Ever since I heard from a friend about the beauty of this
place, it found itself a spot in my list of “must-see places around the globe”.
When we were contemplating on planning a vacation this Christmas holidays, Sri
Lanka was the first destination that came in our minds. In spite of being
questioned about its safety, we decided to go for it.
We had our tour planned by Deepa Travels, Adyar. The agent
did a fine job organizing everything for us right from air tickets, visa and
hotel to local cab and tour guide.
With a lot of uncertainty about our travel itself (due to
work pressure and last minute plan changes), we finally left to Katunayake
Airport, Colombo on the 21’st. The flight journey was a short pleasant one that
lasted a little over an hour (Yes, Chennai- Colombo is a lot closer than
Chennai- any ports within TN). At Colombo airport, we were received by our tour
guide, Mr. Nilantha Fernando, an extremely warm, friendly person. Within
moments we were out on the Colombo- Kandy highway in our Toyota Prius (:-) We did spot many
high-end refurbished/ new Japanese-make commercial vehicles on the road). The
first thing that caught our attention in SL was the cleanliness and greenery
all around us. We felt as though we were in our very old God’s own country-
Kerala. And apart from occasional sights of police patrols, there were no signs
of anything but calm and peace.
The roads are well laid and it remained the same almost in
every place we went. It was quite a sight as we drove on the road nestled among
thick bushes and trees. The whole stretch had local vendors selling produce
from their vegetable/ fruit garden- Mangoes, Jack Fruit (SL has Mangoes and
Jack fruit grow in winters unlike TN/Kerala where the season is usually between
April- July. I envy them :-(),
King Coconut and what not. Nilantha was sweet enough to stop by at every store
and Somu and I ate our hearts full. A couple of hours later, we reached the
Pinnewala Elephant Park near Kandi that’s a sanctuary for over 80 elephants.
The park is open to the public daily for some
entrance fees. It was great to see a number of animals all in one place, well
taken care of. There are several shops attached to the park. One that caught
our attention was this :-p …
Rest of the story to continue...
