You can buy all kinds of beautiful jewellry in Sri Lanka. As in India the Sri Lankans love gold so finding pure gold of 22 or 24 carat purity is easy here. Be mindful though that because the gold is pure it will also be very soft so may not hold its shape as well as when mixed with other metals...this is what gives the structural component. Similarly the precious gemstones are also pure...which means they may come with faults that might not be ironed out at the source. Make sure you know exactly what you want or take someone experienced with you to make your purchase...the country is very rich in all kinds of gemstones but especially beautiful saphires....
This is a colourful journey as we might expect in Sri Lanka...In particular this one is looking at a trip from Kurunegala to Kandy. It is a busy morning with many locals bringing goods from the market onto the bus so getting down the narrow aisle with their bags was interesting to observe. I was fortunate to get to the bus stand a little before hand so already had a seat. My tuk tuk driver spoke in Sinhala to the driver asking him about where I wanted to go and the conductor came along to take my fare. They are often ready to help. I purchased a ticket for 69 lkr. (equivalent to around 34p) and sat beside the window pulling the curtain across a little since there wasnt much breeze and the sun was already strong. The seats were in good condition and comfortably covered with green patterned velvet velour. They were clean and the headrests covered in a gold patterned plastic cover which gave them an elegance of a bygone age. The ticket price struck me as being very inexpensive for the 43 kilometre journey. It is a great way to travel since not only can you see a great deal of the country from the bus window but the tourist gets a real flavour of how the people in that region go about their daily business with local Sri lankans often wanting to strike up a conversation especially if they have a little English.
