So after Sigiriya we got a tuktuk to Polonnaruwa - another medieval capital of Sri Lanka. On the way we saw a large monitor lizard strolling across the road.

In Polonnaruwa we stayed in a little guest house called Samudra. After some hassel trying to find a bank that would accept mastercard and not visa we rented some bikes from the guesthouse and cycled around the ruins for the rest of the day. Polonnaruwas is 4k square site and bikes were a great way to get around. It allowed us to see hte furtherest away sites which meant getting away from the bus loads of foreign and sri lankan touruists. We met a Sri Lankan family on the way round who insisted on us taking their pictures and sending them back (we could easily start a businesss). The ruins were lovely - large buddhas carved out of solid rock or "living rock", palaces, monasteries and the old temple of the tooth.

In the evening we had the worst meal - still makes us feel nausious just thinking about it. Emily had tastless nasi goreng with mystery meat. Alex had... develled 'chicken' or what we thought was more likely to be dog. Luckily we didn't eat much of it after Emily's Mums food poisoning in Polonnurawa a little while back (maybe it was the same place???).

The next day we wandered around the rest of the ruins we hadn't seen. We attempted to go to a swimming pool for the day - but deciding it was rip-off we took a stroll along the tank (a man-made lake built the same time as the ancient city). In the afternoon we went on Safari to Minneriya National Park to see the elephant "gathering" which takes place this time every year.

We hired a 'jeep'/truck from the guesthouse and he drove us around that park. We didn't have a warden like most other jeeps did - we thought this was slighlty suspicious - especially when our driver took us off road the opposit direction to any other jeeps. Turns out he was taking us to a very large group of elephants and pulled up VERY CLOSE to them... too close... after the driver climbing back to the truck to take our photo Emily turned around and noticed that the two biggest elephants of the group were beginning to charge towards us - a slightly concerning moment when there was no one in the driver seat and three of us in the back of the truck. After Emily shouting at the driver to drive off he quickly rushed back into the car and the elephants were about 2 meters before he managed to pull away and drive like crazy out of the area.

Once this near death experience was over - driver jokingly saying that it happens all the time - we followed the normal route with the rest of the jeeps and we had a brilliant, relaxing and safe rest of the safari.

Next day we got up early thinking we would catch the train to Trincomalee. An American girl staying at the same guest house made a passing comment that she was headed up there and told us that there wouldnt be a train until late afternoon. As she was short of time she was getting a minibus from the guesthouse up so we decided to join her.