We woke up to a very British feeling day, a little on the chilly side and looking like it may rain. We set off towards Yala with a planned stop at the Elephant Orphanage on the way. As we left the higher ground of Nuwara Eliya and started to drop down through the winding mountain roads, we could really feel the temperature getting warmer and needed the aircon again! After a couple of hours on the road we stopped off at an old colonial building - now a hotel for a quick walk round and a drink. It was really nice, loads of old English decoration and randomly a few tortoises as well :-) I went for a walk in the gardens and got a few pictures of dragonfly, birds and the biggest ladybird I've ever ... read more

Today we went to Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka. First thing this morning we went to The Temple of The Tooth, considered to be one of the most important Buddhist temples and is home to the tooth relic. The relic is kept in a room which is only opened 3 times daily for puja - a ceremony where the relic is paraded around the temple accompanied by traditional drumming. once the golden covered relic is in place in the temple the Buddhists then move to the temple to make offerings of flowers to Lord Buddha. The buzz in the temple was amazing, the atmosphere was something else. Everyone around us seemed so excited and in awe of this ancient tradition. Throughout history it has been said whoever is in possession of the relic ... read more

We had another early start and headed off to the medieval ruins at Polonnaruwa - the ancient capital of Ceylon. The site itself is massive and there are ruins spread out across a large area. We started off in the museum where there is a scale model of the site to give you an idea just how vast it is. There are quite a few artefacts to view from coins to medical equipment to religious statues. Polonnaruwa was the capital of Ceylon from the 11th to 13th centuries and saw the beginning of Buddhist arts and architecture in Sri Lanka. The first ruin we visited was the Inner Citadel, a royal palace (originally 7 storeys), the upper storeys were wooden so there are only the brick walls remaining. There is some evidence of plaster walls decorated ... read more

After what seems like a silly amount of time we finally made it to the first hotel - I say hotel, but, I've got a little cottage type thing to myself which is pretty cool - it's been a massively long journey. The transfer from the airport was somewhere around 5 hours, but, between the bits where I nodded off (looking special with my gob open!) I've seen quite a lot of the country, architecture and culture as we've woven around what must be some of the biggest pot holes in the world, had most of my fillings rattled out and been scared half to death by randoms wandering in the road so they don't have to walk through a puddle, buses and tuk tuks! Saw a few monkeys, elephants and cows - they were mostly ... read more