The blog will be updated--maybe

Well, here I am in Bangkok, Thailand.  Unfortunately.

While I was uploading some photos, I made the mistake of ejecting the camera from the drive.  This is because I suck at technology, and everything I touch is doomed in one way or another (I've yet to tell you the incident with my so-called Galaxy S-4).

Anyway, what this means is that basically the camera's gone into lock-down, won't let me take pictures, and won't let me view the shots I took.  All photos have been replaced by "read only" files, and I'm not sure how to rectify this situation.

I'm doing my best and hoping I can resurrect some of the photos, many of which were stunning mountain shots.

Anyway, I will either update shortly with lots of photos...or not.

Wellawaya

I took a daytrip from Ella to Welawaya, which is only an hour to the south by bus.  There's nothing there to speak of except for some ancient rock carvings, which they call Buduruwagala.

It looks like this.

The rock carvings

Up close.

From another angle. 

I really couldn't get any more out of it than this.  That's literally the entire site.  Not worth the 200 rupees you are subject to paying (lol, no really--my driver was appalled I had to spend money just to look at it).

You also pass some lakes and forests and stuff on the way to the rock.  There's also an archaeological museum, and crocodiles are said to live in the lakes.  It would be nice to get up early and just make it a day-long hike through the countryside.

A lake

A boat with that thingy on the side

It's 2300 years old.

Lovely shady swamp.

An Afternoon in Batticaloa

I was planning on going back to Sigiriya for a day or two before heading to Hill Country.  Logistically, the only way to do this and still see new things was to head up the East coast to Batticaloa (Batty for short), take a bus to Polonnaruwa, then take a third bus to the Sigiriya junction.

The bus from Ampara leaves only at 6am, so I had a few free hours in Batticaloa, which I used to take pictures of the town.  Here they are:

A lovely house

Catholic church

Crucifixion

Mosque

A street scene (click on the picture to see the people up close)

"Batticaloa gate"
I don't know what it's doing there either

JELLYFISH!!

Some guy on a boat

A park overlooking the lagoon

Another fort

The same fort from another angle

Another Mosque

Another street scene

Hindu Temple

Private residence

Another church!

Imperial Saloon
For people who don't know the difference between a "salon" and a "saloon"

The causeway linking the two halves of Batticalao

Another street scene

Children's park

Why can't we have fences like this in the US?

That's all.

I just walked around town for a couple hours.  The town is OK, but there's not much to do unless you want to go on some eco-tours outside of town (I didn't even have the money at that point, so I forwent the tour).

I was going to stop at Minneriya National Park at the place where you can see the elephants when I got past Pollonaruwa, but I didn't see them out and didn't want to make a big fuss trying to get the bus to stop in front of everyone, so I never actually got to do that.  Instead, they dropped me at the gate of the park, some 10 km away, and a safari guy gave me a ride to Sigiriya in his jeep.

Kind of a weird ending to a weird day.

Ampara

After Monaragala, I hopped a bus to the lovely small town of Ampara (which is pronounced something like "Umpire").  There isn't that much there to see, and people looked at me weird when I said I was going to Ampara instead of Arugum Bay.  But, I'm not much of a swimmer or surfer, which is primarily the reason tourists visit the coast.  So, I went to Ampara.

Why Ampara?  There's only one reason to go there--the town has a lovely Japanese Peace Pagoda near which elephants sometimes pass in the evening.

The Peace Pagoda

When the Japanese try to paint Sri Lankans, this is the result.

There's a lake nearby, too.

The temple itself.

Inside the temple

To make a long story short, the elephants never showed up, unsurprisingly enough.

What did happen was that a wedding party arrived and started posing for photos.  A couple members of the procession walked up to me and asked if I was

 a) Korean, and
 b) a boy

They then proceeded to mock me roundly (in Singhala) for over 5 minutes (lol, I'm not exaggerating or being paranoid here; they were really rude to me, for no apparent reason).  I walked in the other direction, and a good many of the wedding party members proceeded to follow me, just staring.  They chased me around the grounds for awhile till I hid in some bushes, still waiting for the elephants to show up (which they never did).

At least I got to watch the sun set.

Monaragala

Monera means peacock, and gala means rock.  Monaragala is a town right between the hills and the east coast.  I did not see any peacocks there, nor did I see a rock that looked like a peacock.

Actually, it was a full-moon night, meaning everything was shut down and closed up when the bus rolled in at 7:30 pm.  Even the streetlights were off.  It was like walking around at 3 am, which I found somewhat alarming given that I was alone and carrying everything on my back.  (I am now forced to concede I am probably a target of robbery for most people, unfortunately).

Anyway, it did make finding food and lodging hard, but I found a guesthouse in the end, which gave me a remarkably fair price for a remarkably nice room.

I was just planning on spending the night (seeing as going back to Una pretty much took up the entire day), but I read in my guidebook that you can take a walk through a rubber plantation.  So I spent my morning hiking around the foothills of Monaragala.

Views!

Up close!

Lots of nature!

Lots of trees!

Flowers!

Bamboo!

Rolling hills!

Butterflies!

Rubber trees!

Harvesting raw rubber!

The sap!

Look at all the rubber trees!

Boulders!

Monaragala from above!

And a goat!

And this thing!