After mountain climbing around Ella on the previous day I was clueless what to do on day 2 and 3 because my previous agenda was not feasible at this point. After discussing with my friend Priyanjan I decided to go to Hadapanagala Lake and end my day. That was the fixed plan for the day even when I left his premises. It was around 11am when I got in to a bus towards Wellawaya and the bus conductor came close to me to issue a ticket and suddenly a question popped out. “කන්දෙ විහාරෙ ගාවට යන්නෙ කොහොමද?”

During the past Matara was called “Mahathota”. The river running through Matara is ‘Nilwala River. There was a wide area across this river. Hence it was called “Mahathota” which means “The great ferry”. During the past Matara was called “Mahathota”. The river running through Matara is ‘Nilwala River. There was a wide area across this river. Hence it was called “Mahathota” which means “The great ferry”

fter returning from a trip to Orissa the Kalinga Kingdom of Emperor Asoka on the 17th May 2012, I had to attend meeting in Anuradhapura 19th Morning. To make the trip useful before travelling to Anuradhapura we planned that after having finished the meeting which took few hours, to spend the rest of the weekend visiting the uncommon sites in Anuradhapura not normally visited by an average pilgrim.

It was a day with mixed weather but I decided to go ahead early as possible since I had few places in mind and almost all were close by to Chilaw – Kurunegala main road. First destination was Munneshwaram which is about 3Km from Chilaw town and well known all around the island for its festivals. Fortunately it was not festival season this time of the year so I walked about peacefully in the kovil and I noticed that the new kovil has surrounded the old one completely

I visited Tonigala inscription first and it is very close to the main road. This is said to be the longest inscription in Sri Lannka and there are two of them. I had to re visit the place to see the second inscription on another day 🙂 The inscriptions are on a rocky mountain which is near by a lake. I also noted my next destination (Paramakanda) from the 2nd inscription site.

We were able to get a booking at Aligama Village. It was not a place recommended by anyone and it so happened that it came up on my Google search and we just liked the details on their web site. The main attraction was that it could accommodate only a small number of people – 2 cottages and 3 rooms – and we wanted “a quiet place that was green – away from all mankind”, so to speak! They responded very quickly to my email and booking was done in no time.

We both decided to Visit Kebitigollawa, Padaviya and Horoupatana on 6th April 2012 which was a long week end to see all historical places in those areas, and visit places where the war was fought and defeated the LTTE and how the people were settling in the outer borders of the Anuradhapura district.

As most of our members are aware through my “Help Planning Request”, I intended to go with a large group to Jaffna and branch off to go to Delft. Factually it was our annual office trip which decorates by 7 families, (trigger, stock and barrel) and we are very concerned about accommodation as very fragile wives and kids are involved.

It was 5.10 in the morning when I left my home in Colombo. I exited Colombo using the bridge connecting to Handala and went along the Uswetakeiyawa road towards Negambo. For the most part the road was in very good shape and was able to reach Negambo by 8am.

We started the journey to visit to Kilinochchi on the 16th of March 2012 evening at 1.30 PM noon time and decided to spend the night at Anuradhapura and to leave to Kilinochchi in the morning next day to save time. Both of us arrived at Anuradhapura Sarvodaya center at 6.30 pm and rested. Early morning we left at 6.30 AM from Anuradhapura to Kilinochchi

Since I got my appointment at General Hospital Chilaw, I was planning to visit this place and finally the day arrived (almost after 1 year). I left towards Hettipola and beyond to meet one of my friends. We packed up our stuff and decided to go in his Maruti rather than the bike because it was drizzling. The mountain can be seen to the Chilaw-Kurunegala main road Between Hettipola & Medagama junction

In good old days we used to come to hot water springs in the morning for a bath and a glass full of pure hot milk from a nearby polathu kade and the area was deserted other than that kade. Now it is a carnival and even the springs have lost their warmth to some extent!!!!! We wanted to visit the secrete tomb of the Muslim saint which is in the wilderness beyond the springs but the security people warned us off telling that the trail is now vanished and wild elephants are roaming around. Someone should do something about that.