And this road is not a one way street! One aging Tata bus trying to overtake another is just the way things roll here.
We're having a wonderful three-day visit to Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka, with a whopping population of about 100,000. Unusual for a country of over 20 million to have such small cities.
Traffic is a never ending source of amusement for us, with all sorts of transportation vying for space on the road, even luxury tuk tuks...
....and old fashioned ways of getting around, too!
But there are brave men, like Ponch and John here (you need to have been raised in the late 1970s to get that one), who are keeping the roads safe, even if it means going doubles. And it's not an easy task, as the traffic here can be incredibly unruly, dangerous, and just plain chaotic.....
....except when Sri Lanka is playing India in the T20 Cricket World Cup finals. Then the guys from Sri Lanka CHiPS can take the night off.
We have a wonderful place to call home during our stay here - the Kandy Cottage. It gets a 10 out of 10 for hospitality, and nowhere on this trip we have felt more welcome than here.
Although technically in Kandy, the guest house is nestled in the hills just a few minutes walk from the city. It's a very comfortable place with the always appreciated separate room with bunkbeds for the kids. It must be a magic place, because the kids want to play Scrabble without even being asked.
And one of the best features of the Kandy Cottage is the helping hand of Thomas the caretaker. He has gone out of his way to walk us to bus stations, purchase train tickets, escort us to cultural shows, and make our visit worry-free. Every hotel needs a Thomas.
And the Kandy Cottage gets visits from the local troupe of monkeys - more naughty macaques!!
And one of the most outstanding features of our home is the unbelievable food - the resident cook Mani (should really call him a chef, but what kind of guest house has a chef?) serves us stunningly tasty Sri Lankan curries each night...
...with buffalo curds and palm treacle (a very popular Sri Lankan dessert) as a chaser. Heaven!
The town itself is very picturesque and walkable, and is surrounded by lush hills from which you can enjoy stunning views.
And in the centre of the city (it really feels more like a town) is a lovely lake.
Walking around the lake is an enchanting experience, and every so often it feels a little like the lake districts of Europe. And while still quite hot, the higher elevation and mountain breezes has provided us with some relief from the heat and humidity of typical Sri Lankan weather in April.
Later.
Generally (with the civil war as the notable and tragic exception) Sri Lanka is a nation of diverse religions and cultures - Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians - who get along well together. This does not carry over into the local animal population. Here is the bat tree...
....right next to the bird tree. Clearly bats and birds do not live in harmony.
The excursion to the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens was well worth the effort.
But when Owen found a couple of boys playing ball, you could see he desperately wanted to join in. Sadly, the invitation never came, but it's just as well for those Sri Lankan boys, as they probably have never seen an arm like my son's.
The gardens were very well kept, and full of features including orchid houses, well-labelled specimens of all kinds of flora, and an interesting memorial garden with a selection of trees planted by some of recent history's well known figures.
I'm sure King George would be delighted to know his Cannon Ball tree is still doing so well. There were others planted by Indira Gandhi, a Czar of Russia, and numerous other dignitaries. They wouldn't let me plant anything, however, despite my assurances of great future achievements.
On our last day here, we wandered into a very interesting site - the old British Garrison Cemetary, a small plot of land nestled behind the more famous Sacred Tooth Temple. It contains the remains of British colonials (soldiers, plantation workers, doctors etc.) who died during the mid 1800s. It was particularly interesting to see the ages of the deceased, often only in their twenties, and many infants as well, who succumbed to the all-too-common ravages of malaria and dysentery.
We were escorted through the cemetery by a charming young man who has been working here and looking after the place since the previous elderly caretaker could do it no more. You can see how hard he has tried to memorize the tombstone inscriptions, and he took great pride and telling us how he met Prince Charles on his visit to the site 4 months before.
I'm not sure what the appropriate 'graveyard pose' is, but I don't think it's this one.
The visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth (which houses what is reputed to be Buddha's tooth) should also be called the Temple of the Secure Tooth.
Men and women go through separate screening rooms to ensure nobody is carrying any weapons or explosives.
But there is good reason, as the temple was the site of a bombing attack in 1998, during the height of the civil war in Sri Lanka.
This is an extremely holy and sacred site for Sri Lankan Buddhists, who believe they should make a pilgrimage to this place at least once in their life.
If the guy above was praying for World Cup Cricket victory, then it worked. As I sit here writing this, I can hear the honking horns and firecrackers signalling a win for Sri Lanka.
We've had a great visit to Kandy (despite Annie and Owen's obvious disappointment over the lack of actual candy stores here), and tomorrow we're off to another great pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka - the famed Adam's Peak. Stay tuned.
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