It was my third visit to Batticaloa & first visit after ending the endless war of this country. Its not a leisure tour for me but by chance, most of the time I get to participate in official trips to all around the country.
It was 12th February 2010, we left Kurunegala around 10.30 in the morning. The vehicle was a van & there were 8 members in our team. Our first stop was at Polonnaruwa for lunch & Polonnaruwa Rest House was selected for taking our lunch.

The Rest House is located at a fabulous place, near Parakrama Samudraya & it has nice views of the lake and the wonderful place for bird watching. Even though the day was gloomy & was little rainy; Ive enjoyed the environment very much with the cool breeze.

Polonnaruwa Guest House

View of Parakrama Samudraya

However I have to say this also about the place, any of us were not satisfied about their services & food. It was a mixed meal with Eastern & Western food. But I think it was not worth for the money we paid.

Then we started our journey towards Valachchenai. We passed famous 2 bridges at Manampitiya & Valachchenai( both railway & motor traffic on the same bridge, but now in both locations there are separate bridges for the motor traffic). The road condition is very good up to Punani & charming landscapes were all over. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photograph, because I was the one and only crazy photographer in our team.

After passing the little junction in Punani, the road constructions are still in progress up to Batticaloa town. But I’m sure it will be done in near future. The road in between Valachchenai & Batticaloa is also very beautiful & it lies close to the lagoon. Ive seen that there are so many marshy lands all along the road. It was just after rain & environment was full of its natural colors.

As we planed earlier our accommodation for the first night was arranged at Subraj Inn, which is a little guest house, located near the Commercial Bank in Batticaloa. At the first sight we didn’t get a good image of the place. But their services & food were really excellent when compare to our lunch.

The staff  is helpful & they can talk & understand both languages Sinhala & English other than their mother language Tamil. So there was not any communication barriers for us.

In the evening we made a little outing to Kallady beach, but it was not a pretty evening. It was a cloudy, gloomy, mystery, lazy beach (I don’t know whether it’s the same everyday or not). After that we did some shopping in Batticaloa town (Funny, always ladies like to do that) According to the information we have gathered from local people, most shops in the town are open until 9.00/10.00p.m. & also we saw that the town was very busy even in night time. It’s happy to say that it was not the situation I’ve observed during my last two visits. We didn’t feel any insecurity through out our trip this time.

An Evening view of Kallady Beach

On the second day morning I got up early in the morning & went back to the Kallady beach with big hopes for watching the sun rise. Even though I didn’t see the sun rising at the horizon as I expected, it was a really beautiful place in the morning. The sky was full of clouds at that moment, but I was able capture some beautiful moments. As per the explanation by a fisherman in the beach, February is a not a good month for watching the best beauty of the Eastern beach. Its happening with the wind direction. According to him,March will be more beautiful. After spending around one hour, we left the Kallady beach with hopes for another visit in future.

early in the morning at Kallady beach	A fishing boat at Kallady beach - early in the morning
Sun Rise at Kallady beach - February is a not a good month for watching the best beauty in an Eastern beach	More sun rise scenes at Kallady beach
Kallady beach	Fishing...

Then we attended to the main task of our trip, it was a program for school teachers in Batticaloa, Ampara & Trico areas. The program was held at St. Michaels College, which is one of the largest schools in the Eastern province. During the time of our program I was able to capture some architectural views of the school’s main hall.

I was able to capture some architectural views

St. Michaels College, which is one of largest schools in Eastern province

After finishing our program we had our lunch at Subraj Inn & left Batticaloa around 3.00p.m. On our way back we visited Pasikudah for a moment. Pasikudah is a beautiful beach in the Eastern coastline, which is located about 35 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa. Unfortunately it was the mid day with heavy sunlight, so we couldn’t enjoy much at the beach. And also it was a Saturday & the beach was little crowded.

After spending a little time in the beach we started our way back to Kurunegala & around 9.00p.m we came back to our homes.