Day 8: Sri Lanka Vacation

The next day our driver took us to another temple with a giant Buddha. Before going inside, our driver found a vendor that had wraps for rent. Steve had his turn the other day, now it was my turn to wear one. You wear  them to cover up your knees prior to entering the temple.  We climbed up hill to reach the Buddha. We sure got our exercise while in Sri Lanka. This Buddha you could actually go inside. It is richly decorated with paintings that covered both the walls and the ceilings. After exploring throughout the inside of the Buddha and taking photos, we went across the street where we saw an elephant and people gathered around it. I saw one man and his child repeatedly go under the elephant. I wonder if they do that to bring good luck.
Then we went inside another temple where people were presenting food to Buddha. They had another building to the side where people would prepare the fruits and rice and make it nice for Buddha. We also saw off to the side where they dump all the rice/fruit in a big bucket after it's been presented to Buddha. It just seemed like such a waste.

The camera on my good camera went dead while inside the last temple, so I went outside and shot some video. Our driver asked if we were interested in getting some Sri Lankan sweets down the street where we parked. We were getting low on our snack foods anyway and had to reload for our flight the next day. The sweets reminded me of Indian sweets. They were very similar. Steve and Tyler picked out some various kinds to try.

We got back in the van and it was off to the turtle farm! The farm saved the eggs they find on the beach, rebury them in an enclosed cage to protect them from birds and stray dogs from eating them, once they hatch they put them in a holding tank and maintain them for 5 years until they are ready to be released to the ocean. The lady at the farm showed us all the turtles starting off with the babies. They were so adorable! They even had an albino one which is quite rare. Then she showed us some of their older residents who have been there awhile and will likely never be released out into wild because of injury or deformities. It's common for a turtle to be caught up in a fisherman's net. The government started a program where they will pay the fisherman to bring any injured turtles to the farm so they can get treatment and increase their chance of survival.

For our last full day, we asked the driver if he could take us back to our hotel where we could just relax by the pool and have lunch. Tyler got in the pool for a bit and then when it was time for lunch, we did the buffet. After lunch, we walked along the beach to a nicer part and found a spot where we enjoyed the water, sand and sun. We encountered several woman along the way trying to sell us handmade bracelets and such.










When it was time to leave, Steve suggested we hire a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. We were all excited! Tuk-tuks are everywhere in Sri-Lanka. To ride in one definitely made our Sri Lanka vacation complete.

We got back to the hotel and went back to the pool. We stayed there the remainder of the afternoon. We swam for a bit. Tyler met a few friends around the same age who were from Dubai. They had a blast together in the pool.
We then took some photos of the beautiful sunset before going back to our room to get showered and dressed for our last dinner in Sri Lanka.