pinnewala elephant orphanage

near Kegalle on the colombo road there's this place called the elephant orphanage. they provide a home for knackered or ill or mental elephants from temples, who then have babies, so there's quite a big herd (herd of elephants? muh*). they just feed them and wash them and make paper out of their poo. the nice thing about the whole place, in fact that makes it quite unique as a tourist attraction, is that once inside (and apart from the tat sellers) there is utterly no pressure to do anything. no tedious tours, no people telling you what's going on or telling you to go to a particular place at a particular time. just a load of elephants, sometimes in a river and sometimes not. so you get to sit there for hours just watching them.

sorry the photo's a bit wonky but i was in the process of falling over.

*of course i've heard of elephants! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!