Kandy sits in a bowl of hills in the middle of Sri Lanka, about five hundred metres above the sea, with a small artificial lake in the middle and the roofs of the Temple of the Tooth at its edge. The city was the last capital of the Sinhalese kings, who held out in the hills against the Portuguese, Dutch and then British for more than two centuries, until the British took it in 1815. The relic that gave the place its sanctity, a tooth said to be that of the Buddha, was brought to the island in the fourth century and passed from capital to capital, and has been kept in Kandy for centuries. The Sri Dalada Maligawa, its home, is white, gold-roofed and surrounded by a moat, and the evening drum ritual, with conch shells and chanting, is a moving thing to watch.
In July or August, the Esala Perahera fills the streets for ten nights with elephants in lamplit regalia, fire dancers, drummers and dancers, and the city's population swells. Outside that time Kandy is a busy place with a laid-back air, and the lake road, shaded by old trees, makes a pleasant walk. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya, just outside town, were laid out on the grounds of a royal pleasure garden and have a famous avenue of palms and an orchid house.
The road up from Colombo, the A1, is part of the experience, though not an easy one. It climbs through Kadugannawa, where the old pass, engineered by the British in the 1820s, runs below a tall stone pillar, and the traffic on it is heavy, with long lines of buses and trucks overtaking on blind bends. Patience is needed, and riding at night is risky. Roads in the hills beyond, towards the Knuckles range and Nuwara Eliya, are far more fun, with tea estates and waterfalls, but they are narrow and often wet.
The monsoons matter. The south-west rains hit the hills from May to September, and the north-east from October to January, so the drier months from February to April are best, with March warm and clear. Leeches appear in wet forest, which is useful to know before stopping.
Fuel is easy in a city of over a hundred thousand and along the main roads, and small towns have pumps too. A cup of strong ceylon tea and a pastry in a lakeside cafe is a fair way to end the day.