Elephants, Temples, Monkeys, and Scotch, Oh My!

At the Hurulu Eco Park with Sutha, our

amazing and fun host for the past three days

The past four days have been a fun blend of scenery, wildlife, food, temples, and legendary Rotarian hospitality. Normally, the words flow when I write, but not tonight.  There is just too much to describe in a coherent narrative.  So, I’ll try to tell the story in photos with expanded captions.

"What We Can, While We Can!"

On an elephant safari in

Hurulu Eco Park

A lot of other tourists had the same idea

Breakfasts (and lunches and dinners)

of curry rice with dahl and veggies

Happy hour poolside with Jonnie Walker Black 

Label, Sutha, his coworkers, at Rotarian Lakmal's 

Vaana Resort near the wildlife refuge

Offerings and wishes at the cliff side temple

at Trincomalee

The Hindu temple on

 the East Coast

at Trincomalee

On our way to Bird Island on Lake Parakarama

close to our lodging at the Primate Center,

commonly called "Monkey Camp."

We hired Sinuli, a guide with he Smithsonian 

institution, stationed at "Monkey Camp" who 

gave us fascinating insights at colonies of

monkeys who have been tracked  for 52 years in the 

ancient city of Polonnaruwa.

 Bicycling along Parakarama Sanadura Lake, dam

 built 900-1,000 years ago.

Monkey see, monkey do

The ancient city of Polonnaruwa,

built in about 1100 AD, then

later abandoned

More ruins and temples

Sitting Buddha, about 30 feet tall

Temple lizard, on steps to a temple

These were at the base of most temple or palace

entrances

More ruins. The ancient city grounds were over

five square miles.  Glad  we had bikes!

Home sweet home at Monkey Camp

It should really be called mosquito camp

We went on a short night-time walking

safari in search of the cute nocturnal

and aboreal lorises, related to lemurs

Buying mosquito coils at a local stall. Sutha works

for Unilever and oversees hundreds of employees

who sell and deliver products to these shops.

Inside the  fascinating Ancient Technology Museum.

We learned how bronze was made, the techniques

used to build temples, how they built the huge

dam, sewage systems, and more.  The docents were

so helpful.

Recycling station

Downtown  Polonnaruwa,  about 3 km from 

Monkey camp.  We  rode bikes here for lunch and 

within to the ancient city.

These are EVERYWHERE!

There are over 700,000 of them in

Sri Lanka

Our Monkey camp is on the shore

What you don't see behind our happy

faces is the 85 degree heat, the 85%

humidity, our sore bare feet, emerging

sunburns and empty stomachs.  We 

spent over 5 hours in the ancient city,

but it was well worth it.