However it didn’t appeal to Hari and we made plans hastily for Mandaram Nuwara. There was very little information about this mysterious place and we had to make do with what little was available. Credit must go to Hariya for planning the whole thing and we deliberated long and hard how to get there in the first place. Not having anyone else, it had to be just the two of us. Going by bike had to be ditched at the eleventh hour due to the rains and earth slips. So finally we decided to take the road via Kandy by bus. Getting Hariya up was as easy as lifting an elephant out of a well in an abandoned paddy field. Finally I picked him close to 5am on the christmas day, while most of the country was still under the wraps trying to get some warmth from the partial wintry chill. We went to the bus stand in Pettah while the rain kept its pace. There was an A/C bus that left for Kandy at 5.30am.