Riding an Indian elephant

I've always dreamed of riding an elephant, and it all happened so quickly!
We arrived in Sri Lanka after a surprisingly enjoyable 10 hour flight, Thisun the steward constantly plying us with Lion beer and snacks, to a beautifully hot afternoon. The first night we spend in a lovely family-run guesthouse in Negombo. We ate loads of wonderful biryani for less than a pound, and made friends with the owner of the local bar, where beth promptly became the in-house dj and tried her first pina colada. As there wasn't a great deal to Negombo apart from the averagely clean beach, we set off the next morning for Kandy, a little town up in the hills. A local bus costing hardly anything took us to Colombo, and dropped us in a bustling, crowded and dirty market - hence was our first impressions of the city. We bought some fruit and solicited a tuktuk driver to take us to the train station. A kind sri lankan man helped us find the right ticket office...people have been so friendly and helpful here, we've had so many people wanting to chat and offer advice when we look unsure, and lots of little random acts of kindness. The train was pretty full so we begrudgingly (ha!) had to buy 1st class a/c tickets, which were 1000rupees for the 3 or 4 hour journey (about a fiver and expensive by these standards). The journey was so lovely though! Cool with lush scenery and even complimentary bottled water and face towels! We felt rather posh indeed.
Arriving in Kandy was quite literally breath of fresh air. It was much cooler up in the hills, with a nice breeze too. We'd found a guesthouse that looked really nice online somewhere so we asked the tuktuk man to take us there. After settling a price, fifteen minutes of driving out of town and into the outskirts, asking many a person along the way and lots of passionate discussion about the location of our apparently nonexistent guesthouse, he suggested taking us to 'a friends' hostel. Oldest trick in the book, but by that time it was dark, we were knackered and the price sounded reasonable. Also he didn't charge us more for taking him on a wild goose chase, infact he was rather apologetic. It turned out to be lovely - clean and welcoming. That night we failed to find a place to eat, so ate a loaf of bread, fruit and some soft cheese triangles that were very bloody expensive.

We woke early the next morning, excited by the prospect of seeing elephants. After locating the bus station and some breakfast (little rottis and an egg and fish sandwich thing which remained in my bag all morning to the point where it would have made me sick if I'd have braved it) we caught a local bus for 60 rupees, 30pence, to a little town an hour away. Jumped off when we recognised the name, and was immediately greeted by a keen tuktuk man - they're good like that.
The whole day unfolded perfectly. I was ready to argue when he dropped us at the Millennium Elephant Foundation, just down the road from the one we'd asked to go to in pinewala. However, it turned out to be a much more rewarding experience. We paid 2000rps, about a tenner, with a bit of extra tipping along the way, and before we knew it we had met Lakshma our elephant, and we being ushered onto her back! She's the matriarch of the group of 8 animals they have there - the grandma and the boss. She was 45, so middle aged, and also famous, she starred in the old Richard Harris 'Tarzan the Apeman' film. She was beautiful..it was a incredible, surreal and frankly terrifying experience. I had nothing to hold onto apart from Beth, and she a rope around her neck, and it was a very long way to fall. The slow walking pace lulled you into feeling calm though, and we concentrated on how thick and wiry her skin was. Afterwards we fed her some fruit (her trunk was so weird, like a little hand!) and went into the river to help wash another elephant. The mahout gave us some coconut husks to scrub the skin with, whilst he set about asking him to raise his feet then giving him a pedicure with a rather serious looking knife.
There's a lot of skepticism surrounding tourism and elephant riding...I think it's a something you have to see and decide for yourself. The elephants here definitely seemed calm and content, were not overworked and were clearly looked after well. There was a lot of focus on education - with a little museum and constant explanation from staff. They had volunteers and a medical centre too. Afterwards, the same tuktuk man (Alba, who we later became firm friends with) took us up to the bigger place where we originally wanted to go. Along the way, he suggested we just wait by the side of the road to watch them being taken down to the river at bathing time, rather than pay the 2500rps entrance fee. He kindly bought us a coconut each (yummy milk, have been drinking loads a coconut a day keeps doctor away), we had a chat and a cigarette in his tuktuk, then watched loads of them crossing the road right by us. They have 80 at this place, a government-run 'elephant orphanage', and lots of babies, raising suspicion as it supposedly only takes in mistreated or orphaned animals. It seems to be run much more as a zoo, for profit, than anything else. We were happy with Alba's original decision.

Driving a Tuk Tuk

He took us back to the side of the road on which he found us, stopping on the way at a beautiful botanical garden, where we were shown how remedies were made from different plants, and drank tea. We felt guilty for not buying anything but we didn't have much. At one point, Alba asked us if we wanted to drive, and we took it in turns to jump in the front with him. We drove nervously but pretty well along for a bit, him on hand to jump in when things got a bit hairy..honestly they squeeze through the tiniest gaps with very little concern for the safety of anyone involved. He hung about till we got on a bus - 6 or 7 passed which were too full and frankly confusing - with yet again the help of some nice old man. Had to stand most of the way but hey ho, it got the job done.
At dusk we went to find the Temple of the Tooth - a very holy Buddhist temple as it houses a relic of a tooth that is believed to be Buddhas very own. However you can't actually get to it to see it, so instead of paying, we had a very calming and humbling wander around the grounds.. inquisitively looking at all the different beautiful shrines, always conscious of people who were there for prayer or worship, and not wanting to disturb them.
As the sun set over the hills beyond the lake, we set in search of food and beer. Beth had a very dramatic and (afterwards) hilarious fall down a pothole, which luckily didn't cause much lasting injury.

We left Kandy with a huge sense of achievement, happy we were only 4 days into our trip, and very much keen for relaxing beachy time.