{"id":476,"date":"2013-02-07T20:40:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T12:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.joel.net.au\/?p=476"},"modified":"2026-09-29T07:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T23:56:37","slug":"elephantitis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/2013\/02\/07\/elephantitis\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephantitis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reclining
Reclining Buddha at Pidurangala Royal Cave Temple, near Sigiriya, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Off on day two of my customised tour with James. Actually, his name is Francis. We headed 60 km west to see historic ruins from the 1100s. Before he started the car, he quietly performed a Buddhist prayer at the steering wheel. <\/p>\n

\"Toque
Toque Macaques (Macaca sinica) Grooming near Sigiriya Rock Fortress, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sri
Sri Lankan Land Monitors (Varanus bengalensis) near Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A very nice drive, with much less traffic than yesterday. We saw quite a few wild animals along the way, including 4 elephants (!) which he even said were 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. <\/p>\n

\"Elephant
Elephant seen outside my car window in Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elephant
Elephant seen outside my car window in Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 think about how tough termite mounds are.<\/p>\n

\"Termite
Termite mound with large holes from Cobras burrowing into it to eat the insects in rural Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The historic Buddhist temples were very beautiful and reminded me of Sukhothai in Thailand (which was perhaps a little nicer, mainly because of a car-free district surrounding them and the close proximity of all the ruins). I spent some time wandering around Polonnaruwa Vatadage, an ancient structure dating back to the 12th century.<\/p>\n

\"Ornately
Ornately Carved Entrance to the Polonnaruwa Vatadage, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kiri
Kiri Vehera (Milk-White Stupa), Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ornate
Ornate Shrine Carvings on Lankatilaka Image House, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carved
Carved Guardian Stone (Muragala) at Polonnaruwa Vatadage, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Buddhist Wall Paintings, Tivanka Image House, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Buddhist Wall Paintings, Tivanka Image House, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Either I’m much more used to hustlers these days, or 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 breath when you turn them down. Cursing? Who knows what they’re saying…<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Stone Entrance to the Hatadage, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carved
Carved Moonstone (Sandakada Pahana) at Polonnaruwa Vatadage, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ornate
Ornate Shrine Carvings on Lankatilaka Image House, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ruins
Ruins of King Parakramabahu’s Audience Hall, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carved
Carved Moonstone (Sandakada Pahana) at Polonnaruwa Vatadage, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stone
Stone Lion at the Royal Palace Ruins, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Off on day two of my customised tour with James. Actually, his name is Francis. We headed 60 km west to see historic ruins from the 1100s. Before he started the car, he quietly performed a Buddhist prayer at the steering wheel. A very nice drive, with much less traffic than yesterday. We saw quite… Continue reading Elephantitis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"wpgpxmaps_activity":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sri-lanka","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3sHuW-7G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7641,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions\/7641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"wpgpxmaps_activity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpgpxmaps_activity?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}