Bananas, tea and Kandy

A contender to the 'jewel of the Indian Ocean' crown, Sri Lanka is a geographic explosion of palm-fringed beaches, dense forests, wild hill country and rolling national parks.

In the midst of the hills lies Kandy, which proved to be as sweet as its name. Home-from-home guest houses, haphazard markets and temples cluster around the town's grand, peaceful lake (although the lake's history is a little squirmish with impalings and slave labour at its foundations).

From our little guest house with stunning views of the lake and Sri Lankan's answer to Basil Fawlty for an owner, we were left to explore the banana and tea plantations, temples and hills.

North of Kandy, we made a day trip to Knuckles Range - so named because it resembles the shape of a clenched fist, if you squint, eat some poisonous berries and stand on your head (not necessarily in that order). Beautiful views, fauna and flora aside, the trip proved memorable for other reasons.

Firstly, none of the nearby town's locals appeared to have any clue where the mountain range was and our tuk tuk driver was among the most clueless of the day. From there, we embarked upon a steeplechase expedition where we fought off whiplash, kept repeating ourselves loudly like true 'Brits abroad' in the hope our driver would understand us and picked up a random follower on a scooter. Thankfully, our tailgater eventually introduced himself as a forestry official (still doubtful) and (for money) would be our guide. Feeling like we were the only tourists to ever step foot in the range, we gladly handed over our (Dad's) rupees.

The views were spectacular, the walk was refreshing...but the leaches were not! Despite pulling up our socks and keeping a quick pace, we still encountered a few too many of the blood

sucking brutes and even in the safety of the tuk tuk I had leach paranoia. Give me spiders any day!

We also visited Kandy's infamous Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Just like the dusty little boxes parents collect their children's baby teeth in - except a thousand times bigger, lavished with gold and with more protection than Her Majesty the Queen.

Hidden inside a golden box, inside a small room, inside a bigger room, inside the temple, lies the tooth of the Buddha. I've yet to mention Sri Lanka's Buddhism roots but, as you can imagine, this is quite an important tooth box that not even the tooth fairy herself can gain access to. We did get the briefest glimpse of the golden box, though, before they hurriedly slammed the doors.

We bid a fond farewell to Kandy and got back on the buses, heading north.