Hi everyone here I am once again with another fairy tale. Hope you enjoyed the last one when we looked around the heart of colorful Jaffna wandering along the bicycles infested streets. This time I’m taking you towards more rural areas with many more things to see. My friends and I have visited most of these places before and I guess you must have read some of their narrations. However I’m gonna bring them all back and hope you will find something better. Now you must be wondering where we are going. We’ll cover the northern part of Sri Lanka from Mathagal (Dambakola Patuna) to Manalkadu. There are many interesting places to visit and hope you will like what you see. It took me one full day and two half days to cover all of these but I’m hoping you would be able to visit them in less time after reading this.

I used all sorts of transport options from a tuk-tuk, a bicycle, public transport (bus and train) and a motorbike ride from a friend of mine. If you have your own vehicle, it’d so much easier to get around but how long it takes is purely up to you. A little bit of Tamil will certainly help but you can get by so long as you can act well and show them what you want with your face and arms. Ok, if you are ready, let’s see where we are going, shall we? I’m gonna put them in the order I visited but you could plan the best course of route after reading through. By the way, at the end, remind me to tell you what I have missed seeing as well so that you could add them also to your list.

I left you all with a beautiful sunset over the Parakrama Samudra. The room was comfortable and AC kept humming away as if trying to put us to sleep. We slept like logs until 5am. Getting up at that time is not appealing to many but for us, it’s something we’re now used to thanks to Ana. We got up and hurriedly got dressed coz we wanted to go to the bund of Parakram Samudra just before sun came up. We really wanted to have the reservoir to ourselves and feel the serenity and calmness in the morning.

Coming out of the hotel in a hurry, we almost bumped into the Doberman of the hotel. Thankfully Mr. Thomas warned us just in time and we escaped without a scratch. Just imagine having to come across a huge and fierce doggy in the dark. We drove fast to the bund while the early morning rays were coming out of their hide out. Having parked our car, we walked along the bund and surprisingly, there were quite a number of people out and jogging reminding us of Colombo walking paths. It was in a way a good scene as people are getting really health conscious.

Year and Month 16 Apr, 2015 Number of Days 1 Crew Athula and Me Accommodation New Ranketha Rest, Polonnaruwa Transport By Car and on foot. Activities Archaeology, Photography, etc… Weather Excellent except for a shower between 3pm and 4pm. Nevertheless it was extremely hot with temperatures as high as 39 degrees. Route Pitakotte->Rajagiriya->Dematagoda->Katunayake (via E3)->Awariwatte->Minuwangoda->Kurunegala […]

Ever since the legendary Yal Devi was re-launched we wanted to visit the Peninsular by train but decided to wait a few months till the rush settled – especially during school holidays. Finally the dates were fixed for Friday 27th Feb – Sunday 1st March and train reservation was made. As it was not a long weekend booking both ways was not a problem.

During the last few years, majority of my excursions were around the central hills where the cool climates and breathtaking scenery of the tea country made me irresistible. Having so much left to explore in the other regions of the country, especially in the northern half, I decided to break the shackles and witness the unmatched beauty of the lagoon paradise, Jaffna peninsula. It was the first day of the “extra long” first weekend of February and at 5.30 am two of us were in the car heading towards Puttalam for a 5 day tour to Jaffna, the longest so far!

It was Vesak holidays and I wanted to visit some temples just like I did in 2013. Though I have been to Tinco as a kid I have not properly explored this region. So after some intensive planning with the aid of online and offline literature I was all set for this 2015 Vesak expedition. We knew that this was going to be a tough one especially with the extreme heat but we were up to the task. The added advantage was that every Buddhist temple was decorated for Vesak and it was easy to locate. The disadvantage was that it was too crowded since it was a long holiday.

The structure that houses the Samadhi Buddha was nearby and from the distance we could see the resemblance. There was another archeological officer mowing the courtyard with a hoe. I ran to the front of the building and stopped in midair when I saw this majestic thing. The most notable thing being the broken nose from the bridge towards the nostrils. Except that this resembled the Samadhi Buddha we know at Mahamewna Uyana. I forgot all about the warning that was given by the other officer not taking any pictures and started shooting away. The one cleaning the garden came and stood watching us but didn’t say a word. I then remembered the warning and looked at the officers sheepishly hoping they wouldn’t fly off the handle coz there were many incidents like that as well in the past. They didn’t utter a word, instead looked at me, rather us, surprisingly as if they couldn’t believe our presence.

Travelling the Delft, the largest island of Sri Lanka is dated on final day of my travel. There is a boat service which commence from “Kurikadduwan” jetty for this and our intention was to left from the first boat which started at 8.30 am. According to that three of us left from house very early and other guys join with us from Jaffna.

Year and Month 1-2 Apr 2015 Number of Days 2 Crew Only Me Accommodation Daya’s Place, Keeriyagaswewa. Transport By Train, Bus, Tuk-Tuk and on Foot Activities Archaeology, Photography, Hiking, etc… Weather Excellent. Route Day 01Nugegoda->Colombo Fort->Aukana->Res Vehera->Kekirawa>Keeriyagaswewa.  Day 02  Keeriyagaswewa->Kekirawa->Colombo. Tips, Notes and Special remark The Udaya Devi leaves Colombo Fort at 6.05am. Niroshan is […]

Ah I was just back after a long awaited visit to Trinco and was scanning through Google earth in and around Trinco area when I suddenly noticed an island close to Vakare and immediately I fell in love with it. The desire was so much that I decided to visit it during the coming weekend and Amila & Nalinda agreed on that idea

We started out at 4 AM on day 1 and move towards Ratnapura on Horana Road. On the way we schemed to move towards Ampara and may be towards Trinco later on. We took a quick breakfast from a small wayside shop on the Horana road at about 6. We had passed Maha Saman Devalaya at Ratnapura so many times but never stopped since we always have been running with a another destination in mind. It was 6.45AM when we reached the Ratnapura Maha Saman Devalaya and there was almost no people there.

We got to know about this Ayurveda doctor from a person who lives in the same village and decided to visit. I think of providing these details so that it may benefit at least one of you some day. We left Colombo around 4AM and reached Matale by 8AM. Had breakfast there and came to Andawala by 10AM.