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Pinnewala & Peradeniya
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3rd March 2005.
We took an excellent day trip around Kandy, that took us to Peradeniya Botanic Gardens and Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. Peradeniya Botanic Gardens are 6kms out of Kandy and it's where men roam the park carrying chocolates for their loved one, sitting in the shade being romantic. In true Jason style, we were running out of time and practically ran around the beautiful park so we could see everything.
Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage was a must see, it was set up by the government to save abandoned, injured, and orphaned elephants. The setting is beautiful, and whilst its abit of a tourist trap, we got to get really close to a herd of sixty elephants.
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The botanic gardens were beautiful. This tree here is the giant Javan fig tree, it covers 1600 square metres.
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This guy was keen to teach us about his garden for a few rupees. Here he is blowing bubbles from the leaf. We took pictures of Jason trying, but he just didn't seem to have the same gardening nack. This guy was very quick to point out the Coca plant as well.
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There were mammoth fruit bats dangling from the trees.
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The cannon ball tree was easy to find.
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Claire is actually feeding a baby elephant. If you look closely and past the worker, you can see her stroking the trunk. The worker was very keen to take some money off us but so concerned anyone would see he wouldn't let us take a good photo. The ten times the local price entry for foreigners was enough of a tip for us.
The baby elephant is actually a fair size so a bottle of milk doesn't last that long.
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Meanwhile up at the heard Jason spots a bit of how's your father? Whatever the big bull elephant is collecting, the female lets out a quivering raw and the bull then eat whatever it was he found.
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It is very touristy here but it was kind of cool to eat a spot of lunch whilst snapping away at the elephants playing in the water infront of us.
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Splash!
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The elephants spent most of their time trying to escape their mahouts, and tried to cover themselves in mud. They are literally clambering all over each other to get muddy like naughty school kids.
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Some mahouts looked like they had built up a pretty good relationship with their elephants / benches. Being a mahout is still a pretty dangerous occupation and elephants still kill more people each year than sharks.
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No need for a ladder. A whisper in the ear, or maybe it was a jab from the spiky stick in the foot, and the knee is making a ladder for the mahout to mount.
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We saw a wedding here, they were enjoying the attention whilst they posed for their traditional wedding photos.
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We stopped off on the way home to a spice farm, (read shop). After 6 months of trying to find mangos in the markets we found one on a tree. Everywhere we have been they have been out of season, we would need to wait until April for these to rippen.
The doctor here also seemed convinced Jason's old fella need help. He spent far to much time trying to sell us herbal extracts called "boom boom" and the like.
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