Day 4

 The hotel is arranged a tuk-tuk with a driver. Anthony to take us around and see the two main sites here. First one is the ancient city of Polonnaruwa and then the two big rocks Sigiriya and Pidurangala.

This is our tuk tuk driver. Anthony 

He's an absolute whizz at negotiating the traffic. He told me that yesterday he took someone to the airport from here. That's 3½ hours each way... Crazy!

Polonnaruwa was one of the major capitals of Sri Lanka -There's been a few over the years -and this was built around the 11th century. It's full of temples and monasteries. The king developed irrigation systems that are still used to this day. Unfortunately, a couple of hundred years later the place was attacked and razed to the ground and all that was left were the buildings that were made of brick and granite. The city was abandoned after that and 600 years later it was rediscovered in 1897. 

Here's a few pics

We then went on to have a look at the Sigiriya and Pidurangala rocks - these both take a couple of hours to climb so we took some pictures from the bottom instead.

A really interesting and enjoyable day out and our driver and guide really knew his stuff. 

This elephant was being transported on the truck to take part in Independence Day festival - looked a bit cruel to me. 

Here cash is king... They don't like plastic.

It means I'm visiting the ATM once a day

We're off to Kandy tomorrow (maybe England v Sri Lanka cricket if we can get a ticket) and then on to tea plantations.

Day 3

We went for an elephant safari at the local park

There were plenty of them around. And loads of people to come and see them.

Also, birds and reptiles. 

A chameleon 

A black hooded oriole - very rare apparently

And a hornets nest.. don't go near these boys.

On the way home we stopped and had a look at the gloriosa Lily - if you eat it, you die within 30 minutes. Apparently it's infused with cyanide..... It's pretty though 

This evening was a trip out to the Sri Lankan cultural centre. I was thinking this was going to be a cheesy old show but in fact it was amazing and the people doing it were just loving it.

Don't try this at home.... It'll ruin your carpet.

Tomorrow we're off to see an ancient city and some big rocks.

Day 2

 We were still getting over the effects of the trip out here so this morning a very long lie in and then we got a taxi up to the railway station at Colombo to take our train to Habanera. We're currently on the 3:15 train for about 4½ hours. 

It was quite a tedious journey with not a lot of interest on route and didn't get much of a snooze either. We arrived at Habanara at 8:00 and went straight to the hotel and got a good night's sleep.

 

Have to watch out for the monkeys....!

They can be very naughty!! 🐒

Day 1

 A smooth trip from Heathrow to Doha and an hour stopover meant we could explore the eco jungle they have in the middle of the airport. Qatar may have a questionable human rights record, but they know how to do brash and flash. It's all Chrome and marble here

And a weird animal sculpture - who puts wild beasts on a bicycle?

Our flight arrived in Colombo at 3:00 in the morning. The airport was absolutely buzzing even at that time . Unfortunately the taxi that was supposed to be arranged never showed up so we had to sort that out ourselves. When we got to the hotel and checked into our room, we were told that there was no water at all. A problem with a pipe we understand, which will be fixed in the morning so a couple of hours sleep and then we got up. Had a little bit of breakfast and went out into Negombo town. 

 We decided to take a little tuk tuk tour around the town, the harbour and churches and temples. 

I think our driver covered all the bases - Catholic Hindu and Buddhist. It was quite a mixed bag. Including a huge fish market 

Our first day here was a bit hectic, but hopefully we'll catch up on some sleep tonight and be ready for our train ride to Habarana.