June 28,

We had a light breakfast – yogurt, apple, and cookies. Then we repacked our stuff; Jeff paid our hostess; waved bye to the Irish couple (wished them the best when we donated the last our ice to them); and we checked out by 1100. Today we move on… We are going to the area of Polonnaruwa. Jeff planned to go the long way, so it was around four and a half hrs drive. the way he planned took us around the other side of the harbor in Trincomalee. We again were impressed by the sheer size of this natural harbor – four largest in the world. I looked it up – Sydney is number one; #2- Poole Harbor in U.K.; #3- Port Cork, Ireland; with Trincomalee being #4. Amazing!! We basically circumnavigated 3/4 of it! 

Now we head South, more or less along the coast. The terrain is more green, and agricultural. The few towns are just that… towns and we see it's a poorer area. At some point, we passed a religious procession of some sort right on the main highway! People were all dressed up and in line walking with offering flowers and incense. We don't know what it was about. As we thought about it, maybe a funeral, but did not see sight of a casket or funeral car. It was not a holyday that we knew of… Questions??? 

Anyway, we ate lunch of cheese and crackers off the road; made a pit stop at a road side tent restaurant – after buying an orange soda; and enjoyed a plains type area. We arrived into the North Central Province, leaving the Eastern one, and then passed through Flood Plains National Park and over Mahaweli Ganga, a pretty large river. Also sometime around here our car just died, as we were driving!🤯🤔  Jeff was able to get CB pulled over on the side of the road. He tried restarting it – to no avail. He readied to get out, to have a look under the engine, but tried one more turnover and CB started. 😕-We don't have any idea what that was about. Thankfully, it restarted, and hopefully, it won't happen again!

Then we came to Polonnaruwa area. We drove right to Seyara Holiday Resort, where we are staying in the town of Bendiwewa. We checked in; were greeted by the owner in a traditional hello “Ayubowan” – meaning long life, he said; and were given a lovely mango juice! (Jeff found this gem💎resort through Booking😊!) Then we were shown our room: nice studio-sized. It has a sofa, a king sized bed, and a two chair sitting area with a round coffee table. The bathroom is clean and the shower has a half of a door closure – so a semi-dry bathroom. We also have a balcony with chairs and a table. But the best feature a pool!!… We unloaded and went down. It was a great way to cool off.

Then we went back to our room and had a little siesta. With our stay we get dinner and breakfast included.  Readied and we went to dinner. We both had Rice and Curry orders…. So we got: Curries of Jackfruit, Bean (similar to green beans), Mango, and Aubergine (eggplant); X2 drumsticks of Chicken; a platter of Rice; a bowl of Cucumber & Onion Salad; and Papadum X4. The two fruit curries were different than what we had made with Rosie. They were not sweet! The mango curry was actually spicy and sour, a totally different dish. The son-in-law of the owner said the sweet dish would actually be a chutney and the spicy is a curry. Hmmm.. Questions?? Anyway, the serving were smallish and we were actually able to eat most of it. Then we were offered dessert – vanilla ice cream. That put us a little over the top. But it was a great meal!! Finished dinner and back to our room. Watched some You tube and bed by 2200.