Sometimes you get to the last day of your trip and you think, I’ve seen enough. Sure you could sneak in one more church, one more castle, one more hike, but is it really worth the effort. And hasn’t your head already moved on to the complicated flight connections and days of laundry on the horizon.

I’m guilty of this type of out of the moment thinking. I’ve spent many a last day daydreaming about my first meal at home or reconciling my budget while vowing not to step inside a Target. It’s travel limbo. Might as well head to the airport five hours early.

Expecting this type of forward momentum, we didn’t plan anything strenuous for departure day. However, due to the ease of travel by private driver or the sense that we may not return to Sri Lanka or quite possibly the dreaded knowledge of sub-zero temperatures waiting for us in Europe, we were never gripped with pre-departure malaise. We were struck with quite the opposite impulse and didn’t want to waste a moment of our last day.

So it was with our no-buddha-left-behind attitude that we pointed our driver away from the airport and towards Polonnaruwa (say it out loud), royal ancient city extrordinaire.

We relished in the last moments of humid, jungly ruins and we still managed to arrive at the airport with hours to spare (obviously).