Polonnaruwa

Sigiriya, 7am

I just woke up at Roy's Villa, a super cool backpackers hostel, chosen as the best small one in the world last year. It's surrounded by nature: jungle and rice fields. The morning sun is just rising... Awesome!

I spent yesterday's afternoon and evening in this place hanging out with Roy himdelf and the other guests, very cool people. We shared some beers and cooked our dinner together: rice&curry. We also shared a cake brought by two funny Dutch buddies that arrived late as they were kite-surfing in the West Coast.

The whole day had been rainy so I switched a bit the plans for today: I am going to Polonnaruwa! But I need to have my laundry fixed first.

Sigiriya, 7:10pm

After having my breakfast today I jumped into a Jeep with Div (an Indian boy living in London), Tom and Erik (the two Dutch buddies) and our driver to Polonnaruwa. Both on the way there and on the way back through Minneriya we saw big elephants crossing the road before passive Sri Lankan drivers.

Polonnaruwa itself is a bit disappointing: it's basically the ruins -badly preserved- from the ancient capital of a Sinhalese buddhist kingdom from the 11th and 12th Century. It was interesting to learn about the history and to share the bike ride with some friends. The four of us actually spent several hours visiting the sparsed ruins, but the humid heat and the Sun made me feel tyred at the end.

On the way back to the hostel we stopped for lunch and saw some more elephants. Actually one of them started chasing us as soon as we pulled over for some pictures.Les mer