Exploration of Sri Lanka

One gloomy day with children flown from the nest, a pleasant surprise call from dearest Usha indeed made future days brighter. Friends are not just through childhood but reserved treasures for mid life. The call was about an exciting package offer to SriLanka during 2nd week of May. The immediate response was obviously in affirmation. However, just not to feel guilty, took a day’s notice and wanted to take mom along. It was going to be Ramayana theme based trip. 3 other accompaniments were strangers by names, but received sufficient introduction that they were friends, before meeting them. Yes, the count on friendship incremented by 3. Unfortunately, one had to drop due to personal reasons but there was an youngster Pooja, Latha’s daughter to continue keeping us young. I would skip the preparation narration in reluctance but definitely due to exhaustive coverage of the trip highlights. Whatsapp creator is God with everyday messaging about the preparation; the rest is left to your imagination. The night train Tuticorn Express took us from Bengaluru to Madhurai on 15th May morning. Usha’s hospitability was so great and well planned that we could get ready in ½ hour and rush to airport. The flight was one hour to land at BandarNayake Airport at Negombo, west coast of Lanka.

Day 01 – Negombo (Portuguese name) Sinhala name Mīgamuva means the "Group of Bees". The City has majority population comprising of Roman Catholic. North Lanka is infested with Muslims, Central and South by Buddhists, Hindus are spread all around. Negombo has a lagoon and a dutch canal for spice trades. We were welcomed by Thushan, driver and a guide. A bubbly, smiling, enthusiastic person that he was, he would go out of the way to show us many interesting places not in the itenary. He taught us Sinhalese greetings – “Au Bhuwan” is a greeting as in “Long Live” and “Estuthi” is for “Thank You”, which we used extensively throughout the tour. We headed towards Munneshwaram Temple which was 2 hours drive, looked as if we brought rain to Lanka with us. We had sumptuous lunch on the way with good Rotis and Curry. Later, it did don on us, that accessibility to such savors is a luxury. We didn’t lose time to exchange few dollars, although our banker friends were not very happy at the exchange rate of the day. Munneshwaram - The temple is one of the ancient Pancha Ishwarams dedicated to Shiva in the fishing region. The presiding deity is called Sri Munnainathar ("Lord of antiquity" alluding to its ancient roots) and the goddess is called Sri Vativampika Devi"goddess of beautiful form" another name for Mother goddess Ambal). Lord Rama is said to have worshipped the lingam to appease God for the Brahma Hattiya of Ravana. Lord Rama had sent Hanuman to bring Lingam, due to time constraints, said to have first worshipped this linga which was being worshipped by Ravana himself. Portuguese have destroyed this linga and this is maintained at the back of the Garbhagudi. The tale goes about the installed Devis, that 2 small children, who were playing in the river bank happened to spot Ishvara idol. Ishvara appeared in the dream of the presiding priest to bring his Devi as well. The priest went in search of Devi and couldn’t identify, the next dream was about the identification of the Devi, with right foot raised. This devi has been installed in the Ishwara temple. The adjoining temple of Kali Devi is supposedly Kali with 5 heads with 2 heads shown in the temple and the 3 more hidden underground below the visible one. There seems to be a cave underground, inaccessible to public. There were lot of patients who had come to offer prayers. We were caught unaware of the preparation towards hen sacrifice and left the place hurriedly. Next was our destination to Manavari - Manavari is the first lingam installed and prayed to by Lord Rama and this lingam is also called Ramalinga Shiva. There is also another story that this is the Shiva brought by Hanuman(who could not bring it in time) and installed by Lord Rama. Unfortunately due to rains and the remoteness of this temple, it was closed. We unloaded the luggage in Golden Beach Hotel overlooking the beach. The scenic beauty of the waves in the thunder storm rain was awesome and a different experience altogether. We had a light dinner and hit the bed. Day 02 – Kandy Night had drowned in thunder storm. For a couple of hours early morning, the clouds seemed to have cleared, but within 1/2 hour by 8 am drizzling had grown to fully fledged rain. The continental breakfast was a welcome. The day tour commenced with Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. It is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for Elephants in Pinnawala village. It is about 25 acres adjacent to Maha Oya River, where the elephants bathe themselves. The elephants were fenced since they were not tamed. Amma, was fascinated to watch an elephant doing rigorous neck exercise and appeared to be a demo for her, to correct mistakes in her exercise. With the continuous drizzling, we were enjoying the elephants’ acts. Some of them stretched the trunks and wanted us to give something to eat. It was enacting the receiving and the eating part. We felt sorry for not having carried bananas. There was a well deserved punishment waiting for us next. We came across a small baby elephant playing in a puddle of water, Arpana and Usha made their way closest to this naughty elephant. All it did was innocently touch the umbrella rim, sucked the umbrella cloth through its trunk. We never expected the might of the baby, Lo, Behold, it was dragging as if it would suck right into Arpana’s hand with the umbrella. It disentangled the cloth from the steel frame and started playing around with the cloth. We were in such a shock that we missed videotaping this whole episode. It appeared that such incidences were frequent, the mahout came by, threw the cloth away probably preparing the baby for the next act. So, we did pay the toll for not feeding the earlier ones. The next stop was in a Gem Museum. There was a video screening on the method of extracting gems from mother Earth. This will be described in detail when we actually went to the mining center enroute Benatota. The gem showroom had collection of gems in white gold, gold and silver. However, the prices were expensive and looked out of reach. There is no way, one can identify the real ones with synthetic ones unless one has studied gemology. The Botonical garden was not possible in the rain since the cars running inside the gardens were also not in service. 6 ladies in a van, will the one and only man driver not get disturbed or bored. Nay, he used to enjoy the conversation and participate. Our topics would range from high school naughty experiences to worldwide touring and culinary experiences. He would call our chatting in Singhalese as “lida lada Sangame” – “Women chatting near well before drawing water.” Since it was time for the cultural show, we rushed to the auditorium before visiting the Kandy Temple. The cultural show was amazing. The dancer wore a white cloth and white turban, beadwork decorations on his chest, a waistband, rows of beads around his neck, silver chains, brass shoulder plates, anklets, and jingles. The most common drum is the Geta Beraya, which is only used in Kandyan Dance. To assist the dancer to keep rhythm a small pair of cymbals known as the Thalampota gave the support. The Vannam's dance however has lyrics that are sung in tune with the movements of the dancer. These lyrics sing about the virtues of the animal that the Vanna is depicting. The balancing act of the rotating discs around 4, 2 on the hands, one on the head and one through the mouth, was amazing. There was an enchanting peacock dance with 6 types of different drums used for rythms. The ultimate was the dance with fire torch inside the mouth, walking bare feet on the coal fire carpet. Kandy Temple - Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy. It is in the royal palace. There was a painting of the chariot procession ride of the king similar to our Mysuru Palace paintings (definitely doesn’t match the grandeur of Mysuru). It has a golden tower which we had seen in the evening before reaching the city. We entered the complex via Mahawahalkada (the main entrance gate) that sat over a moat, and passed through the ornated tunnel of Ambarawa. The shrine was two storeys tall and trailing after a large number of pilgrims, we made our way to the upper floor. The tooth relic itself is encased within a series of golden caskets with the outer most in the shape of a stupa, with plenty of jewellery and gems draped engraved all over. There was a queue to pass the small window to the inner shrine where the relic sat, and one would have a mere second or two to glance at it(like Tirupathi). We can only see the stupa and can’t view the tooth. There was another hall with the Buddha Statue and the hall had paintings of the folklore of the Buddha. We drove to Hilltop Hotel, almost a steep hill. It was shivering cold due to the height. Kudos to Thushan for driving in the rain to the hill top, the visibility was so very bad. Day 03 – Nuwara Eliya The day began with a luxurious breakfast. Since it was raining, the gems shop in the hotel made lot of profit with each one of us buying gems of our choice almost half price compared to the Kandy showroom. Great marketer he was that he made sure that each one of us found gems to suite our budget. Of course, we were late by 2 hours due to this first shopping of the tour. Angry Thushan, who cooled down with some humoring, then made it to the Wood Factory. The wood factory had lots of learning for us. The rainbow wood shavings give 7 different colors hence the name. The first raw shaving is brown. Add the shavings to hot water to get red. Dip iron smeared with lime to get dark blue, add lemon juice to this to get yellow, add chalk powder to water to get violet, add lemon to get pink. Artistic furniture was very attractive. The handmade carvings were based on the experience of available skills. While we saw young crafts men carving on a blue print, an old skilled employee was carving based on his imagination. The Sri Lankan masks or “Ves Muhunu” meaning “character face” is used in three (3) distinct situations: Ritual masks in God and Demon rituals, theatre mask that enhance the theatrical, visual and the symbolical effect the character and carnival, festive or ceremonial masks. Mask such as the “Gara” is used in all three (3) contexts. Behind the carving of many masks is a traditional tale, an age old belief structure. The traditional masks are carved from light Balsa like Kaduru wood. Kaduru trees grow in the marshy lands bordering paddy fields. We did see lot of Kaduru wood during our boat ride in backwaters. There are numerous other Rakshasa masks (representing Ravana’s race)used in processions and festivals. v Naga Raksha – Cobra Mask v Gurulu Raksha – Hawak or Eagle Mask v Maru Raksha – Mask of the Demon of death v Ginidal Raksha – Fire Devil v Mayura Raksha – brings peace, harmony and prosperity v Dwi Naga Raksha – Twin Cobra Devil, brings protection from all evils and danger v Mal Guru Raksha – Mask of the Flowery Eagle, bring flower and fame . The next destination was Tea Factory. Plucking the 3 leaved tender tea leaves that gets graded to different categories was demonstrated. Leaves are dried in-house, steamed and dried There are various filters to get fine dust. The takeaway of Sri Lakan tea powder was a must for all of us. After a great cup of hot tea in the rain, we started towards Nuwara Eliya. We did collect few eatables from super market heading towards a long journey. The next part of the journey was nothing but sailing in heaven with lush greenery on all sides, small and medium cascades from the mountains, were mystifying sights to watch. The incredible part of this journey was the Rambada Falls, a water fall bigger than our DudhSagar of Gokak, appeared bigger than Jog falls. We could get to the closest point to watch. Thushan, who was by then tired of our temple visits took us to a hotel in a van to see this beautiful fall from below. That is when I really understood as to how nature is bigger than us. It was an inexplicable experience . We were driving to higher peek to Chinmaya Mission’s Hanuman Temple. Dignified Hanuman stands on a hill top, the area, where he was searching for Seetha. The priest gave us a Bhel fruit which was a unidentifiable till the end of our journey. The fruit was sweet compared to its usual bitter taste. Annapoorna Hotel, was an Annapoorne serving us the long last rice – Tomato bath, Tangy Tamrind bath and Curds rice. We hogged like we had starved for months. Our next destination was Seetha Amman Temple. It was dark evening. The temple is located in the village of Seetha Eliya.This place is believed to be the site where Sita was held captive demon king Ravana. Acres of land are laden with Ashoka trees depicting the Ashoka Vana. There was a ritual going on for installation of new idols of Rama, Seetha, Lakshmana and Hanuman since the old ones were worn out. Although, we could not see the same that evening, we were able to get full view next day morning. Having offered donation for this great ritual, we retired to Stamford Star hotel, the hotel with no stars. Probably, this hotel was the only one that wasn’t really homely. But, we were so excited to explore this new Eliya that we didn’t mind putting up for a day. By now, there was no Wi-Fi available except that we could send few messages from the lobby with great difficulty. People at home were worried that we might have been caught in the cyclone. Day 04 – Katargama(Katagamuwa) Next day was 2nd visit to see the temple with new and old idols. The mesmerizing idols were symbolic Seetha and Hanuman that were ready to be inaugurated by Shree RaviShankar from India. Foot prints of larger form of Hanuman and small foot prints of smaller version are see on the rocks by the river side. This was when Hanuman met Seetha to give Choodamani. That day morning we had listened to Sundara Kanda by M.S Sheela, Shivu and party from the mobile. It was an awesome experience visualizing Hanuman and Seetha and at the same time the horror of the forest where Seetha was hidden. This area was also called Little England during colonial period. We find efforts in terms of Sri Lankan government investment to preserve this area. Few kms away is the Hakgala Garden, a garden said to have been provided for Seetha. It is said that there is a tunnel from the Ashoka tree to this garden, where she would bathe. This garden ride in a car was a pleasure with rose gardens, cinnamon trees. Legend has it that Hanuman, the monkey god, was sent by Rama to the Himalayas for Sanjeevani herb. He forgot which herb he was looking for and decided to bring a chunk of the Himalayas back in his jaw, hoping the herb was growing on it. The gardens grow on a rock called Hakgala, which means ‘jaw-rock’. The next destination after a cup of coffee and boiled Jola, was Divurumpola – Seetha’s Agni Pravesham. This is the place where Seetha Devi underwent "Agni Pariksha" (test). It is a popular place of worship among locals in this area. Divurumpola means place of oath in Sinhala. We were in for a surprise and not so good experience. The place had been protected as a pedestal around a big banyan tree. Since the banyan tree is worshipped by Buddhists, the Buddhists Stupa takes away lung space of this area. Although, there is a temple built with Rama, Seetha and Hanuman, it was closed. Apparently, the priest of this temple in his greed and imagination had cut a big trunk of the banyan tree a month ago. He had assumed that Seetha’s ornaments are hidden under the tree. Since he was imprisoned, the area was highly protected. We were disappointed that the government had not taken care of this area. With heavy heart, we left this place to Ravana Cave and Ravana falls(Ravana Ella. Yella – Village, Ella - falls), this was a place where Ravan had done penance and had hidden Seetha after Hanuman visited her. It was a 1.5 km walk, up hill and we were supposed to have climbed 600 steps to see the caves. Due to heavy rains and landslides, the gate to the steps was closed. But, we did enjoy the scenic beauty and the Stupa cave with sleeping Buddha. Apparently, this area has caves that Ravana’s territory extended. This hill station is scenic beauty with the mythology. Ravana’s Ella Rock has Krindi Oya river flowing down. We were now heading towards Kataragama. Thushan had a knack of keeping us blindfolded about distance and time during journey, he would always say the destination would take less than 2 hours. Little did we realize that we had covered distance for about 5 hours. Kataragama is a temple complex with Murugan and Buddhist Stupa. Lord Murugan is said to be the protector of the village. The lord is worshipped by people from all religion. Ashoka’s daughter Sangamitra has planted the banyan tree from the offspring of the Banyan from Bodhgaya. This experience was a different one altogether. The temple is built like any other Hindu Murugan temple. But, the front door has a cloth screen with Murugan and devis sitting on peacock. Nobody is allowed near Garbhagudi which is 7 doors away from the main door. All doors covered by similar screens. The pooja ritual is the same with dhoopa, deepa and aarthi and nevedya. But they are all done inside by the priests who have access to the Garbhagudi. While a priest appearing Muslim, prayed to the screen Murugan throughout the ritual. 2 old ladies lit the dhoopa and offered prayers to the curtain Lord. Nevedya of the Bhaktas was done to the curtain Lord. Only temple nevedya is done to the actual idol. We had a handful of delicious lintel sweet as prasada. The walk was on the sand about a km to the Stupa in the same complex. Luckily, the rains had stopped by then. We retired to bed after a buffet at Okrin Hotel, which had a big room. Day 05 – Bentota Life time experience was in Yala Sanctuary. Early morning at 6.30 a.m, we, Amma, Latha, Pooja and I, were off to Yala Animal Sanctuary with packed sandwiches for breakfast. Usha and Arpana decided to skip. Yala had been a center of past civilisations. King Ravana, is believed to have established his kingdom here with Ravana Kotte, now submerged in the sea, as its boundary. Yala Sanctuary is said to be 2nd largest after Massiah Mara of S.Africa. Divided into 5 blocks, the park has a protected area of nearly 130,000 hectares of land consisting of light forests, scrubs, grasslands, tanks and lagoons. Two blocks are currently opened to the public. Among its more famous residents are the world’s biggest concentration of leopards, majestic elephants, sloth bears, sambars, jackals, spotted dear, peacocks, and crocodiles along with more than 200 species of birds. The most fascinating discovery in the Tsunami’s aftermath was that no animals were in harm’s way, prompting a theory that ‘6th sense’ of animals took them out of the path of on-coming waves. Findings based on two elephants with electronic collars suggested that reactions based on quick comprehension of clues might have prompted all the animals to escape the waves; a faculty that didn’t help people. Around 100s of tourists at Yala ride were killed. We spotted few deer, Stone Curlew birds, Gray Horn bills, Jungle fowls (national bird of Srilanka),wood pigeon, bulbuls, painted Storks, Pelicans, green colored love birds, pigs, a buffalo enjoying the bath in rain water pool. Few crocodiles were coming out of the lakes. Suddenly, from nowhere, a big elephant came on our track. It was coming forward and Thushan asked the safari driver to go reverse slowly. That was a terrifying moment with the Elephant coming forward for about 500 meters. There was no way for us to overtake, since the track was very small and we would dare not go past this majestic one. The gait of the elephant was all we could watch with admiration while Latha started praying to Lord Ganesha. It drank a bout of water from the running rain puddle and proceeded forward. It was as if, she was having all the fun watching us moving back. She swindled the trunk as if to entertain us. Suddenly, she decided enough is enough and turned left to a nearby bush, like a bus giving way to a cyclist on a road. She emerged as soon as we passed the bush. It only proved that she had no ego, meant no harm to us and wanted to get some entertainment. She gave way for us as if to say, that she had better work to do. At the end of the sanctuary was the Indian Ocean beach with a Yala metamorphic mountain. Yala National Park has a variety of monsoon forests , deciduous forests, grasslands, fresh water and marine Indian Ocean with beach. On the return ride, we saw crocodiles, deer, mongoose; forest monitors (lots of them). This day was very hectic, we started after an hour’s rest to Turtle Hatchery. This was another interesting stopover. We found a tank full of active baby turtles which were just born at 7 am and we were visiting them at 1 pm. Daring trip mates held these babies in hands to get the feel of the rocky back of the young turtles. The "Sea Turtle Farm & Hatchery" is a non - profitable organization which is maintained for the survival of Sea Turtles for the next generation. There were five varieties of Sea Turtles, namely Olive Ridley Turtle, Loggerhead Turtle, Green Turtle, Hawksbill Turtle and Leatherhead Turtle. Most of them eat fish, while the Green Turtle eat fish during initial days and then they become vegetarians after 5-6 years. After 5-6 years, the turtles are left into the sea to survive on their own, since they are big enough. Some of the turtles were blind; some were immobile with the limbs cut off due to fishing nets. We could see the owner with lot of passion, in rearing them. He would talk to them and said that the turtles responded with smiles. With a desire to purchase one pet for home, we satisfied ourselves by contributing towards donation for this place. We then headed to MoonStone Mines, which also had Cinnamon farm and oil extraction. Oil is extracted from around 20kg Cinnamon leaves bundled. 7 of those bundles are boiled in a furnace to extract a litre of oil. The used up leaves are dried to serve as fuel for the furnace. Since, each of us have some ailment we found an excuse to buy the oil. The Moonstone mining was few yards away. The miners dig deep around 20 feet deep, while digging, they build fence around them with wires and dried leaves. This is to keep silting away. Candles are being used both to serve lighting as well as check the oxygen level. The dug up clay is drawn by a trolley from top. The clay is then washed in a nearby puddle of water, and then the bifurcation of stones into quality ones and not so good ones are completed. This requires experience in the field. The stones are then taken to the indoor polishing unit. A mechanical rotating copper disc is used to cut the stones to required sizes. Another rotating copper disc smeared with diamond powder is used to polish the cut stones. These polished ones give blue glimmer or colorless. We spent around 2 hours in the ornament outlet to select the stones, ear rings, bracelets, finger rings. All of us seemed to be satisfied with our selection and shopping. Thushan drove us to Madhu Boat Ride. Although we weren’t keen on the ride, he insisted and we did not regret, since the back water boat ride similar to the Kerala one took us under road bridges so low that we had to bend our heads. Pooja had fun climbing the trees of the mangroves from the boat. We saw different islands that had pedicure (through fish), Cinnamon island where we saw cinnamon bark extraction and drying. There were tea stalls on the back water where the boat riders could stop over. The residents appeared poor and hard working. We headed towards Galle Fort, built by Portugese and fortified by the Dutch. The beautiful coastal drive till Bentota was superb, it was driving along the beach, a coastal drive and greenery to the right.We drove through Matara University, which seems to be similar to any of the Western Universities. The University has lush of greenland, plenty of trees, lake, playgrounds of all types along with class buildings, admin blocks, hostel etc. The Fort really resembles a small laid out walled town, with a rectangular grid pattern of streets full of the low houses with gables and verandas in the Dutch colonial style. It has a well laid out road network. It looks like fusion of European architecture and South Asia tradition. The Fort overlooks a beautiful cricket stadium on one side, sea on the other side and remaining surrounded by posh bungalows. The fort is UNESCO declared heritage site. It is also believed that Lord Hanuman leapt to south India to convey the news to Rama as to where Sita had been kept captive by Ravana. The Sanjeevani herbs were dropped on the Galle-Mantara road while taking it to the battlefield. So, the green forests that we came across from Mantara to Galle, did include the herbs from Himalayas. Viewing the rough sea on the left with thunder storm covering the vision in front, we saw the tsunami marked stone that had taken the toll of many Srilankans. The night halt of the previous day of the last tour day was at The Surf Hotel. This hotel was yet another beautiful one overseeing the rough sea. It was just 2 days prior to Buddha Purnima. Our rooms were 20 feet away from the shore. Day 06 – Colombo Although, Thushan had given us 8 am as the start time, there was no way for us to leave the shore and the hotel till 9 am. We did not want to leave the sea shore despite endless selfies. Yet another reason being the last day of the tour which had ended so quickly. No, none of us wanted to go back to India. The company was good, tour was good there was no reason for us to leave so quickly but all good things should end one day. We headed towards Colombo which took us almost entire day time travel. We had the practice of settling our accounts during the journey or late night. Some of us had run out of Srilankan currency and were in deep discussion to cover up for the last day. Thushan was really worried this time, thinking that we had run out of cash. Mind you, we had not yet paid the travel amount to him. We faced the traffic jams of the city, passed through lanes to Panchmukha Anjaneya. The next famous GangaArama, a Buddhist temple was getting ready for the next day Buddha Poornima. We got to see the entire city decorated with lighting and lotuses all around. This monastery has a huge Museum and a Big Banyan tree. The Buddha statue was another beautiful one. This temple has the hair relic of the Buddha. We could view this hair relic this time, placed in a glass tower. The museum was big but probably had all items from watches to glassware, paintings to idols, name anything, it was present. But, they appeared to have dumped in glass cases. There was a stuffed beautiful Elephant next to the Buddha. We saw the Ganga lake with boats decked up with lighting for the next day. Fortunate were we to see the city at the right time on the eve of Buddha Poornima. The hotels were decked up and people bustling around with gifts and sweets to be distributed, the next day. With a sumptuous dinner in an Indian restaurant we retired for the day at Hotel Sapphire. We started towards the airport at 10 am with a City Tour, that resembled New York for about 2 roads. The Parliament house, President & and the Prime Minister’s homes, Twin towers, all the 5 star hotels of the world occupying the main roads of Colombo next to the beach. Since, it was raining and most of the shops shut for the celebrations, we dropped shopping in the city. Yes, it was time for all is well that ends well. Time waits for none and we had reached the airport. Thushan had brought his wife to meet us. We decided to surprise Thushan by giving him tips comprising of all 3 currencies, Srilankan Rupiah, Indian Rupees and American Dollars in the the same Natchos dabba that served us for a week as our pooled piggy bank. We didn’t want to go back without looking forward towards yet another trip. Yes, we all agreed to plan for Manasa Sarovara next year. See you again with more stories, next year