Actually this was an official journey to Mahiyanganaya but we planned it out to perfection. We took the 11.45pm bus to Mahiyanganya (the bus was packed @10.45pm) and the journey was a long one and we never regretted the night journey because the road trough Hunnasgiriya was heavily under construction these days. After the bus tackled the 17 hair pin bends, it was time for us to get down at Gurulupotha. The time was 5.30a.m so we decided to have breakfast at a nearby Tea shop and started our journey towards the Seetha Kotuwa ruins at Gurulupotha (the path starts near to the Rest house).

There were few places that I have visited previously that I thought of visiting again. It was a bit of a different journey for me(out of the routine) compared to my previous once! I really wanted to see the sun rise at Maligatenna but I got a bit late, nevertheless I reached there at around 7am and climbed up until I came to the Meda Maluwa & set my self off to the top of Maligatenna. The scenery was awesome as always. As I know this is the highest place in Gampaha District and one can enjoy the breath taking view of Siyane Korale from top of it!

In the morning we got into a Hatton bus at around 9AM and reached Ginigathhena around 11:30AM. From there we haired a van to Koththellana. We had our lunch and started to climb from Koththellana area. First you have to go through tea plantation and then pine trees. After that there’s no clear path, you have to go by making a path trough the bushes. And that is the difficult part since the way is very steep. Some times you need ropes to climb. But on the way we saw some elephant dung.

This was a relaxing outing for us , the cottage is located bordering Kikilmana forest(dense forest). I really liked the place because while others were resting I had the chance to hike around the forest of Kikilimana.
We started from Gampaha and went trough Peradeniya Nuwaraeliya road, and I would like to state that we came across few waterfalls on our way. First was Helboda Falls by the side of the road and all other waterfalls were between 41Km post and 47Km post I guess. Those were Gerandi Ella, Ramboda eli, Punai Falls and few nameless once.

It was my third visit to Batticaloa & first visit after ending the endless war of this country. Its not a leisure tour for me but by chance, most of the time I get to participate in official trips to all around the country.
It was 12th February 2010, we left Kurunegala around 10.30 in the morning. The vehicle was a van & there were 8 members in our team. Our first stop was at Polonnaruwa for lunch & Polonnaruwa Rest House was selected for taking our lunch.

Let me start by explaining about “Wangedigala”, Im sure all of you must be wondering where the hell this is. This is a mountain range situated close to Kalupahana and facing the Badulla A4 road. it came in sight of my attention for the first time when I visited Bambarakanda falls, since then I wanted to climb it because it was a mountain range that you can walk along and enjoy the view. But actually we wanted to go further than Wangedigala. Balathoduwa and Gommolli(13th highest) was our target.

A week end trip to Kalpitiya was planned as a family vacation. The main attraction was the dolphins but some detours to see interesting sites on the way were also in the itinerary.
We started around 4.00 am on a Saturday – just 3 of us in our car. En route to Palavi along A3, we visited the Munnewaram Kovil in Chilaw. The Munnewaram Hindu Kovil has many little shrines within the main complex; dedicated to various Hindu deities. Photography is not allowed inside the kovil.

On the 24th of December three of us got up early morning & went to Galle railway station at 0645 am to catch “Ruhunu Kumari.At about 0900am we reached to Colombo & got a bus to Galenbindunaweva from Colombo central bus stand. After completing a six hours travel we reached to Muriyakadawala at about 0300pm.Then asked the route to the Labunoruwa monastery from a villager. He was more polite & showed us the path. We had to travel about 03km to reach the entrance of the forest

We wanted to leave Colombo as early as possible but it didn’t start too well. We could only leave Colombo by 9.00am, its bit of a strange time compared to what I am used to. But it’s the way when you are travelling with a little one. We managed to drive without any major stops until Lellopitiya where we had stopped for lunch. First major target attraction was Kirindi Ella falls. The turn off for Kirindi Ella is just about 200m before the Pelmedulla town on to your left.

This time we got it all wrong we got in to a Badulla bus from Colombo and without getting off at Balangoda we got down from Pambahinna and had to take a three-wheeler up to Mulgama which was about 18Km but never the less the journey through the Samanala Wewa forest part was a totally different experience, we also had a stop to enjoy the view of Samanala Wewa. On the way to Mulgama We noted a huge water-flow across the road which was leaking through the mountain, now this is the famous leak of Samanala project, as we heard this water leak runs through a mountain which borders the reservoir.

We left Malabe at 8.00 a.m. The destination for the first day was “Olu Ella inn” which is located 15.5km from Yatiyanthota town on the Yatiyanthota – Seeforth road. At around 9.30 in the morning we were stopped by the stunning scenery of the Kelani River at the Karawanella bridge on the A7.
After spending about half an hour on the bridge, enjoying the scenery we continued our drive along the A7 towards Yatiyanthota.

This was one of those trips where you pick a random week end and head some where you have never been to, with pretty much no planing in advance!

This time it was me and Prabath. We decided that Deniyaya would be a nice area to explore, so two of us boarded my old but faithful jeep at 2 a.m. on a Saturday and started driving towards Deniyaya via Rathnapura, Rakwana and Suriyakanda.