Sri Pada(ශ්රීd පාද) /Adam’s peak one of my favorites places in Sri Lanka. After having seven visits to Sri Pada I wanted to do it in a combination of trails during off season. I selected Kuruwita-Erathna trail for climbing up and Rajamale-Sandagalathanna (සදගල තැන්න) route for getting down.

e started form Galle at about 10.00 in the morning. It was just about a 50 km drive and we arrived there before noon. The main things to notice are the large Buddha statue and the old tunnel system in the temple.

The long weekend in October was eagerly awaited as a trip to Mannar was planned with family friends. Unfortunately, at the last moment they couldn’t make it, but we decided to keep to our plans though the kids were a little disheartened. We left home (Nawala) at 5 in the morning and took our first break at the dried out Thabbowa Tank around 8am. We expected some bird activity but guess we were too late for that.

Kingdom of Magama which is also guarded by lord Katharagama is one of the most visited areas by Sri Lankans and most of the time they only manage to visit few places which are commonly known. First of all Hasitha’s report was the guide I used to plan my journey and succeeded with what I attempted in! Im not going to mention anything related to the history of Magama kingdom in detail since Hasitha has done a good job in his report! As the title says this is a summery on Kataragama, please do enjoy the images!

Ancient Hanguranketha palace was destroyed by British people in 1818 rebellion. Remained parts of the palace were used to build this temple. Therefore it is called “Maliga” මාලිගා and because of the presence of a large library called “Pothgul” පොත්ගුල්. The original carved stone door frame, moon stone and stone pillars can be seen here.

I had to go to Matara to meet some of my foreign friends and next day I was supposed to return back to Monaragala. I didn’t want to waste my visit by not visiting few places so I picked up few random locations which I could drop in without much of a difficulty while getting back.
First I went to Mulatiyana and headed towards Mawarala and few Kilometers away from Mulatiyana Kos gaha dola falls could be found on the right hand side of the road.

Year and Month July, 2013 (12th to 15th) Number of Days Four Day Trip Crew 3 on 12 & 13 July & 4 on 14 & 15 July (Age: Classified) - Tony, Lasantha, Dimuthu and Me with our helpful host Nava mama Accommodation Nava Mama’s House (081-3804191) – Best place to stay with a real village […]

Have you guys heard about a village located in the valley of Loggal oya where they do not have a road even and they have to climb an abyss to get to the nearest city (Madulsima) for 3 hours. Yes still our fellow citizens do live in the dark where even some of the basic facilities are not available. The sun is seen only at 9am and it vanishes in few hours at around 3pm, even when the sun could be seen the thick layer of mist covers it off and deprive them with their right to enjoy the sunlight. And yet these 200 odd people have managed to survive happily despite all of their troubles. After some recent media programs these people have got some hope and they are looking forward for a brighter future.

I was used to travel from Colombo to Pollonnaruwa by morning train (Udaya dewi/උදය දේවී) in one part of my life and accidently noticed an isolated mountain just passed Konwewa (කෝන් වැව) station. I could notice this mountain till I pass Moragollagama (මොරගොල්ලාගම) station. As it was large and situated on a surrounding flat ground, aroused my curiosity and found to have it as the longest isolated mountain of Sri Lanka-Galgiriya mountain.

When I first stepped in to Monaragala I planned to visit all four waterfalls listed under Monaragala district and suddenly one waterfall seemed to be a mystery and was bit of a challenge considering its location called Udavadiya. I was posted to Devathura to cover up another colleague’s duty for about one month and during that period I got some information from the local population about this village called Udawadiya.

The coming weekend was Vesak holidays and there would be plenty of free food everywhere waiting for me to have a taste. So I decided to hang around Maha oya and experience the village style of celebrating Vesak though my main objective was visiting few archaeology sites. I got together with my batch mate Chanaka and arrived at Maha oya leisurely at around 9am and after having some breakfast we wanted to visit one of the Mega irrigation projects which was underway.

We wanted to do a complete Jaffna tour within three days. Before plan this trip I read Sri’s Jaffna and Delft report (The Land of Horses-Delft & re-awakening Jaffna) which was the most recent updates of Jaffna in Lakdasun especially about Delft Island. Then I went through Kristy’s reports of Jaffna (Jaffna-Micro Attractions and which gives a good idea about rare places there. Zoysa’s Jaffna report (On the A9 Road to Jaffna 2010) also helped me to know about Vallipuram and VVT. I knew about Fort Hammenheil from Chandanie’s report (Fort Hammenheil-a prison in the middle of the ocean)