Though the object village in the tale drama was situated at Uva province, the film location used by the producer was not far from us. Actually, it was located few kilometers off Narammala. The remote village where the community hall (Ambalama) existed was known as Karagahagedara. This is the story of how we explored the historical Ambalama at Karagahagedara.

The first thing that captivates you when you reach the top of the hillock where the center is located, is the tranquility and beauty of the place. The Hiyare Reservoir, a manmade reservoir once built to supply water to the city of Galle, is now a calm blue oasis surrounded by the green green Hiyare Rainforest – which is an extension of the Kottawa Khombala Forest Reserve.

Year and Month June, 2012 (3rd) Number of Days One Day (1/2) Crew 2 Accommodation N/A Transport Motor bike-“Pleasure” Activities Photography and to just visit historical places around Bakamuna Weather Sunny Day Route Girithale -> Bakamuna -> Buduruwayaya -> Kumara ella -> Orubandisiyabalawa -> Bakamuna -> Girithale Tips, Notes and Special remark Going by a […]

As this trip was arranged in a hurry there were only 3 of us committed. From the information we got from some of our friends, and Lakdasun we knew that transportation from Hunnasgiriya to Meemure is the critical part of our journey. The only transportation was two vans leaving from Hunnasgiriya between 1.30-2.00 pm. So we had to plan our trip to match with that. Two of us arrived to Kandy at 10.15 am and the other joined there. We did some last minute shopping to buy some stuff like noodles, Siddhalepa’s, and left Kandy at 11.00 am in a Mahiyanganaya bus

Ella is one of the famous tourist destinations in Sri Lanka and well known among tourist as a hiking destination. Ella rock and Little Adams peak are among those famous viewpoints. Since it was a nice sunny day with a clear sky I decided to hike around Ella. My first destination was the famous Ella rock which is about 1350m in height. After arriving at around 8am to Ella I started to walk along the railway track (which is prohibited by law) towards Kithal Ella station.

Our purpose was to see the Laxapana and Aberdeen Falls and travel along the Balangoda Bagawanthalawa road. (It is one of the extremely scenic road in the country) .Several hydropower plants of the Kelani river can be easily accessed by this travel

“Dethanagala” is a mountain of two peaks which is similar to breast of a woman. This mountain can be nicely captured from the Balangoda town and you can reach it by Balangoda-Bagawanthalawa road. It is in the boundary of Rathnapura-Nuweraeliya district and close to Horton plains.

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.

It had been almost six years since I last visited Wilpattu. My last visit was in 2006, few weeks before the tragic incident of the landmine explosion which killed six visitors who where on safari. The park was pretty much out of bound since then until the end of the war in 2009. Even after it was re-opened I wasn’t able to plan a trip due to various constraints. This is when a firend at work invited me to join him in a three day trip to wilpattu. I couldn’t have been happier!

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.

Westminister Abbey is an awkward name seen on each and every map of Sri Lanka. So I did a Google search when I was schooling few years (15 years) back to find out that this was an ancient place in SL called Govinda Hela. So I had done my reading and planned to go there someday but never thought I would do this on that particular day.