From Colombo to the Ancient Cities

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Yesterday I arrived at Colombo Airport!
What greeted me, though, was quite unexpected - when I walked out of the airport it looked as though the sky had opened!! The rain was pouring down by the bucketful! Even though the prospect of staying in the airport seemed more inviting than finding my way to some obscure hotel in the center of Colombo, I ended up finding the line for the public bus into the city center and crammed my way into yet another overly-full bus!
The bus took me to Fort Train Station, from where a friendly Sri Lankan man showed me the way to the right bus to take me to the area of town where the hotel I had decided to stay at (the YWCA) was located. It was still raining like mad, and when the second bus dropped me off at some random junction, I was thoroughy drenched after walking down the first block!
I finally made my way to the hotel (not many people know street names, I might add...!) and found I was sharing a room with a lovely Australian lady who was in Sri Lanka to volunteer in a town destroyed by the Tsunami last December. She was there as an architect to help build their local school! She had been to Sri Lanka before, and so she took me out for my first Hoppa - which is a pancake-like snack made from coconut milk! Ours were plain, but she said their even better with jam or other condiments! especially coconut!
The next morning I woke up early (and slept very well!!) and decided to take an early bus to the region where the Ancient Cities are. There are three main cities with large areas of ancient ruins. They are all meant to be beautiful, but the entry fee is very high (by the Indian standards I have become used to in the past two months). Once I found the bus station, I found a bus which took me to Polonaruwa.
6 houra - and a breakdown - later, I was at my destination. I found a hotel. I rested for a bit before walking down to a beautiful lake found near the center of town. A small beggar girl became fascinated with my camera, and I let her snap as many pictures as her heart desired! A man also stopped me to look across the lake to see some elephants bathing...all I saw were some dots on the opposing shore, but I like to believe I've now seen some elephants in the wild!
I'm now waiting for seven o'clock, when my hotel is serving me a wonderful (hopefully!) meal of rice and curry....15 minutes to go!! Better go see if they're early!!

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Photos

Colombo
Raikkonen in Colombo

Ancient Cities
Cows in the middle of town!

Ancient Cities
this little girl wanted to check out my camera