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We left Ella for our next destination, Tissamaharama, early the next morning. Saman stopped at Rawana Ella Waterfall, 19 meters high and only 6 kilometres from Ella. We were driving along a winding road through Ella Gap and the scenery was stunning. We stopped briefly at the waterfall and joined a large group of orange clad monks on the bridge overlooking the falls. We left the hill country and were passing through flat farmlands before we arrived in the busy crossroads town of Wellawaya. A short detour here from the highway out of the town took us to Buduruwagala, an ancient Buddhist site dating from the 10th century. At this spot stands a 1000 year old standing Buddha statue (at 15 meters high it is the tallest on the island) which is carved into the rock ... read more

We left Kandy on Sunday morning and the traffic wasn’t too bad thankfully. We were driving to Nuwara Eliya (set at an altitude of 1900 meters) which is in the centre of Sri Lank’s renowned tea plantations. Once referred to as ‘Little England’ it was the favoured cool weather destination of the early British settlers. The road twisted and turned through very pretty countryside and we were soon surrounded by vibrant green tea plantations rising above us. Through the plantations were narrow stone steps used by the tea pickers. Lots of stops to admire the view and a great tour of the Blue Leaf Tea Factory. We’ve visited tea plantations in other parts of the world but the young man we had as guide on this tour was great - very enthusiastic and informative. Unfortunately there ... read more

Our short visit to Jaffna over, we headed back down south. Saman relaxed immediately, but continued to stay well under the speed limit. We stopped for a buffet lunch at a resort hotel. It was relatively cheap, with a great range of food, and a pleasant break beside the resort pool. We were to spend the next three nights in the area around Sigiriya, one of the prime tourism destinations in Sri Lanka. After lunch we stopped in Habarana and booked a safari into one of the parks, hoping to see some elephants in the wild. We enjoyed the safari but wouldn’t do it again as there were too many jeeps. We did see elephants, four or five groups of them, including cute baby elephants. The jeeps must stress the animals and one elephant did charge ... read more

The drive to Anuradhapura took three hours passing through countryside which was quite pretty, covered in palms and banana plants. and dotted with small brick houses with unpainted wooden window frames and multi paned windows. As well as agriculture there was a thriving terracotta industry as we passed many small factories producing clay roof tiles, cooking and garden pots. The roadside was also lined with people selling cheap T shirts and trousers, all hanging on clothes lines strung between the palm trees. And many stalls selling coconuts - they are everywhere - coconuts seem to be widely used here. The traffic was pretty chaotic too - we were passed by express buses which barely stopped to let people off - they jumped off at a run. The speed limit in Sri Lanka is a maximum of ... read more

We spent a quiet night in the hotel, escaping a bad electrical storm and some very heavy rain. Hopefully the humidity would ease but that was too much to expect as it was just as steamy when we went out to Yin’s for breakfast next morning. We spent some time later in the day wandering the shops - they all seemed to open at odd times. We were looking for some more of the street art but it was either hard to find or painted over. A large cat, featured on many of the postcards, had actually been painted over. You could see the shadow of the painting and it had a painted condolence note written on the wall beside it. I think Toowoomba in Australia, where I live, has much more vibrant street art than ... read more