i convinced shannon to head to anuradhapura - another unesco heritage site with a wide range of ruins to visit. we arrived in early afternoon so we only visited one site on 1st day - jaya sri maha bodhi which is the oldest living planted tree in the world, dating back to 288 BC! to visit the tree, we had to walk barefoot over excruciatingly hot concrete, burning the bottoms of our feet! we headed back to our hotel for a swim and then out to dinner which cost $7.00 AUD for both of us and was shannon's favourite of the entire trip! 
we organised a tuk-tuk driver to take us on a tour of all the sites and we had him arrive early in themorning as it gets super hot! we visited most of the ruins of ancient sri lankan civilisations which date back to the 4th century BC but this time we were smart and brought a pair of socks to protect our little feet :) we also brought my sarong for shannon to wear as some of the temples require covered knees.
we booked a luxury bus from anuradhapura to colombo which, according to the ticket they emailed to us, left from the train station. our tuk-tuk driver and the ticket sales guy knew nothing about this bus so we had them call for us to confirm. we were advised the bus was coming (it was already late) and we were advised to wait in front of the station which we did. 45 mins later, shannon tried to call the driver himself as he still hadn't arrived to collect us. we started walking towards the main road when a tuk-tuk driver stopped us and asked us to get it, he'd take us to the bus. it turns out the bus stop was actually about 700m down the road from the station (a right and left turn away from the train station) which we never would've found on our own. the driver was grumpy with us for delaying him and we were grumpy for not being where the ticket said he was supposed to be... the drive to colombo was otherwise uneventful :)
we stayed in an upmarket place in colombo near the lake for our last night in sri lanka. the next day we went shopping (i bought some fabric to make a work dress and a jump suit) and shannon bought some presents for the kids. we then spent the last of our sri lankan rupees on a fancy dinner and dessert before heading back to the hotel for a shower and then we headed off to the airport for our midnight flight back to melbourne.
