We're planning a return trip to Sri Lanka in the fall; therefore, I effortlessly zoomed over to the other side of the earth with my mouse. I wanted to see if I could spot Jay's home. I located Minuwangoda fairly easily by knowing where it is located in relation to other landmarks. Yet trying to get to the Yatiyana Junction proved difficult as the resolution in the area isn't excellent.
I was about to give up when I suddenly realized I had the GPS coordinates. When there in 2004, I ran around with my Garmin. It had been loads of fun measuring speed and distances when renting 3-wheel tuktuks. I also kept accurate tabs on country-wide places of interest. So yesterday, I just typed in the waypoint of the house and I immediately flew into the right neighbourhood.
The area in the circle contains the red, tile roof of the house. The white area is his brother's house that's under construction. You can also see the bend in the road right by the house. It seemed somehow fitting that satellite technology let me save the location within a few metres and I could later type in a math string and end up with a satellite image of that far-away spot.