Today we hired a van and went on a bus trip with our family and a variety of other local friends that we have made here

There were 15 of us in total so we made quite a rowdy bunch. We left Ahangama at 04.30 AM (!) and visited numerous temples on the way to a large pilgrimage site called Kataragama. This was very busy and quite stunning, only our enjoyment was hampered slightly by a couple of incidents. Firstly the ground was really hot, and since we all had to remove our shoes on entering the temple, we had to hop around like idiots for most of our time there. Secondly, while giving our poor feet a break from the heat, we were charged at by a cow. It seems that the true colours of some people were exposed since some of the group ran, some hid, and some hid behind others. It caused much hilarity anyway. Thirdly, one of our party lost his shoes, and then a small boy fell into a ditch (he was ok). So in generally, our trip to Kataragama was a little bizarre and random, but on reflection, it was still good fun.

On the way home we stopped at a very tranquil temple on the top of a cliff. It was nice to have a few moments of quiet time before returning to the pounding music inside our bus.