After breakfast we traveled on to our first cultural site in Sri Lanka; Mihintale, with 1800 steps, huge Buddha and stupa. Taking into account our self professed fear of being “templed out”, Upul wisely advised us to skip Anuradhapura (“it’s stupas after stupas”). Instead, we visited the much less visited Ritigala, a forest monastery complex with amazing stonework from 2-3 BC. On the way up the steps, we were treated to a clear sighting of the purple faced leaf monkey.
The next day, we voluntarily opted to wake up at 5:30 am for early morning birding safari at Minneriya National Park. The first bird we saw was a male Indian Paradise Flycatcher, with impossibly long and beautiful tail feathers. Apparently, this is a rather rare bird sighting, and Upul proclaimed that it augurs well for the rest of the safari. Indeed, we saw countless birds, including pretty much every species of eagle that are known to live in the park.
Then a lunch buffet, all cooked traditionally over open fire to lend a smoky overtone to the dishes.
Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya
Then, the hokey village tour. We later called it the tipping tour as every few hundred yards there was someone else helping us that required tipping. We did get to make homemade coconut sambal, and there were a lot of birds.
Plus this Upul glamour shot:
