Off on day two of my customized tour with James. Actually his name is Francis. We headed off 60kms to the west to see some historic ruins from the 1100’s. Before he started the car he quietly performed a Buddhist prayer at the steering wheel of his car. Very nice drive with much less traffic than we had yesterday. We saw quite a few wild animals along the way including 4 elephants (!) which he even said was very unusual. Elephants are generally nocturnal so you are unlikely to see them during the day. They are also dangerous animals nobody wants to get too close to, so I kept my distance when photographing them. Some were huge, others were babies. We also saw wild peacocks and evidence of many cobras. Cobras burrow into termite mounds to eat the insects, which is pretty amazing when you this about how tough termite mounds are.
The historic Buddhist temples were very beautiful and reminded me of Sukhothai in Thailand (which perhaps was a little nicer, but mainly due to a car-free district surrounding them and the close proximity of all the ruins together).
Either I’m much more used to hustlers these days of Sri Lanka is pretty tame compared to other countries I’ve visited. They don’t seem to be too aggressive in their sales tactics at sites, but they do seem to mumble something under their breaths when you turn them down. Cursing? Who knows what they’re saying…
