China is such a dirty place, pollution spews from trucks, factories, cars, and unidentified buildings. Pesticides cover lawns, leaves, and air. Therefore, it is a rare day that I see an animal, a bird, or a furry anything scurrying anywhere.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is crawling with wildlife. walking through the rice paddies one day in the rain I noticed a little puppy taking shelter on the steps of a temple.
Another day I sat on the beach and a cow wandered by. She sat down in the sand a mere 10 feet from me and just chilled. Later the cow followed me up to the front lawn of my hotel and the manager told me that the cow belonged to the hotel. "Oh, how nice." 70% Buddhist and 30% Hindu, Sri Lankans love animals 
and wouldn't harm a fly. They roam, wander, and generally stop traffic wherever they are. Gandhi once said you can judge a people by how they treat their animals. The Chinese would have something to learn from the Sri Lankans- that is, if the Chinese had any animals to observe! Anyway, photo #2 shows a monitor lizard. Those big fat crocodile cousins were everywhere! They like to eat trash and look scary in general. Very surprising to stumble upon. Third photo is a bunch of water buffalo cooling off in the water.
One of the most delicious things I ate in Sri Lanka was yogurt / curd made from buffalo milk. Sri Lankans eat curd in the morning for breakfast with bananas, pineapple, and s type of honey syrup that comes from trees. Also I ate curd with hot curry dishes. YUM!
Picture #4- Be quiet or the hornets will get you. Picture #5= the ever-present monkeys. One crawled up my legs and grabbed a banana from my hands. They swung onto my porch one day to join me for tea, they followed me down the street, they stared at me, and they played hide and seek in the garden where I had breakfast one morning. Fabulous to b
e living in a country where wildlife abounds. (Made me miss my cat, Tito!)
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