During our trip, Claire and I try to vary our activities so we can experience the country as much as our limited schedule allows. We have visited both ancient ruins and modern Buddhist shrines, did a couple of hikes to better appreciate the splendour this country has to offer, soaking in the cultural knowledge whenever possible and now, a safari! Yes, with wind in our hair and a coating of red-sand dust all over us.

Now, the safari at Yala National Park is not to be equated to an African-style safari, with herds of animals running along the jeep. However, our hired 4×4 did zip around the ground, in search of the residents of the park including elephants, leopards (they were too far for me to photograph properly though), deers and macaques. We truly enjoyed this little outing, and had we had more time, we would have considered a full day safari, perhaps with an overnight stay in the park too.

I may have watched one too many Bollywood movies when I was a child (my greatgrandpa loved watching the drama with all the poms of singing and dancing in the afternoon tv programming), so while we are in Sri Lanka, I have a new minor obsession – photographing railways. Better if there are people walking along it. Just a silly little image that I have in my head, you know, that I’d like to capture digitally, of the interconnectivity between lives and rail transport.

Yet, the rail-related photo that I like most is one of a small, isolated station. On a misty, seven o’clock morning. We were on our way to Horton’s Plains when we crossed this railway. Taking a chance that no train will be heading towards us, I got our driver to take a short pause so I could whipped out the camera for a shot. As you can see, I am very very pleased with the outcome. And the morning got better after that, with an amazing walk at Horton’s Plains and World’s End. Life is good :)

When Claire and I decided to start travelling from Colombo to Dambulla, we missed out on travelling along the scenic Colombo-Kandy Road. Luckily though, we did get to see a part of the route, thanks to our trip to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage from Kandy. The spectacular views of hills and valleys entertained us for the duration of the drive (about 90 minutes for 50km or so – yes, traffic moves slooooow here).

One of the most striking sights was the Batalegala Rock, standing solidly at nearly 800m tall, which is not unlike the Sigiriya Rock which we climbed just yesterday. Nicknamed the Bible Rock (something about resemblance to an open book), it was shrouded by thin layer of mist, giving it an aura of mystery and intrigue. I heard it could be scaled by those interested in mountaineering. Well, good luck!

I am torn between writing lengthy posts of my trip in Sri Lanka and keeping these daily Project 365 entries short as usual. Perhaps it would be best that I write on the trip fully as separate stand alone travel articles, where I would have more photos to go with the entries too. Sounds like an idea?

There are quite a lot of monkeys running around at the Dambulla Cave Temple complex where Claire and I spent our second afternoon in Sri Lanka. They are constantly on the move, some even involved in play (that looks more like fighting – they don’t play nice), and a few of them constantly checking out new food sources. By that, I mean the flowers offered by the visiting pilgrims. They keep sneaking in and out of the caves, and quickly swiped fresh flowers off the table to take away for a snack. Very cheeky indeed.

First, there was a technical error with our plane. Then I missed my connection flight. By the time I arrived in Colombo, I was about five hours behind the original schedule. My friend Claire flew in from London to meet me there. Luckily (sort of) she had her share of flight delay too. We ended up arriving less than an hour apart, pretty much adhering to our initial plan, except we both arrived in the afternoon instead of the morning.

It hard to believe that I’m in Sri Lanka. Hot and relatively humid weather hit me at once, not unlike the conditions in Malaysia. Eager to get going, we spotted our hired driver for the week and instructed him to start making our way to Dambulla, some 150km away. The journey would be taking us some 4 hours on the road, if not more. That’s just how things are. And we have this little elephant talisman on the van’s dashboard to keep us away from harm.

Let the week-long adventure begins!

Every so often, I’d pass by near St Sulpice. Well, usually when I’m on my way to Pierre Hermé. (A girl has got to have her pastry fix, no?) The last time I spoke about this church, I touched upon the subject of the (infamous) rose line in Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This time, I am content to just admire its external architecture and the mismatched towers.

For a few years, the external façade was under restoration work behind scaffolds. It was only in the last few months that we get to see its full glorious self again. What I really like about this church is the presence of the loggia which reminds me of the many palazzi of Venice and Rome. One could very easily be transported back in time, retracing the footsteps of the influentials who used the loggia as a place to see and be seen.

In many ways, Paris is still locked in the past. Look at the skyline a hundred years ago, and look at it again today. There aren’t many differences to be found. Sure there may be a crane or two appearing near the periphery limit, but centrally, it has stayed true to how Baron Haussmann had intended the city to be. This picture could have easily been shot decades ago. (I was at the top of Centre Pompidou for this photo, in case you’re wondering.)

This is a good time to introduce you to Paris Avant, a site that posts pictures of Paris of today and yesteryear, side by side, every day. To date, over 1650 pairs of photos have been published. Truly amazing effort by Frédéric Botton. (And here I am, struggling to be up to date with my daily entry – how embarassing. I’m working on it, I’m working on it. I promise.)

Strolling Champs-Élysées is not something I do at a regular basis. Since moving here, I may have sauntered over perhaps for a total of 2-3 times? By contrast, I’ve been to Montmartre about once a month, despite it being on the opposite end of the city from me. Then again, Paris as a wonderful city for exploration, there are plenty of nooks and corners to discover that repeated trips to same places are sometimes not warranted.

Nonetheless, once back on Champs, it’s easy to remember why this is the City of Lights. Even past midnight and at wee hours in the morning, there are so much lives and activities here, vehicles zooming past, shop lights glowing (like this display at Peugeot), and the clickety-clack of high heels hitting the pavements. All things dynamic and go, go, go, yet everything’s also elegant at the same time. In the distant, at the right time, you’ll even see the sparkles from la Tour Eiffel. Suddenly, life is bright and shiny again. It’s magic :)

With my friends from Dublin visiting, and seeing today’s also the first Sunday of the month when many museums and historical landmarks are free to visit, we opted for the Museum of Modern Art at Centre Pompidou. It has an amazing collection, ranging from the “classics” (Picasso, Miro, Gris etc) to the quirky (there are pieces I have yet to decipher) – just the perfect place to spend a lovely afternoon together.

Something outside the windows kept catching my attention – the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur. And with it, it brought to mind an exhibition by Henri Rivière which I saw a couple of years back, displaying some prints of 36 Views of Eiffel Tower, which in turn was inspired by Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Can I call dibs on photographic version of 36 Views of Sacré-Cœur? I can’t imagine it would be easy with a point-n-shoot camera, especially for distant views. Now that we’re coming into winter too, daylight hours are limited (I do need to work) and absolute clear days at weekends may be hard to come by. We’ll see…

Over and around the back of the Basilica of Sacré Cœur is Place du Tertre. I don’t really remember ever passing it in tranquility – between restaurant terrace seatings, artists, portrait painters and the visitors, it is always teeming with people. Perhaps one day I would get there early so I can enjoy some peace and quiet time up on the hill, overlooking the beautiful yet sleepy Paris.

The trade of portrait paintings is roaring today. From an easel to another, you may assess the style of drawing before deciding on just the way you’d like to be immortalised on paper. Some portrait painters are more serious in their endeavour, drawing classically astute portrait. Other portrait painters prefer to produce caricature or allegorical object.

There are other artists there too, whose work (many Paris-themed) I was keen to look at but alas couldn’t buy. Just the thought that I may have to move at some is enough to spook me from accummulating things. Besides, without my own apartment, where am I going to realistically hang those?