Kandy-land

Kandy is the second largest city in Lanka, and has a reputation for being the nation’s cultural heart. It is located in the higher, cooler middle of the county, and has a collection of temples and museums scattered around a sunken lake. While here, we checked out a traditional music and dance show which featured a good deal of drumming and some rather half-hearted dancing followed, inexplicably, by fire eating and hot coal walking.

But what we really came to Kandy for was to visit the Elephant Orphanage (adorable video to come). About an hour out of town, the orphanage was a huge complex consisting of a covered feeding area for the tiny newborns ( of which there were two, who both seemed very confused about this being an elephant business) and a large pasture for the rest of the herd to graze and wander about. Twice a day, the elephants get marched down to the river for play time, where they hang out, cool off, get clean, or get very muddy, depending on elephant preference. Although called an orphanage, there were elephants of every age and persuasion, including one three legged land mine survivor who was the original elephant at the preserve. Which elephants, if any, were actually motherless was not apparent, as every tiny elephant had several protectresses keeping an eye out at all times.




I fed a three year old elephant (volkswagon beetle sized) and it sucked down a liter of milk in about 20 seconds. We were also able to walk amongst the elephants ( yes, even the babies) without any physical barrier, which was amazing, but we were cautious to be respectful of elephant sensitivities so as not to be featured on “World’s Scariest Animal Attacks.” It was really fascinating to watch the wide range of elephant activity at the river and though we observed for a very entertaining two hours, I could have stayed all day. In fact, if they set up a river elephant web-cam, I would probably get up in the middle of the night to just to watch it.