Having arrived in Kandy without a hostel reservations (or even a Sri Lanka guidebook), I fell back on the old backpacker trick of asking local folks at the train station for recommendations. Two decades ago they might have pointed me to a hostel (which was what I had in mind), but now that I’m in my forties people tend to steer me toward more upscale lodgings. In Kandy, this meant that people kept recommending the Queen’s Hotel, an old 19th century former governor’s residence in the middle of town.
Though at $90 a night the Queen’s was way more than I was used to paying for lodging on my Asia journey, I went ahead and splurged, since these old colonial hotels have a different vibe than the backpacker hostels I usually seek out. My wooden-floored room was spacious, and it had a balcony overlooking the lake in the center of Kandy. Since I’d been on the move since landing in Sri Lanka a few days earlier, I decided to stay in the Queen’s for a few nights and get some work done.
At a literal level this meant writing an essay, based on my recent Sumatra experiences, about how independent travel in Asia has changed in the twenty years since my first wanderings here. But this also meant I spent a lot of afternoons engaged in running simple errands like stocking up on maps and postcards, and buying a Sri Lanka travel guidebook.
My favorite errand – the errand that made me feel like I was engaging with the place in a way that went beyond mere tourism – was looking for a place where I might mend my travel pants, which had been tearing apart at the crotch since my final week in Sumatra. Back home I would just shrug and buy a new pair of pants, but in Kandy I went to the Central Market and talked to tailors about possible fixes. I ended up paying 100 rupees (about $0.57) for a freelance tailor to color-match threads and sew a sturdy inner-reinforcement layer into the saddle of my pants.
My time in Kandy also helped me realize how, if you travel deliberately enough, health and fitness become a natural part of the independent travel routine. Walking is a natural part of this (I walked for miles each day in Asia, just by attending to simple tasks) as is the fruits, vegetables and rice-rich diet that comes with being in this part of Asia. My beach-time in Sumatra also left me craving a daily swim, which I did for thirty minutes each day in the Queen’s Hotel pool.
I started this journey back around New Year’s, when people everywhere are making resolutions to stay healthier in coming months. My advice for such resolutions? Give up the fitness gear and gym membership in favor of a month or two of traveling slow and cheap in Asia.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. For more full-formed writing, check out my book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, or the Essays or Stories archives on this site. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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