Tissamaharama and Yala (8-18)

When the bus left Nuwara Eliya, all seats were occupied and the aisle was half full of people standing. I was glad to have a seat, even though it was on the side with three seats and I was in the middle. My companions were a Muslim woman and a man with his daughter who looked about one and a half years old. It was another cozy ride. After an hour the woman got off and we moved over a seat so someone new could have the aisle seat. When the man got off, an older woman joined us. She pointed to the window and pushed herself between my knees and the seat to get there. (If I’d been Sri Lankan, she might have said something.) When I didn’t get moved fast enough, she ended out sitting on my lap. This was irritating until I realized a few minutes later that she was going to be bus sick. Then I felt sorry for her. When the other woman got off, the two of us spread out a little, as no one else joined us. When she got off, another woman joined me and we, too, had the seats to ourselves.

The bus trip took five hours. It went down and up the mountains for the first half of the trip. Then it just went down. I was glad to have the hand hold on the seatback in front of me to keep me upright. After leaving the mountains, we went through rice-growing country for the last hour.

When I arrived in Tissamaharama, a man asked where I was going and gave a good price to take me to the guesthouse. We went in his jeep. He was looking for customers to join his safari on Monday, but he got me to the guesthouse.

This was another guesthouse out of town. I guess when I was making reservations from noisy Wenjiang, quiet time out of town sounded appealing. This one is on a lake. After checking in, I walked along the road on the other side of the lake. 

There is a small Buddhist temple from which some boys called to me. 

Then several women standing in the gate greeted me and I heard someone speak to me in English. That woman invited me to go in; so I did. She took me to the upper level to see the view and then asked me to take her photo and send it to her. When she wrote her address, I realized she meant mail a photo. I haven’t done that since I lived in Turkey. But I will. 

The boys looked like they wanted a photo taken; so I obliged. Later one of the boys gestured that he wanted money. When I said “no money,” he asked for a pen. Another boy joined him in asking for a pen. This was the first time I’ve had children asking for something here—or in most places I’ve been in the past several years. Actually, I’ve encountered only a few beggars. 

Back on the ground level, I took photos of several of the children. I’ll mail those to the woman, too. After leaving the temple, I walked a bit more. It was good to be walking in such a lovely place.

Monday I moved to the tent camp in the jungle for my Yala safaris, stopping at Katagama to see the temple there. On the way to town, the driver stopped to show me the bats in the two trees along the lake. What is interesting is that they are only in these trees and none are on the other side of the road.

Katagama Temple and Devalaya is a Buddhist temple and a Hindu devalya. The Buddhist part is a stupa, 

remains of an old building, 

and an old statue. It is believed that the Buddha was there. In addition to the usual sign to not take photos with your back toward the Buddha, there are signs telling people not to take photos with their back facing the stupa and one saying not to light oil lamps with animal oil.

When I was walking to the devalya, the bell was ringing. I arrived as the priest was walking out carrying the two cloths. People were standing outside the building with trays of fruit. 

Priests inside the building did a ceremony in front of the curtain over the door to the inner shrine. Then they went in. When they came out, they blessed people with powder which they put on their foreheads, water which they drank, and specially prepared rice which they ate. 

Next the people carrying trays of fruit took them to the front and gave them to the priests. After a couple minutes, the trays, having been blessed, were given back, and the people left, making a monetary donation on the way out. Outside, a man I’d exchanged smiles with held out one of his two trays to me. I didn’t know what to do; so I took it. Then he told me to eat some fruit. I selected a banana and gave the tray back to him. 

In one place, people held a lighted coconut lamp and prayed. Then they threw it onto a rock. I think that if it broke, their prayer would be answered.

Kataragama Temple and Devalaya are important because it is believed to be one of three places in Sri Lanka that the Buddha visited.

After visiting the temple and devalaya, we waited in town for the man from the tent lodge to pick me up. He then took me to the campsite. This is a budget camping place; so the tents are on the ground. They’re huge. Each has a bed with small night tables and two side stands to hold luggage. There is a separate area that has a zipped door for the bathroom, which is equipped with a Western flushing toilet, sink, and a tub so the shower water is contained. There is a light bulb in each room. Outside under an awning are a table and two chairs. The man took me to the farthest tent so I wouldn’t be near the large, noisy Chinese group. After relaxing for a short time, it was time for lunch, which was brought to my table. Lunch was vegetable broth, grilled tuna with rice, and buffalo milk yogurt with honey. I was impressed.

At 3:00 it was time to leave for the safari in Yala National Park. I had my own jeep, which surprised me. There was non-Asian couple, but they were with the second jeep of Chinese. Since I was alone, I sat in the front with the driver when we were outside the park (also when it rained on Tuesday), which was nice since we could chat. The driver has been a driver/guide for five years and usually does two trips a day. We were out for four hours, with three hours driving around the park looking for animals. 

The most common animal was water buffalo—both in the water and on land. 

There were also a lot of wild boars. 

I learned to see crocodiles in the water, which takes a while to train the eyes to see. In one lake the driver said there were eleven crocodile, and I managed to site nine of them. 

We saw one elephant clearly and one in the evening trees, 

a few deer, a jackal, a mongoose, 

and lots of birds. 

A special bird was the jungle fowl, which is the national bird of Sri Lanka. It is similar in appearance to a rooster. In temples there are hangings and sculptures of a king riding what I thought was a rooster; now I know that he is riding a jungle fowl.

Yala is known for its large population of leopards, the most leopards concentrated in one area in the world. I, however, was not very lucky in sighting them. When we were waiting for ten minutes at a spot that is famous for leopards, the driver’s phone rang and we rushed ahead. A leopard had been sighted. When we arrived, I saw movement in the trees and the back of the white buffalo that was chasing the leopard. I counted that as half a leopard sighting. On the way back to the campground, we took a road that is famous for leopards at night. One was on the side of the road, and when the headlights hit it, it ran into the trees. I saw it run. The driver was quite excited to have that happen and that I, too, saw it move. So I saw 1.5 leopards—not clearly but they were there.

                 

I enjoyed the trees and lakes as well as the animals.

For dinner, my table was near the kitchen and about 30 yards from the Chinese group, but I could still hear them clearly. The staff apologized for their noise a few times. Two of the men commented on how noisy Chinese people are. My driver said he doesn’t like Chinese people because they are noisy and it scares the animals. When we were stopped near them one time, he gestured for them to be quiet. Another time when we were stopped together waiting to see what animals would appear, one of the women took a photo of me. So Chinese.

My table was also near the fire, which they called a bonfire. They formed a cone with wood and burned it from the top down so it lasted a long time. Gasoline was added a few times to relight the flames.

Dinner began with cream of mushroom soup. The main course was grilled shrimp, squid and chicken. The squid and chicken were cooked with delicious sauces. The meal also included potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and green beans, which was more vegetables than I’d seen for a long time. Dessert was pineapple cooked with sugar and cinnamon. Throughout the meal, various men kept coming over to make sure everything was OK and ask if I liked it.

Tuesday morning began with 5:30 wake up and 5:45 departure. It had rained heavily during the night, which the man said is good for seeing animals. My driver had told me that there had been no rain for three months, which is why everything was dry and the lakes were quite low; so the rain was much needed. It rained again at 6:45 for almost an hour. When it rained lightly, we continued to drive. 

Then it rained heavily and we stopped under a tree to wait. While we were then, an elephant crossed the road in front of us. 

Later we saw an elephant in one of the lakes. And then another walking out of the trees, making a total of five elephants on the two safaris. My driver was pretty excited about my good luck seeing elephants.

We went to the seaside where the tsunami hit. There’s a tsunami memorial there. 

When we drove out, there were a lot of jeeps on the road. Later when I commented about all the jeeps, the driver explained that that area is near the main entrance to the park; so there are always a lot of jeeps—sometimes as many as 200. We entered on the back side which is less crowded, which was nice. I was glad I’d decided to do take a safari that started at the back side.

Other than the elephants, we saw monkeys, 

a big reptile, 

and more birds and crocodiles. 

A special moment was watching deer drink water in a pool on the road. The driver turned off the engine and we watched them hesitatingly approach, with one keeping an eye on us, and drink. The quiet of being the only jeep there contributed to the specialness.

After returning to the campsite, we had breakfast. I was disappointed to have the typical Western breakfast—bread with jam and butter, fried eggs, and fruit. They also served meat, which I hadn’t seen before. I was a little sorry to turn down the eggs and meat, as the cook looked disappointed when I told him I didn’t eat those, and he had been so pleasant with me.

Then it was time to leave. I was really glad I’d decided to do the safari camping package rather than just do a safari from a guesthouse. I enjoyed my time in the jungle as well as both safaris and the delicious meals.