Habarana and Minneriya (8-8)

Thursday I traveled to Habarana. Following the leisurely morning pattern, I arrived at the bus station at 11:05. I must have just missed a bus, as I waited on the bus for an hour before it left. The good aspect of that is that I got to choose a seat on the two-seat side rather than the three-seat side. Unfortunately, the woman who eventually sat with me needed a little more than half the seat; so we were snug for the two-hour trip. This was the most rural bus ride I’d had with frequent stops and lots of people. When the bus left, the aisle was full of people standing. Then more people got on at the next few stops. Loud music played the whole time. On the dashboard there was a statue of Ganesh along with the Sri Lankan and Buddhist flags. With the windows open, the temperature was comfortable when the bus was moving.

I arrived at the guesthouse at 2:30. This was one of my splurge guesthouses. It is in the woods near a lake. Instead of rooms, guests have a large cabin. 

Mine was the last one; so it faced the woods with no obstructions. It was lovely to sit on the patio to read and enjoy the natural surroundings. Since it was the end of the dry season, everything was brown. The guesthouse is family-run—the young man owner, his brother, and his father. I also noticed that two women helped with the morning cooking and cleaning the rooms.

In the evening, I walked along the lake and the road past it. The water level was low, but it was still lovely. In one place there are stairs leading into the lake. 

Women were washing clothes and bathing there.

Curry for dinner.

Friday morning, I returned to the lake before breakfast. Men were collecting lotus leaves. Later I walked past the lake the other direction. There is a small temple with a bodhi tree. 

And then there is another lake. 

A woman was bathing there, pouring water over herself for several minutes.

When I went back past the first lake, a group of children, mostly boys, were swimming at the stairs and a

woman was washing clothes. One boy had a big piece of Styrofoam to help him float and another made a floating device from plastic bottles. Tourists were arriving to ride around the lake in paired boats.

Breakfast was string hoppers, one of Sri Lanka’s typical foods. The strings are rice noodles and the hoppers, which are like crepes, are made with rice flour. The dishes were curried potatoes and coconut sambol, another Sri Lankan specialty. The dishes are mixed with the noodles and then can be wrapped in a piece of the hopper. There was also butter and jam to eat with the hoppers. I was glad to finally try this dish that I’d read about.

The activity of the day was a safari ride to Minneriya National Park. I had emailed that I wanted to do that and that, if possible, I’d like to join other guests. Thursday evening the owner told me that a British family—two older people and their daughter—had agreed to have me join them and share the cost. I was happy. We left at 2:00 for our adventure. This was the season when many elephants migrate to this park because it is dry and there is water in the park. So, of course, many tourists were also there. 

The types of trees along the road changed several times on the way in. 

We stopped to see a few chameleons and some birds. We also saw monkeys.

After an hour we saw our first elephants coming out of the trees. 

Then we reached the open area with lakes 

where the main groups of elephants were. There were elephants of all sizes. It was fascinating to watch them scrape the grass with their feet to loosen it so they could pick it up and eat it. 

I especially enjoyed the babies and watching the adults protect them. The driver said the smallest ones were about three months old. In the second area where the elephants were congregated, there were about half as many jeeps as elephants. We watched elephants in three different areas. 

When we were going to the last area, we came across two elephants that looked like they were doing some sort of ritual together. Then a third them for a short time and then left alone. The other two continued interacting for a while before returning to the group separately. When I asked about this, the man said that, if they seem aggressive, they are fighting but if they are not aggressive, it’s love. These two definitely looked like it was love. We were one of the few jeeps that stopped to watch this ritual, which also made it a special experience.

Eventually it was time to head back. As we headed back, the elephants were also heading back that direction on their way to another area where they go at the end of the day. They were on the move, not stopping to eat. The driver said they walk about 25 kilometers a day, eating 250 kilograms of grass. Our driver said we saw about 200 elephants.

When we got back to the first clearing, we stopped along with other jeeps to watch them walk by. People got out of their jeeps to have photos taken with the elephants. Our driver was more cautious and didn’t let us get out till most had passed. When a small group came and faced us, the driver hurried us back to the jeep, saying that one of those elephants is dangerous. They were clearly watching us carefully. From our safe place, we watched the rest of the elephants move on. 

Such a peaceful way to end our time with the elephants. And then we moved on—out of the park and back to the guesthouse. On the way out, we saw a bald eagle flying above us.

For dinner I had devilled fish. I’d seen “devilled” on the last guesthouse’s menu, but I didn’t know what it was and it was more expensive than other meals. Since, at this guesthouse, it is the same price as other dishes, I asked what it is and was told that it is fried. So I was expecting fried fish, but it was stir fried. I learned later that it is deep fried and then stir fried.

Saturday morning I hired a tuk tuk to go to Ritigala, an archaeological site from the 4^th to 5^th centuries BC that is near Habarana. I wasn’t familiar with this site, but I’d met foreigners on the bus who had come from there and it was in the “things to do” book at the guesthouse. My original plan had been to go to Sigiriya, but, since I’d already been there, I decided to check out Ritigala. When we went through town, we stopped at a vegetable stand while the driver talked to his sister. When we left, he said she was jealous because she’d never been to Ritigala. I said she could come with us; so she did. The tuk tuk ride to get to the site took almost an hour, partly on the paved road but mostly on the dirt road through the jungle, and part of that road was loose dirt since it was being improved and the new dirt hadn’t yet been flattened. 

At the site, the driver asked if I wanted a guide and, when I hesitated, said he would be my guide. He was a good guide and knew a lot about the site and showed me places and things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. The site was a palace and then became a watch site during times of war. Then it became a monastery for about 500 monks. 

There are at least 17 palaces. We saw several, and one was labeled #17. 

One of the palaces has a urinal beside it. The driver/guide said it’s the only one outside Anuradhapura. 

There are also buildings that were a library and a hospital. The hospital had a pool and a sauna. 

Some of the path is the original paved “road.” 

In one place, he showed me the entrance to an underground tunnel that went to Anuradhapura. The area has several waterfalls, but, since this was the dry season, there was no water flowing. We were at the site for about two hours. 

In addition to seeing the archaeological sites, I enjoyed the opportunity to walk through the jungle. 

We saw a lot of strangler trees wrapped around other trees. He called these “double trees.”

As we were leaving, I saw a yellow chameleon on a tree; so we stopped to look at it. We waited several minutes for it to change color. It did become lighter but didn’t turn brown like one we’d seen earlier in the day and also on Friday. My driver/guide said it knew we were watching and wouldn’t change color while it was being watched.

Back at the guesthouse, the owner asked about my plan for the evening. My only plan was to relax and rest, as riding in tuk tuks makes me tired. I think it’s the shaking and rattling and the air blowing on my face. He suggested a massage. When I’d seen it listed in his book of things to do, I had thought about it; so I decided that this would be a good time for an ayurvedic massage. At 5:00, he took me to his cousin’s spa where he arranged a discount price and threw in a sauna and steam bath. All for 5000 rupees/$38. The treatment began with an hour-long body massage. She started with my head and back and then did the rest of the body. (It’s interesting how the different techniques work.) Lots of scented oil was used. The technique was mostly rubbing. After the massage, I had the steam bath lying on a layer of leaves in a covered container while she massaged my head. Next was the special head massage with oil that drips from a container onto the forehead and then is massaged into the head and face. Last was a dry sauna in a room where the floor was covered with the herbal leaves and they were also hanging from the ceiling. The treatment took an hour and a half and was wonderful. I was told not to shower for at least two hours to let the oil soak in.

After dinner I met the British family from the safari and chatted with them for a while before we retired for the night. It was good to see them again.