First full day (still no baggage..!) in Kandy

With training cancelled due to lack of kit, we had a welcome lie-in and then a huge breakfast. Jacqui came downstairs with her dress the wrong way around (mornings are hard..but she still looked glamorous).We then went to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.
Some of the lads had to do some swift shopping to look decent enough to get into the temple, and they looked great..!
News of the luggage was good - it had apparently landed in Colombo, so hopes were high.

HISTORICAL BREAK:
The temple is one of the most important Buddhist temples in the world. It houses a tooth of Buddha, which is enclosed in 7 golden caskets. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics - it's believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Kandy was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and is a world heritage site mainly due to the temple.


After a lovely tour around the temple, which was beautiful and very crowded, we got on the coach to a restaurant on the lake which conveniently had a clothes shop on the floor below, providing a good distraction with beautiful clothes and a chance to try out our haggling skills. Andrea put her card upsidedown into the ATM, but we won't tell anyone about that. The afternoon was spent either chilling by the poolside and swimming in a variety of t-shirt/pants/shorts (who packs their swimming costume in hand luggage?!) or more shopping in the busy and exciting Kandy markets, where locals promised to come and watch our match tomorrow.

Just before we went to dinner, we discovered that our luggage was still in London! Manic phone calls and arrangements were made (thank you boys for sorting it) , but there wasn't much to be done.
WHERE'S GARY? Search party sorted and ready, and in he sways, bumping into walls, to dinner.
The decision was made to play in the clothes we have, borrow kit from the other team and buy trainers en-route. Look out for some interesting photos tomorrow!

A motivating pep talk from Tim has ensured we are focused and ready for a competitive game tomorrow - after all, that's what we're here for. Everyone went to bed for an early start tomorrow. Keep an eye out for a match report and more updates.