I did not have a desire to do a rail hike along Puttlam line though it is very close to my home but, I tempted to do it by seeing the photos of Ashan’s rail hike from Chilaw to Puttlam.

Schedule is same. Early morning we started our walking & we visited places until 12.00 noon. After that we went to water cannel & having bath. We took lunch & went to room for little rest. Around 3.00 p.m we started our walking until 6.30 – 7.00 p.m.

I had a booking of 3 nights at Anuradhapura for a different purpose but it was suddenly cancelled. Since all plans has been made to be out of Colombo, we decided to make a best of it and take a long vacation especially for kids.

Since most of the places visited are common, this report will be more of a photo journey with little text.

Becoming an archaeologist had always been my dream and together with my like-minded friend Minol Peiris we contacted Dr. Nimal Perera of the Department of Archaeology to get our hands dirty on an archaeological dig. Dr. Perera encouraged us and said that he is currently heading the excavations of the Demala Maha Seya in Polonnaruwa and invited us to join.

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.