Wild Elephants

We live in a relative world... even when it comes to ancient.
The first "ancient" city (Anuradhapura) visited, has been actively lived in since the 10th century BCE... that is a 1000 yrs before Christ.
Ancient is so yesterday... we decided to mix it up and visit just a plain ole old city, one that had ONLY been around since the 8th century AD.... Poḷonnaruwa.

Native Sri Lankan are called Sinhalese, or people of the Lion... there are stone lions guarding just about every ancient... err old temple, palace or building.

We all have our fetishes... I like to wear women's shoes (my feet are so narrow, it just makes sense), the ancient Sinhalese loved dancing dwarfs... no judgement here.

Families of gray langur monkeys have been living in the city, first with the original inhabitants, and now, chillin with the tourists.
This little guy saw me coming, and literally sat up, hands comfortably rested on his knees... ready to take a picture... crazy cool monkeys.

Heather is nearing her... How many stone Buddhas can I continue to visit before tapping out? threshold... ME, I have learned that there is no threshold when it comes to stone Buddhas... just keep'um comin man...
Love them sitting cross legged.
Love them standing, palms out.
Love then reclining, head gently resting on hand.

So those of you who have followed us on our adventures, know that our trip plans are more guidelines than hard & fast rules... there is a day we fly in and a day we fly out... everything in the middle, completly subject to change.
Whilst tooling around the old city, we caught wind of nearby Kadualla National Park, where, if one were to time it right, one might catch a glimpse of a herd of wild elephants...
A difficult decision surely... more stone Buddhas or wild elephants in the wild, doing wild things...

Heather and I, shadows of our former selves (likely due to blowing off Buddha), on the back of a Jeep, cruising into the park.

So I went through a couple of drafts of this post, playing with different clever things to say about the wild elephants.. I realized that my crappy writing did a terrible disservice to the beauty and majesty that are these animals... amazing, breathtaking, stunning up close.
Honestly friends, if you take nothing else away from my musings on travel, please please please, get thee to a place to view these creatures before they are not of this world any more.

As we drove out of the park, caught this lasting image... a lone young bull, surveying his Kingdom, frame by a late afternoon sunset.