**PART DEUX - THE DAY WE BECAME QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE!**

Travel #1 Sri Lanka Safari Glam Camp Part 2.

Our Safari adventure continues. We had an early night in Colombo on our first day as our flight this morning to Hambantota is at 6am. The flight will cost around RM120. The duration of flight from Colombo to Mattala Rajapakse International Airport took 25mins. No wonder all the staff and immigration officers were smiling at us! Thinking we were mad or spoilt! 😱 😂 🙌 💋 👠Tourists. Best advice for those who like to travel to Hambantota, please fly even though it’s such a short distance, unless you really want an adventure then go ahead and drive or rent a car (with or without a driver). The distance is about 237km, travel time around 3hours++ depending on how many pit stops you make. Cost to drive probably around RM85-RM105 just for the fuel, excluding the rental cost and/or the driver, hence cheaper to fly!!

We were out for an Adventure. Going Safari Camping... Our way.

All by ourselves ...as if we chartered the entire flight! The staff at Sri Lankan Airlines were very warm and friendly 🌹 👏 thank you all 💋

The immigration officers were ladies... These 2 ladies officers were off duties, they waited for us to get on board of the flight before they leave... sweet.

UL staff were laughing at us...25 mins flight from Colombo to Mattala Rajapakse Intl Airport! We were the only 2 passengers on board this plane & were upgraded to Business Class, awesome!. Btw we are 2 fun loving eccentric ladies on board! They love us 💋 🌹 —

On our way to the Safari Glam Camp, we did a quick explore of Hambantota City and mingle with the locals! Thank you to our friend Jubir from Dubai who arranged for his two cousins Kawarra and Mohd for us to experience the local way of life! We were blessed and lucky to have these two gentlemen taking great care of us 👏🌹💋❤️

In 2004 - The beach where Tsunami wipe up the entire village, above picture. We were invited to visit a lady home, who made local dessert called Dodol. Sri Lankan 'Dodol' filled with spices and nuts! Again, many of the locals speaks Malay!!

'EGB' ginger Ale drink! A full bodied ginger taste..❤ it!! Sedap!!!

The hanging pole! That pole had stood there for many many years! The pole, where they hanged prisoners ...this spot has a calm view of the oceans😢. Maybe to sooth the prisoners while catching their last breath!

Old Fort.

The Cactus fruits. Edible, juicy and nice, but the exterior of the fruits has lots of fine thorns ...monkeys eat the fruits as part of their daily diet!! Again Organic..😂❤️ —

Surprise!! Kawarra and Mohd caught this lobster/crayfish, cooked for the both of us since we didn’t get to go to the Ministry of Crab!! We were over the moon! Plus we were given this healthy drinks, made from the local herbs, coconut juice & spices, boiled and ready to drink! (Breakfast drink for locals) Delicious, tastes like avocado juice!

We reached our camp site at approximately 2pm. Mahoora Campsite in Yala. Our adventure starts now.

Our actual camp from the outside. Not bad. The inside of the camp with ensuite toilet/shower, passed the QC (Kamisah) inspection

Left our luggage in our room/camp and off for lunch at 2.45pm.

Our private dining area! 'E' our butler is waiting patiently to serve us lunch!

Lunch served! 7 course lunch..A vegetarian cuisine, it's light and refreshing. We are happy to go —

Evening Safari starts at 3pm.

Our personalised Tours starts now! Our Safari Guide cum Butler 'S' and Safari Ranger 'P' asked what do we want to see? We said Leopard! He promised, if we do not catch the glimpse of a leopard, we will not return to our camp site! And the bet is on. Left the Reserve National park by 6pm. Cross our fingers! ✌️ hope to catch a glimpse of a gorgeous Leopard!!
We had a bumpy ride..our skilled driver, we call him 'Handsome', 2nd to the right, above drove like Schumacher! 1st on the right is 'P' the Safari Ranger.

Those animals are well camouflaged. Look hard and you will be able to spot them!! Our fast and furious driver zoomed past the trek doesn’t help either! LOL.

Guinea Kukula (Male) & Guinea Kikili (Female) found in the Safari.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The Sri Lankan junglefowl (Gallus lafayettii), also known as the Ceylon junglefowl, is the national bird. The specific name of the Sri Lankan junglefowl commemorates the French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette. In Sinhala it is known as වළි කුකුළා (Wali Kukula).

And of course after 30min to an hour of driving…..the Safari did not disappoints us!.....

I'm still a newbie with this Steemit, else would have upload the captured video of the leopard sauntering towards our jeep. It looks at us as though we were lunch, so our Ranger told us to not make loud noises or crazy jumps. But he also informed us that, it will not attack us as long as we do not antagonize or provoke it. And if it did the Ranger are trained to protect us from any attacks.

The peacock is conducting his ritual dance to attract the Female (Peahen).

Not the ass please!

I did not realize that peacocks can fly as we found one or two on top of a tree.

Peacock on a tree. Found a few even high up.

On our way home, we saw a crossing Cobra above pics and a land Monitor passed through our dining table... We are so close to nature ...indeed!! We didn’t get to see much of the safari animals aside from the deer, crocodile, eagles, peacocks and lots of different types of birds and not forgetting the leopard woohoo! Amazing private dinner arranged for us yet again with our very own butler. Another Safari trip is arrange for early tomorrow morning.

Woke up at 0400am, we are ready to leave the campsite and explore the Safari at 5.30am. This time round we ask our guide that we would like to see elephants and hyenas and we actually manage to do exactly that but the hyenas were too far away to take any photos of them.

We had a snack break prepared as it was too early for breakfast at 5am. Fair warn for those who wants to go to this Safari. There are no toilets so when you do need to do a no 1 or a no 2, you have to go "the old kampong style", find some bushes or sand. So I will let you guess, which one of us had to take a leak during our snack break.

Looking for the right spot. Big Bushes. LOL!

2nd Day Safari trip :

The yellow round thing is Tree Frog Eggs! At night this Frog sounds like a goat!

Came back to the campsite around 9am after our morning Safari.

10:00am - Full American breakfast right after our morning Safari.

We were tired after breakfast. We need to rest and take a quick nap before heading off for lunch (1pm) followed by an Evening Safari that starts at 2:30pm till 6pm. Didn’t get to see much of other animals aside from elephants, leopard on a tree this time, water buffaloes, more crocodiles, hyenas, eagles, birds, deers, wild boar, oh and wolves, etc.

A bit burry as they are too far away from us. The wolves.

They are hiding from us.

Leopard on a tree

An elephant skull.

Beautiful butterflies on the ground

Came back and getting ready for our campfire night with the rest of other campers. Campfire illuminates the campsite! Outdoor dinner under a beautiful sky! So peaceful with unfamiliar 'sound of music' created by those habitat. We still have our private dinner table but also mingle with other campers at their own table as well.

Pre-dinner drinks to choose from...spoilt for choice..

Our Safari adventures ends here. It was an amazing 2 days and I highly recommend those who wants to go to a Safari and do not want to go all the way to Africa, please visit Sri Lanka Safari. Do a thorough research as Mahoora is not the only camp in Yala, as there are other cheaper campsite. Ours was just a personalized Safari adventure.

So today is our part 2 why “The Day We Became Queen Of The Jungle”. :

1) Having our “very own chartered flight”.

2) Personalized serviced:
a) Personalized tour around Hambantota (lobster lunch and healthy drink)
b) Food served at a private dining area with a butler at campsite.
c) Our very own jeep, safari ranger and driver.

We are heading back to Colombo tomorrow morning….a few more updates on the beautiful Sri Lanka for our last night in Colombo.
Part 3……..