Took a train to Kandy, which was one of the great expriences of the trip. As you climp into the mountains, it's really spectacular. Takes about 2 and half hours.
After I spent a day in Kandy I took a tuk-tuk down to the elephant orphanage. It was, like most organizations with good intentions, sort of depressing, but probably the best that can be hoped for in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were. Apparently, they have the run of the place all the time. no cages. none of that shit. but during certain hours of the day busloads of morons like myself schelpp out there to gaze at them bathe -- other times other busloads of other morons go and stare in giddy wonder at the spectacle of mammals eating.
It's a good thing, I know, I know, but the goodness of it is only good as a result of how fucked up everything is.
Kandy was geat. One of my favorite places. The Tomb of the Tooth (or the temple of the tooth or whatever it was called), where one of Buddha's teeth is supposedly kept in a gold box (can anyone name a religious leader/teacher who would NOT be mortified at how their legacies have been institutionalized? Didn't think so.), is a beautiful building.
Other than that, Kandy had a nice feel to it. Up in the hills. Lots of dives to eat in. deadly quiet at night, like after 11. I got propositioned, by a man, at 5 am while looking for a cup of coffee. My first creepy proposition! and it didn't even happen until i was forty-one! and i mean, he had it. out. When I noticed how he had himself occupied, I said, "You, know, I'll think I'll go look for coffee somewhere other than this dark, winding alley."