You often find quite a few Toque Macaques hanging out around the temples and shrines in Sri Lanka. They seem to enjoy the natural surroundings, but they also seem happy to snatch and eat whatever offerings pilgrims have left behind, whether flowers or food.
I also stopped by a herb garden on our travels today. I knew it was going to be a sales pitch the moment I hopped out of the car and a personal tour guide greeted me. He showed me all kinds of things growing, including vanilla, cocoa, coconut, nutmeg, turmeric, almonds, and lots more. He also discussed how each was used for medicinal purposes in traditional Sri Lankan Ayurveda alternative medicine. Of course, by the end he was pitching products from their pharmacy. I politely declined, and he graciously backed off, but then he prodded me for a tip. On the way out, my driver slipped me a free bottle of potion, so I suspect there was some incentive for him to bring me there. I had a similar experience at a ‘gem museum’ yesterday, which was really a showroom to buy Sri Lankan gems from, but they also politely backed off when I told them I wasn’t interested in buying any.
The Drive from Dambulla Royal Cave Temple to Kandy
Map of the route “Monkey Business”: 69,542 m, 731 m of climbing and 380 m of descent, elevation between 162 m and 575 m, time 04:05:37. It starts at 7.85289, 80.65322 and ends at 7.29268, 80.63762 (latitude, longitude).
