Polonnaruwa, I hardly knew ya

We're in a nice little family-run hotel that's been open for just about a year.

New room friends! Faizal the frog and... Wait! Gajari must have hitched a ride in our bags!

The owner is really friendly, and when he found out we were interested in learning about Sri Lankan food, offered to let us cook with his wife, who does the meals here. We climbed up some narrow stairs to the second floor, which consists of one small room with an even smaller kitchen attached, where the owner, his wife, and their two small children stay.

On the first night, we watched the wife prepare dinner, grinding coconuts in a contraption I've never seen before, mixing the pulp with water, and squeezing it through to make coconut milk, which she used as a base for most of the dishes. She cooked 5 or 6 different types of vegetables, a few of which were new to us.

Time to grind the coconuts

We also met the owners mother and two of his four brothers, and some various other family members who just kind of rotated through the kitchen and living space as we were there. The next morning as we were eating breakfast, the owner called us over and took us next door to see a neighbor grinding coconut and spices the old fashioned way to make a sambal.




For lunch, Rani helped slice and mix some of the dishes.

This all was a nice experience, and introduced us to some new ingredients, including garcinia, jackfruit, pandan leaves, banana flowers, and a few that don't even have names in English. In our meals here, we were presented with something like 20 different vegetable dishes.

But, we couldn't just stay in the hotel and eat, right? We visited Minneriya wildlife park for another hot, bumpy safari, and saw some herds of elephants (and agreed we'd probably had enough of safaris for this trip).

Viewed some kind of Buddhist parade on the way back.

Climbed Sigiriya (UNESCO world heritage site) to see the site of an ancient temple.

This is the rock; there are ruins of a palace on top.

Sexy cave paintings

Almost to the top; These paws are all that's left of the lion that used to guard the ascent.

View from the top

Toured a spice garden where I was treated to an Ayurvedic massage and we were romanced into buying some oils, ointments, and various potions.

And finally, toured the ancient ruins of Polonnaruwa, a huge complex of temples and monasteries (and another world heritage site).

Ruler's seat with ancient carvings

Bathing area

Super stupa

Buddha carvings

So, what I'm calling the middle leg of our trip, the tourist part, the things we feel like we probably have to do while we're here, is coming to an end, and we're headed back to the beach. This time, on the east coast, where the weather should be right for swimming, diving, whale watching, and general lounging. More to come soon!