When the Kingdom of Ruhuna was established it received many travellers and traders from Siam, China and Indonesia who sought anchorage in the natural harbor at Godawaya, Ambalantota. The ships or large boats these traders travelled in were called “Sampans” and “thota” means port or anchorage so the port where sampans anchor came to be known as “Sampanthota” (which is now known as Godawaya). After some time the area became to be called “Hambanthota”.

I live in Hambantota as I am working at the General Hospital Hambantota. On the 3rd of September 2012 I got the message that a flock of Greater Flamingos can be seen in the salt pan , Hambantota. I rushed there with my husband and my son. I was very happy to see the Flamingos just few meters away from my home.

As I live close to Bundala Embilikala kalapuwa (just 15km away my home) I frequently visit there for bird watching. This is a very good place to watch migrant birds as well as locals. This time I could spotted 9 Comb ducks

I have traveled many times to Mannar in search for flamingos, but only this year I head that they are back in Sri Lanka. Not at Mannar, it was at Bundala their good old habitat. I had no plans of going anywhere till end of November but this news made me anxious to go there. Though some of my friends in to birding have heard the news, no one had been managed to capture a photograph till that moment (as per my knowledge at that moment)

We took Galle road and we depart from home early morning 5.30 AM since we are planning to visit Weherahena and Wawrukannala temples in Matara as part of this trip. Took our breakfast at Koggala beach and drive towards Matara and arrived at weherahena around 9 AM. Since this is a week day (Monday) there were only few visitors to the temple and we had good chance to observe the Lord Buddha statue (It says tallest statue in Sri Lanka but not sure since Kandewihara Lord Buddha statue might be taller than that) and also Umang wihara (tunnel) art works as well.

I visited there several months ago but I thought it is good to publish trip report at least now because I don’t see any trip report related to Sithulpawwa. Beacuse of the time past, I can’t remember much details about visited places at Sithulpawwa

We planned this trip to visit Yala and Bundala National Parks. On our way back home we also visited Hummanaya Blow Hole. We started our journey at about 9.30 pm by taking a Kataragama bus from Colombo. Chamika, Miniruwan, Aravinda and Supun joined with me. We got off the bus from Tissa at about 4.30 am. Lokayya (safari jeep) came to pick us from there to the rest house. After a short breakfast we headed towards the Yala entrance. We entered the park at about 6.00 am. Four or five other jeeps also entered the park with us

The north-east monsoon was being highly uncooperative. With no consideration whatsoever of our holiday plans, it started battering our planned destinations – the ancient capitals of the North Central – with unusual volumes of rain, forcing us to cancel and rethink our family trip. Hoping for better weather and determined to go somewhere before the holidays ended, we decided to head down south. These are highlights of our three-day trip to yet another fascinating part of beautiful Sri Lanka.

We left early morning at 0500 hours from Colombo by car on 22nd October 2010. The first stop was at our favourite breakfast spot, Leyons, Hanwella close to the 40th Km post. We drove at a leisurely pace taking in the scenery of the surroundings and stopping to take photographs. We turned off at Pelmadulla and went through Embilipitiya. Past the town we stopped near the Chandrikawewa tank bund for a thirst quenching drink of king coconut water and then walked up the bund to enjoy the scenic view of the wewa.

Bundala National Park is an internationally important wintering ground for migratory water birds in Sri Lanka. Bundala harbors 197 species of Birds, the highlight being the Greater Flamingo(WHICH IS NOT SEEN RECENTLY), which migrate in large flocks. Bundala was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1969 and redesignated to a national park on 4 January 1993. In 1991 Bundala became the first wetland to be declared as a Ramsar site in Sri Lanka. In 2005 the national park was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, the fourth biosphere reserve in Sri Lanka.