Kandy

Kandy was the seat of the last independent Sinhalese kingdom, and it held out against the Portuguese and the Dutch before finally falling to the British in 1815. That history is the reason the city feels different from anywhere else on the island: it is a hill capital built around a lake and a temple rather than a port built around a harbour.

The temple is the point. Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, houses a tooth of the Buddha, and possession of it has been tied to the right to rule Sri Lanka for most of the last thousand years. It is a working shrine, not a monument, and it is busy with Sri Lankan pilgrims every day of the year.

Visiting the Temple of the Tooth

The temple is open from 5.30am to 8pm. The casket holding the relic is only brought out during puja — the offering ceremonies at roughly 5.30am, 9.30am and 6.30pm. Outside those windows you can walk the complex, but you will not see the shrine room open. The evening puja is the one most visitors go to; the dawn one is quieter.

The dress code is enforced. Shoulders and knees covered, hats off, shoes off at the entrance. Sarongs are available to borrow at the gate but bringing your own clothing is simpler. There is a shoe deposit; the stone gets hot by midday.

What else is worth your time

The Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya are six kilometres out of town and take a comfortable half day — 60 hectares that started as a royal pleasure garden and became a British colonial collection. The avenue of palms and the orchid house are the set pieces.

Kandy Lake, dug by the last king in 1807, is a 45-minute walk round and the easiest way to get a feel for the town. The Kandyan dance shows in the evening are unashamedly staged for visitors, but the drumming and the fire-walking are real skills and it is an enjoyable hour.

Esala Perahera

For ten nights in July or August, Kandy runs the Esala Perahera, a procession of caparisoned elephants, whip-crackers, torch-bearers and Kandyan dancers that ends with the relic casket carried through the streets. The dates move with the lunar calendar and are announced only a few months out. If you want to see it, book accommodation and street seating well ahead — the town fills completely.

Getting there and how long to stay

Kandy is about three hours from Colombo by road and three and a half by train, and the train is the better journey. It sits in the middle of most itineraries: three hours south of Sigiriya, and the starting point for the hill country railway down to Nuwara Eliya and Ella.

One full day covers the temple and the lake. Two lets you add Peradeniya without moving at a march.