After a generous Auto driver offered to take us from Wellawaya to Thissumaharamma in just LKR 1500, we found a great hotel room for just 3000/Night for 3 person. Overall the travel from Nuvara Eliya to Ella to Thissumaramha was an extremely fun filled travel with lot of experience in unexpectedly less cost, sprinkled with lots of rich experience.
Next day early morning we started for a leapord wildlife safari at Yala. We spotted lot of animals which could have very well witnessed in Kottaimedu, or at least at Mudumalai Reserve forest - Crocodile, Bison, Peacocks, Monitor Lizzard, but could not spot the animals the reserve is known for - Leopards and Bears. At the end, we felt that we made a wise decision to go for 4hrs safari which costed around $92/ head and not 7 hrs or full day safari which costed well beyond $140/person. Safari was exciting at first but tend to get boring after an hour, if we could not spot any animals.
We returned back to our rooms after safari by 10Am. After few hours of rest, we packed our bags to leave for Colombo after visiting nearby kathirkama Murugan temple. This is renowned Murugan temple in this part of the country. But even after a crowded bus travel to kathirkama and a 20 mins walk in scorching sun with heavy luggages, we are unlucky that we reached the temple when it was closed in the afternoon. We reached the temple at 3PM and we were told that the temple would open only at 6:30PM. We had no other option but to just worship and circumambulate the temple when it is closed. We were running out of time and we had to reach Colombo before night. After all we could not get lucky twice and get a inexpensive auto ride again as we had the previous night from Wellaveya to Thissumaharama. Also this trip to Colombo is going to be 350KMs. It is during this travel that I am writing this post with Eeps and Kishanth sitting behind me.
While I write this blog, I am at my last leg of Srilanka trip - My first ever international trip. I am traveling from Kathrakagama(Near Yala National Part) to Colombo. Normally it takes around 4 hours in a proper national highway. But because of lack of any expressway this journey took around 7 hrs - thanks to the expressway between Matara and Colombo. To kill time during this journey, I started to write this blog using my iPad 4 mini.
Overall the trip was fantastic. The plan we had was good to cover various aspects of diverse Sri Lanka,
1. Kandy - Known for cultural heritage and the famous Tooth relic temple of Buddha
2. Nuvara Eliya - Awesome Hillstation with optimum commercialisation - good enough to sustain its natural value while accommodating the influx of Foreign tourists.
3. Nuvara Eliya to Ella Train - Train travel with good natural views along side. Also reminiscent of 1950s English railway system.
4. Thissamaharama, Yala and Kathirgamam - as shared above.
5. Colombo - a surprise city. Having roamed around mountain, Forest reserves and other rural areas of Sri Lanka, where people not comfortable with even basic english, I was expecting a mediocre city with noth much activity going around. But to my surprise, city was buzzing with all activities even well past midnight. The city is very clean organised with lot of high rise buildings. Relaxed towards last leg of our trip, me, Eeps and Kishant strolled around the city looking for some good food. Found a nice
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