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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rochel1977" data-source="post: 18677175" data-attributes="member: 371">Monitor lizards and more elephants <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m180_DSC_7028.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Ride paddies and peacocks -- something we saw together many times. Wild jungle chickens are also quite popular, especially on safari. They are gorgeous, and are the recent ancestors of the domesticated chicken. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m181_DSC_7108.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Komodo dragon!!! This guy was just an amateur dragon handler. He hangs out at the bridge and lures out the dragons with meat every morning. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m182_DSC_7125.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m183_DSC_7137.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> That's the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaska at the far left (in the white robes on the sign). He's a very popular guy, and has been in power for nine years already. His big acccomplishment has been brokering and maintaining peace -- the end of the Tamil war. His picture is up all over the place -- perhaps more than healthy -- but he does seem to be very well-liked. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m184_DSC_7188.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Buses in Sri Lanka were very colorful and beautifully decorated. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m185_DSC_7194.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> I had a lot of meals like this! Some rice, some sambar, some spinach, lentils, noodles, beets, and a few unidentified vegetables curried together. Washed down with a Lion Lager, which is the national beer (*), despite the fact that Sri Lanka has no lions (they have been extinct for at least 37,000 years). (*) Arrack is a fermented coconut liquor which is also highly popular. If you ask for milk to drink at a restaurant, that's a complicated! There are always two more questions that follow it:     Would you like that cold or warm?     Plain or with sugar? <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m186_DSC_7224.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Next field trip! We've added an excursion to our trip, which is another safari trip. This is to the Kaudulla National Park, which is known for its elephants. The NHSTA is not very active in Sri Lanka... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m187_DSC_7300.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We've picked up our safari guide Michael. He was a neat guy. He's one of the few Sri Lankans who has spent time in the US ("I worked at Dunkin-Donuts. Staten Island. I managed the place, found employees, hired, fired, cooked, cleaned up, everything.") Now he's working on building up eco-tourism in Sri Lanka, by starting a four-room lodge. His daughter is studying biology, and his son is in the Sri Lankan air force. And he knew a lot about animals and Sri Lankan history -- probably more than any other guide we talked with during our trip. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m188_DSC_7247.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We find some elephants! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m189_DSC_7253.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Open-top 4x4 Jeeps are the safari vehicle of choice here. I forget what they're looking at here. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m190_DSC_7258.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We've seen a herd of elephants across the river, so head in that direction. But we are not the only ones... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m191_DSC_7453.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> It's a zoo! I mean, on our side, at least... holy cow. The deal is that in most South African reserves, there is some sort of limit to the number of cars that can approach an animal. A typical limit is 3, and the safari drivers (who can lose their job easily if they violate it) are pretty respectful of this... But here we have on the order of 50 cars, all off-roading, all following the elephants. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m192_DSC_7483.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We stayed for a few minutes and then left. Michael was pretty disgusted by it. "Here they have no limits at all! If 400 trucks want to come in, they let 400 trucks in!" <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m193_DSC_7494.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m194_DSC_7534.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> On the way back from the safari, Michael makes a stop at the train tracks to show Finn some train cars! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m195_DSC_7537.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Finn optimistically waits for some action. Climbing Sigiriya <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m196_DSC_7559.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Next day: we're set to climb up Sigiriya. That's the monolith right ahead of us -- almost 700' high, and jutting straight out of the otherwise flat plains. It's very dramatic. It looks pretty impassable, but it turns out there have been stairs and ladders up the side for many hundreds of years. Sigiriya is just the centerpiece of a large kingdom which extends quite a distance. It was built in the 5th century, abandoned, and then reused as a monastery 900 years later. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m197_exotic_vacantion_532549.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is not my photo. But if you were had a plane, this is what Sigiriya would look like. We walked up from the left, walked along the left face of the wall (you can see the red scaffolding), then up a staircase on the back, and finally to the top where the terraced swimming pools are. It's surreal. My colleague Nalin points out that a slightly disguised Sigiriya is the location of Arthur C. Clarke's book The Fountains of Paradise, where a space elevator to reach geostationary orbit is built on a mountain-top run by Buddhist monks. Cool! Clarke lived in Sri Lanka most of his life -- he wrote 2001 while there. I remember attending a public session at the 2001 DPS meeting in New Orleans. The point was to have Clarke call in and discuss the real 2001 vs. the science-fiction one, and they patched in a live call from Sri Lanka. However, any content of the discussion was overshadowed by the fact that in the real 2001, it was barely possible to have a phone conversation with someone on the other side of the Earth ("Arthur, Arthur? Can you hear us now? What? --?"). We weren't exactly finding monoliths on the moon. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m198_DSC_7577.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Starting the climb up. I had concerns about Finn making it up the 800 stairs. But he does well! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m199_DSC_7582.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Mid-way up: naked ladies. These were in a little sheltered cave, about halfway up the monolith; apparently the whole cliff might have been covered with similar frescoes in the past. According to our guide, they were painted on the wall hundreds of years ago for the king (pictures of his harem). Wikipedia claims they might have been there exclusively for religious purposes, although they were very naked. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m200_DSC_7605.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Monkey! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m201_DSC_7748.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Still walking up. We're at a platform about 3/4 of the way up. Just around the corner was what looked like a portable enclosed tennis court. What's that for? "Oh, the bees. Sometimes they'll get angry, and if they get angry, then you must run to the shelter. Everybody up here must run to the shelter. And the last person who does not make it in -- the bees attack him to make up for everyone else." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m202_DSC_7569.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Even if it wasn't true, I love this sign. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m203_DSC_7712.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Toward the top... <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m204_DSC_7634.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Made it! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m205_DSC_7668.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> So now that we're on top, check it out. Behind us is a full Olympic-sized swimming pool... carved out of the rock and carefully built with bricks. According to our guide Anil: "This was not a religious monument. This was the Las Vegas of the king's empire. It was all about pleasure. They would have had a disco up here if they could have." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m206_DSC_7762.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Finn gets a bit of help on the way down. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m207_DSC_7773.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m208_DSC_7799.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This guy was selling carved animals at the base. He's holding one -- an elephant box -- which we ended up with. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m209_DSC_7804.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Despite having 18 days to go a few hundred miles, we still spent many hours in the car. Finn never quite got the hang of cord management. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m210_IMG_2095.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Heidi has found an elephant! The elephants weren't exactly wild, but I don't think they were mistreated. They seemed to be acting like work animals, sort of like an ox or horse. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m211_DSC_7830.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m212_DSC_7842.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m213_IMG_2148.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> The mahout is the elephant driver. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m214_IMG_2170.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m215_DSC_7876.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Finn gets to touch the elephant afterwards!. Those are chains around the elephant. That seemed to be the standard way to harness them up. Although it looks bad, it didn't seem that chains by themselves put the animal in any pain. </blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

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