This post is part of a series following my friends and I crossing Sri Lanka in a Tuktuk. You can find the intro post here and the previous one here.
Haputale is a small city in the mountains with not much to visit, but our host Naleef made our stay memorable.
We told him we wanted to experience as much as possible the local food with the genuine level of spice (they tend to reduce it for foreigners), and he cooked us two feasts, for dinner and breakfast. It was delicious, spicy and included some dishes we hadn't tried yet such as green banana curry.
He also talked a lot about his the Sri Lankan culture and its economic situation. We went on to talk about religion and he told us that the Buddhist majority and the Muslims, Hinduists and Christians minorities live in harmony most of the time, except when it's election time and the politicians use the old Divide and Conquer technique.
After a last selfie with Naleef and the promise of an 11/10 on Booking, we continued our journey and stopped by Ella and its famous nine arches bridge.
After 4 days in the mountain area of central Sri Lanka, we made our way to the lowland and went straight south to Yala National Park. We decided to take the B53 as it is known to have accustomed (but not tamed) elephants roaming around the road.
Locals told us to prepare some fruits to distract them as we pass by. I'm not big on feeding wild animals but as I mentioned they are already accustomed to getting food for safe passage.
And well, it's good we were prepared. First encounter was amazing, he was only blocking half of the road so I felt confident enough to drive by his left.
The second one was acting like a tollbooth and wouldn't let us pass without getting his bananas. We made it through but not without a small scare.
We finally made it to Tissa just in time for a few cold ones in the swimming pool before getting some rest before the next day safari.
All the rewards of this post will go to CoolEarth NGO.