I and my friend decided to visit Jaffna and Worship Nagadeepa temple on Full moon day 22nd February. We left home somewhere around 4.00 clock in the morning on 21st. Our plan is to travel Jaffna by Train. But It was found that the intercity AC train from Colombo fort at 5.35 am is fully booked and no seats available, Therefore we decided to take the next train Yal Devi that leaves Colombo Fort at 6.30am and reaches Jaffna about 3.15 pm. it is worth saving time in a this nature of trip and advisable to book the intercity AC train reaches Jaffna about 12.30pm

We started our trip on January 14.We went Fort railway station to take the “Yaldevi” train to Jaffna. It leaves around 6.15 a.m & it reached to Jaffna station at around 5.00 p.m. When we reached Jaffna our main target is find the place to stay. We found the Guest near to the station. Rooms are ok with basic facilities. On next day ( 15th January ) early morning we went bus stand to take the bus to KKD jetty.

The bus ride as usual is no worse than a roller coaster. I can still remember my first experience in the Jaffna-Kurikkattuvan bus when I visited Jaffna in 2013. These drivers don’t believe in driving slowly and they keep their foot firmly planted on the accelerator. No stopping or slowing down but keep going at the speed of wind. Fortunately the road from Jaffna to Kayts is under construction and most of it is finished. However it got really interesting when we turned towards Velanai and from there to Kurikkattuvan. The road is not in good shape especially the long Pungudutivu causeway. There are so many pot holes but the driver tried to go above them rather than slow down and take it easy.

The result was that we didn’t have our bottoms on the seat for second or two at a time. The bus would fall into a pit and down goes the seat leaving the bottoms hanging in mid-air. Then the bottom starts its downward journey but by then the fallen bus had started its upward journey thanks to the shock absorbers. This meant the bottoms going down would meet the seats coming up and have this collision. I just gave you the description of a fraction of a second process. This kept going on and on until I couldn’t feel my buttocks anymore. I kept touching them after getting down to make sure I had them still on me.

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!

I had visit Jaffna only one time after war period, but it was limit to tired journey. So I had a big eager to fulfill that as my wish. Though I plan it with discussing my jaffna friends, I couldn’t do that because of many reasons. However this vacation made a time to me to gain that experience. After that I could visit many places which studying their tradition and enjoying with a whole week and I could add many novel and rare experiences to my memory book.

Back in October of 2011 I had this bright idea of cycling to Jaffna. The easiest way of doing this was to travel on the A9, but then again that would be so boring and the whole point of riding to Jaffna was not complete the journey from point A to point B but to enjoy journey and experience the solitude and the care free way of travel. The only road that meets my expectations is the Costal road; this road hugs the western coast line of Sri lank all the way to Jaffna!!

We wanted to do a complete Jaffna tour within three days. Before plan this trip I read Sri’s Jaffna and Delft report (The Land of Horses-Delft & re-awakening Jaffna) which was the most recent updates of Jaffna in Lakdasun especially about Delft Island. Then I went through Kristy’s reports of Jaffna (Jaffna-Micro Attractions and which gives a good idea about rare places there. Zoysa’s Jaffna report (On the A9 Road to Jaffna 2010) also helped me to know about Vallipuram and VVT. I knew about Fort Hammenheil from Chandanie’s report (Fort Hammenheil-a prison in the middle of the ocean)

General attractions of Jaffna Penninsula are already covered adequately by forum members. So I don’t intend to repeat the same things other than exceptions. In fact, I was invited to join the trip as all others, except my wife, were first timers and in need of a guide. We started from Maharagama around 8.30 pm on the first day and reached Jaffna by 6.00 am on the second day. After checking in to our Rest, we immediately proceeded to Nagadeepa to avoid the expected mad rush.

We then set off towards Vavuniya hoping to reach Killinochchi before noon and meet our friendly soldier who took us around the surrounding area. Just before Iranamadu, we visited the statue of one of our great heroes, Cpt. Saliya Aladeniya who sacrificed his life while trying to protect the telecommunication tower there.

It was a Monday, the 4th day of our Jaffna visit. Earlier we were planned to go to Nainativu on the previous day and postponed it to the 4th day. The reason for that was we got to know the annual festival of the Nagadeepa Kovil was going on those days and Monday was the last day of it. So we wanted to be there for the final grand festival.

The main purpose of this trip was to visit important places in Jaffna peninsula and our war-hero monuments. We also could observe the rapid development in Killinochchi, Mullathiv areas and the change of lifestyles of people after the end of 30-year war.