Our flight from Delhi arrived in Colombo at 4am, and the plan was to head to the bus station nearby to catch a bus straight to Kandy, up in the hills. The security guard at the airport told us that it was 200 meters down the road so we waved away all the autorickshaws, heaved on our backpacks and walked...and walked, and walked!!! 200 meters?! Closer to 2,000 meters actually! Our legs were more than a bit shaky by the time we got to the bus station, which probably explains how poor old Nige managed to fall down a step into a big hole and twist his ankle! The local bus turned up but there was standing room only! Thankfully a nice guy explained to us - mostly in sign language - that there was an aircon mini-bus which left from the front of the station. Three hours later we arrived into beautiful Kandy and were taken to the hotel that the autorickshaw driver recommened (no doubt for a large amount of commission, but not having slept for over 24 hours, we really didn't care) - Hotel Kingdom Gate, which Nige rekons looks like a concrete ski-lodge in off-season but it is in the most perfect location, on the hill overlooking a lake but only 5 minutes walk from town! The town of Kandy is surrounded by green hills and built around the pretty little lake, which was commissioned in 1807 by the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, to keep his concubines safe on the artificial island in the middle. Just before he had it filled, however, he cerimoniusly tied a couple of tribal leaders who had dared to oppose the project to stakes on the bottom and watched as the waters rose... It's much more peaceful these days and on it's shores is one of Sri Lanka's most famous temples - the Temple of the Tooth - which contains one of Budda's teeth which was snatched from the pyre while he being cremated! You don't actually get to see the tooth though - it is contained in an ornate gold box in a room surrounded by alters and guarded by 2 monks (who, bearing in mind their vows to non-violence, didn't strike us as the best security guards in the world!). There's not a huge amount to do in Kandy itself, besides the temple, a cultural show (traditonal dancing and fire-walking!), and going for walks (or hobbles if you're Nige!) in the surrounding hills, but it is a lovely place to relax for a few days so we decided, as we only had a few days in Sri Lanka, that we would make Kandy our base and do a bit of exploring from here.