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.