The Bentota Days - Day 3

I woke up early and walked 20 minutes to the 1734 Kande Vihara temple. The walk was pleasant with many quaint houses in a quiet neighborhood abutting the lagoon, a railway crossing and finally the temple which is on a hill. A huge golden statue of the Buddha appears on the hill. 

On top of the hill is a Vishnu temple, idols of Shiva and others. People were lighting incense sticks, pouring oil into lamps and lighting them, offering fruits to the gods. Families, school kids, college going kids were all visiting the temple early in the day. 

I returned from the temple and after a quick breakfast we hired a boat to explore the lagoon. We didn't realise it was a mangrove, think with vegetation and animal life - a crocodile, huge monitor lizards, kingfishers, monkeys and so on. It was a beautiful 45 minute boat ride.

On our return we went our ways - Naresh into the water and me walking along the beach. A good 45 minutes later I returned and we read our books until it was time for lunch. 

Post lunch I stayed up to watch the heavy rain and finished reading 'Comfort Crisis' by Michael Easter. All hopes of a long walk were dashed as the rain didn't abate like in the previous days.

We gravitated to the sportsbar where Naresh tried to teach me snooker and we played a game. Then we settled down to listen to some lovely live music. I requested the young singer to sing 'Words' and he obliged. 

Then a lovely dinner and back to 128.