Ancient City "Polonnaruwa"

 This day, traveling by tuk-tuk hit it's zenith. Looking back on it now we laugh, but we weren't always. 

 Leaving Sigiriya we needed to take a tuk-tuk 9 km back to the main road to continue by bus on to Polonnaruwa. After my skillful bartering (cough cough) we had arrangements made. Off we went down dirt back roads for 4 km until the engine sputtered, died, and wouldn't restart. We were out of gas! After a bit of amazement that our driver attempted to get us there on empty, and some head scratching on his part a rented car and driver showed up.  We explained the situation and were fortunately invited to hop in and share the ride. Much to our tuk-tuk driver's displeasure and demands, he only received 2/3's pay.

Is this a joke?

We ended up sharing the car all the way to Polonnuruwa, then phoned our guest house for directions. The owner said she'd send a taxi to pick us up. Meanwhile and as usual, the tuk-tuk drivers approached and began their barrage of questions: "Ride? Where are you going? What guest house you stay?" Despite telling them "We have arrangements made", "No we don't need a tuk-tuk", one driver then told us the guest house sent him, "No charge".  We were wary, as the drivers will play a game on tourists like this and end up asking the guesthouse to pay them, and then the charge gets put on your room bill. But this guy gave us the owner's name, and not knowing what sort of "taxi" she was sending, we believed him.  When we got to the guesthouse, the owner looked at us with irritation and said, "Why you not wait?"  We explained what had happened, and the driver was sent away with no pay and his tail between his legs. We were tweaked that we had been scammed, despite our self image of travelers with skills honed in India!
 To give ourselves a break, we rode bicycles to get around the next 2 days, even in the rain.
Polonnaruwa was the ancient capital of Sri Lanka from about 1070 til 1284 and is alongside a huge lake ( Parakrama Samudraya). The ruins are extensive and enjoyable to cruise around, even in the rain.

Even though it was before 6 PM, this elephant was roaming.
Still doesn't seem natural to see wild ones alongside the road.

The local fishermen were out in their outrigger boat, running
their gill-net. (scaring fish into the net with the thrown weight
 as they pass)

I love the rain....at this point anyway.

Our neighbor at the Guest house, Dennis,
models the evening wear required to get
to the Dining Room (3 steps away).

More reclining Buddhas...Only makes sense with so many
Buddhas in Sri Lanka, they can work in shifts and others
can nap.

Most of the building ruins still had their entry "moonstones"
These were the entry steps into the temples, this one had
many elephant carvings...Very Cool.

I thought this Buddha was crying, but no
the rain continued and it was me that was
crying...........

Temple built of bricks and plaster to house a huge image
of Buddha.  There were older photos showing the Buddha 
in better repair. The head was now missing.

Ancient Toilet?

The colorful umbrellas added a bit to the otherwise
dreary/rainy day.

We don't think there were ever lions in Sri Lanka, 
but there were some great statues of them. At the end of the day,
 Stretch was still hanging on to an umbrella.