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Published: June 21st 2010
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Yala Nat'l Park
gorgeous leopard After a couple of days in the Nuwera Eliya area we are headed down the hill country but it will take awhile as we get lost trying to navigate the confusing small roads out of the mountains, we found ourselves on the other side of the hill and we have to backtrack cause Mr. T just missed a turn. Anyway back to the hot humid weather again and we stopped at the foot of the hills for lunch and then moved on to visit some ancient carvings on this massive rocks the name of the place is Budurawagala. it's a set of sculptures done 1,000 years or so at the rock face, i think it's Buddha and other divinities, it would have been nice to stroll at leisure around the area which comprises of huge boulders with paths leading to the jungle, bt it was too wicked hot we left right away. there is a nice lake around the area where wild animals sometimes come to drink like elephants, none today even for them it's too hot I guess.
We drove some more arrivingin the small town of Tissa where we stopped in town to use the internet quickly then
looked for a place to stay within our budgets, we found a better rate at Lake Wind hotel, our hotel has a nice view of the lake, we are actually right on it's banks. We got a good price and it's all because of Mr.T's bargaining power. Me and Sachil washed our clothes and hang them outside our veranda but it was too windy our clothes get blown away everywhere.
In the afternoon we headed to visit Kataragama and on the way we saw a parade and so we stopped for a bit to watch it go by, cute kids in costumes depicting stories of the village, the people's customs and everything related to the Vesak festival. Then on the way to Kataragama we got pulled over again by cops, a common occurence here, cops will do their best to make an extra income I guess, which by now is becoming an annoyance to us, could it be that Sri Lankan police are the most corrupt in South Asia? I have to wait until I get to India to answer that.
We arrived at the holy place called Kataragama, epople come here to pray and make offerings of
flowers and fruits among other things, we are barefoot again good thing its evening, it has a solemn atmosphere, its a mixture of religions here from Tamil, Buddhists to Hindu all intertwined together in peace and harmony, I watched and observed as I tag along with my 3 Buddhist friends, they make prayers and offerings to Kataragama, and then we visited another stupa before we left and headed for dinner then back to the hotel for some well needed rest.
Got a very early morning wake up call from our driver Mr.T, today we visit the Yala National Park, we are to be picked up at 5am and so we groggyly made ourselves get up and get dressed, we came out the room and the safari truck was just arriving. We drove from our hotel in Tissa into the Yala National park, about 1/3 hour maybe, at the antrance we have to pay the fee then a brief look at the museum in the park office. We drove slowly to the park entrance, we saw 1st thing wild pigs, some birds, maybe herons, and spoonbill birds catching their morning food in the almost dried up pond.
Foxes came to view as the sun slowly gets up the horizon,flocks of birds above us. Only a few other trucks were around, not very busy with tourists at this time. There is a number of watering holes and we hope to see some elephants. Wild buffaloes abound in the watering hole then we sighted our first few wild peacocks, mostly male. Suddenly we saw 2 safari trucks parke on the side of the road looking at something, it was a leopard perched on top of a rock sunning itself in the morning light, what an awesome sight, it lazily sat there yawning occasionally as if we did not exist, just minding it's own business.
From the leopard we continued on and saw a crocodile, some lizards and we stopped at this memorial place right at the beach in honor of the tsunami victims, we walked around the beach for a bit, then as we are about to get on back in the truck, Mr.T pointed to me some birds in the tree about 500 meters to our right, I hesitated but decided to walk and take a look, it was a big flock of hornbills! I have not
seen them this much at a time in the wild! what a sight, they are flying about, making noises, perhaps warning each other that I am taking their photos! I stayed with them for maybe 10 minutes until it's time to go. On our way back out to the entrance of the park we saw yet another leopard! This time it was much closer, and like the first one, it lazily does about it's business oblivious of our presence, we followed it cross the road and into the thick bushes on the other side until it disappeared! Mr.T said we are extra lucky, they normally don't see them too often and we saw 2 in one day! Then our first sightings of wild elephants grazing behind the bushes, I saw mostly their behinds and they disappeared quickly. Also a lot of spotted deers eating and drinking water, some more birds, an eagle perhaps. Trully a satisfying safari, I honestly did not expect to see that much.
Got back to Tissa and got ready to check out of the hotel to move on. We drove back to Kataragama but 1st Mr.T has to retrieve his driving license confiscated yeasterday when
we got pulled over, he paid his "fine" then we left to have lunch. Food here in Sri Lanka is good cause it's different but is too spicy for my liking, even if you say not toom much chilli, they put more anyway, I noticed myself fanning my mouth all too often, eevn the fried rice is not safe anymore! After the meal we visited another sacred site called Sellakataragama. We witnessed some pilgrims cracking coconut into a small squared place after blessings were done by a priest/monk, again you have to walk barefoot along the premises and burned the soles of my foot once again. This is our last day here in the holy town of Kataragama, now we move down south wet slowly and hit the beach to try and finish this trip on a beautiful sandy resort.
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