airport on Tuesday by train rather than by car.

We are really looking forward to seeing Caroline and Ali in Singapore.