Tissamaharama or Tissa for short.

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On the way to Tissa we visited an ancient site of a Buddhist temple from the Mahayana tradition, the one that I am more familiar with and I got a kick our of seeing carvings who’s names I knew. Theravada is the tradition here in Sri Lanka and although the philosophies are not that different, the religious practices are.

Tissamaharama is a lively little town and a lot bigger than Ella.
It’s hot and dry, but luckily at the hotel, by paying a little extra, I got the remote for the air con. A good move!

A huge lake called Tissa Wewa (3rd century BC) dominates the town and makes it at least feel a little cooler than it really is.

The important thing here was to organise a safari into Yala national park. I had been told that there was a chance of seeing leopard and I couldn’t resist the temptation.

Sam, my driver and guide seems to know half of Sri Lanka so we had no trouble finding an experienced driver and negotiating a price. That’s when it’s difficult travelling alone, as the safari costs the same for me as it would if I was with 2 or 3 others. Oh well, not much that I could do so handed over the money reasonably happily.

Then I was taken into the kitchen and shown a little bit of cooking Sri Lankan style. This is what we would be eating tomorrow on the safari. I loved the terracotta wood oven with 2 burners (look closely on the right of the photo). Sam told me you can buy them with up to 4 burners. The couple also look after their grandson while his parents are working in Lebanon, a real cutie. I couldn’t resist a photo of their cat who looks an awful lot like my Felix and the cute sausage dog with puppies.

Lovely people, I looked forward to the early morning start to the safari.

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