Dreaming of Highways

Monk in ruined setting
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A whole day was spent driving interminably on winding roads.  I don't mean just a few stretches of winding I mean continually curve after curve going up and coming down.  Helping with the already weak stomach was the wafting perfume of black exhaust.  No wonder so many people were coughing in the up country including my driver.  I fell once more like a stringy old rag into the hotel bed only to be accousted by the ear buzzing mosquito.  Not only were the windows open some left big gaps when closed and the bathroom one was half out of the frame.  There was no fan as this is the cooler part of the country except for this night as the weather was changing and it was muggy. The topper was the cockroach in the bathroom.  I could not have been in much worse a mood.  And those in the know know that is a baaaad mood.  Literally within spitting distance was a much finer looking establishment.  I marched myself down there with the intention of paying for another room but alas they  were fully booked for the next two nights.(the only freaking hotel in all of Sri Lanka).  I had one Cutter's brand mosquito wipe which I rubbed about me and found it actually worked really well.  In fact the whole room smelled like a chemical plant.

scene of workers on dagoba which I talked about in last installment
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That night I dreamed of the doppler effect of a car moving down a very straight highway for a very long time.  In the morning I was able to chow down happily with quite an appetite.  But only after leaving the dining area upon first inspection as it was inhabited by this horrid German woman whom I had a verbal altercation with two days earlier at Sigiriya.  What happened was I had no water at all coming out of the hot water taps.  I knew the owner had just gotten the pump repaired so I thought it important she know even if I did not need the water that moment.  I interrupted her conversation with this blue stubbled frau who took great offence.  Enschudige Bitte!!!  She asked me if that is how I behaved and I answered "Why yes it is."  to which she replied "Vell, I hope I never have to see you again."  I said something smart about it being a big world.  Well not big enough because of all the lousy hotels in all the isolated corners of this island there she was!

If this leaf fell from the nearby Great bohdi tree it is a relic to be cherished otherwise it is a leaf to be raked up into rubbish
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Appraised of my weak stomach the hotel owner told me how healthy and safe his food is and blah blah and I thought 'well that does me a whole lot of good now'  So we sped down the road I later learned because Priyantha who I keep wanting to call Periwinkle, was trying to get to the bank.  Unfortunately even the locals cannot keep track of all the holidays this being a full moon which is a high holy day in Sri Lanka having many associations with Buddha.  So we pulled into Tissamaharama - and by the way just try saying that three times fast and into this absolutely pleasant hotel which had just completed a new pool!  I had 4 hours to nap, swim and lunch prior to my 2:30 appointment with a jeep and a tour of the Yala National Park.  If I thought I had a backside left it was jostled completely off of me by the jeep ride through the backroads of this sometimes majestic and interesting place.

Dawn from my hotel looking at Sigiriya rock
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I had seen many of the animals that appeared at Yala Park but seeing them on the fly so to speak - literally if we are talking birds - is so much more exciting.  We saw two groupings of Elephants who were docily muching away on the landscape, waterbuffalo wallowing as they do so well, a toucan, deer, wild boar, numerous small things and a lot of acreage.  I enjoyed beating the driver to the punch when it came to spotting wild critters.  Me: "Oh look water buffalo."  Two beats later Driver pointing over his shoulder "water buffalo".  This was also my first view of the ocean and  my first visual impression of the Tsunami.  There are ruins of hotels on the beachfront  and a marker which said in an act of past revenge (?) and went on about the death toll.  The water is clear and the beach is so picturesque.  It suddenly dawned on me I had done this trip backwards.  I should have hit the beach first.  I may not have been prepared for the interior but at least I would have started with a good impression.