More into Hiking!

These days I’m getting quite a few mails asking for information on various places in Sri Lanka. I thought of streamlining the contact mode a bit so I can organize my mails and would be able to give a faster response. As a first step, I have added a little widget to contact me. Still, anyone can write direct to my email as well.

I know that, Lakdasun.com had done yeoman service over the years to ‘discover, explore and conserve the natural beauty of Sri Lanka’. I’m happy to see many people switching to hiking, backpacking and trekking. (Perhaps, I shall explain the difference of all three in another post) I personally like this development oppose to flooding a scenic area with motor vehicles, causing noise and air pollution.

I wish more people could have fun like Sinhalaya Travels, which I had my pleasure of joining them a few weeks back.

New Cycle

April is a festive month in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans celebrate their traditional new year on the 14th of April which is tomorrow. Astrologically, it marks the entrance of the sun into the first zodiac sign, Aries (Mesha) from the last one, Pisces (Meena).

Incidentally, April marks the end of Sri Pada season as well. The above picture was captured from the top of Sri Pada.

Tag and a Story

I have been tagged by Amaris from the wonderland of Brazil. The rules for this tag are as below.

1. Open your 1st Photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

Instead of choosing the first folder, I’m doing a little tweak and taking the first folder appears in my Picasa gallery. So this picture happened to be one taken sometime back from Panama Beach (pronounced as paːnəmə) and it shows a part of the curved beach (rather a thin strip of beach), the lagoon and the rocky outcrop. I still do not know what that statue like thing on the rock.

That day, we were swimming in the shallow waters and a few STF (Special Task Force from the Sri Lanka Police) soldiers came via a motor boat from the lagoon side and wanted to cross over to the sea. We helped them to push the boat over the thin strip of sand. We tried our best to convince them to take us to the nearby bird sanctuary, Kumana but they refused on safety reasons.

Remember this was during the height of war in the north of Sri Lanka and there were a few armed gangs from the LTTE, still roaming around the jungles of east. The soldiers were going to the camp in Okanda, between Panama and Kumana, which was restricted to public due to security threats those days. The STF members were doing a yeoman service to the villagers protecting them from the terrorists.

The next day we heard that there had been a bomb explosion in Okanda and two STF personnel were dead. It was such a sad news for us. Later we found out it was not any of the members of that group of soldiers, still we were quite shocked about what happened to their two colleagues. In fact, we understood why they refused to take us with them.

Today I’m relieved that the situation has changed rapidly after the war in the north and this particular area is declared safe for public. Tourism is flourishing and we can hike freely in these areas now.

We, Sri Lankans eternally grateful to the armed forces for their sacrifices to bring peace back to this country!

So that is the ‘story’ on above picture!

Thanks very much, Amaris for tagging me and I have tagged below friends. Next time it may be your chance to relate a story :D

1. George and Betsy from Tennessee, USA
2. Rainfield from Malaysia
3. Nicole right now in Egypt
4. Knatolee from Canada
5. Bhavesh from Pune, India

Tea Factory

Sri Lanka is famous for tea. Most of the tea come from the hill country of Sri Lanka as the geography and climate is ideal to produce the best in quality tea leaves. The tea was introduced by the British in the 19th century and it is popularly known as Ceylon Tea even nowadays. You can read more about Ceylon Tea in this link.

Tea estates and tea factories are common sights in the hill country and most of the hiking routes run through these tea estates. If you are lucky you can always hitch a ride in a tea truck rather than walking. It is interesting to stay a couple of days in a tea estate and learn the entire process of preparing tea for exports starting from plucking leaves.

The above picture of a tea factory was captured in Watawala area.

You can read more about the life of a tea planter here (written by Cerno) and some interesting memoirs of a tea planter in this link (written by Sigma).

Cricket, Lovely Cricket

The island nation is a cricket fanatic country. You experience the most electrifying of atmospheres in a cricket ground in Sri Lanka. It is not just cricket but lots of entertainment as well: The papare* bands to DJ music; Variety of food and drinks; and of course the vibrant spectators from all walks of life!

This beautiful setting sky illuminated by the flood lights was captured at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo during one of the recent one day international cricket match between India and Sri Lanka.

*Note: 3-4 member band with unplugged music using drums, trumpets and trombones

Taprobane to Ceylon

Sri Lanka has a long history and most prominently it has one of the longest written histories in the world. Throughout the time Sri Lanka was known by many names by different countries and historians.

The king Vijaya, a prince from Wanga Desha (probably West Bengal) named this land, ‘Thambapanni’. Subsequently he became the first recorded king of the island. As per the chronicles he landed here in 543 BC.

Later in the 2nd century AD, the Greek mathematician, Ptolemy marked this country as ‘Taprobane’ in his famous world map. The Taprobane he mentioned was quite bigger, yet the unmistakable location clarifies that he wanted to show Sri Lanka in the map.

Later on, the Arab merchants (as well as Persians) used to call this country as ‘Serendib’. Also there are records that Chinese called Sri Lanka as Si-Lan. The 14th century explorer Marco Polo, visited Sri Lanka and he went on to record that he found many pearls and precious stones in the Island of Seylan.

Since, 16th century AD, many European nations ruled Sri Lanka partially and later on the British controlled the entire country for more than a century (1815 – 1948). The Portuguese the first of the European nations who invaded, called the country Celao and subsequently Zeilan by the Dutch. The British named this island as Ceylon and it was used during major part of the 20th century until it was officially changed to ‘Sri Lanka’ in 1972.

To read more about Sri Lanka click here.

The picture above shows a moonstone, a typical stepping stone found in many Sri Lankan temples. To learn more about them read this post by Harumi.

Waterfalls of Sri Lanka

The central highlands of Sri Lanka have one of the highest concentrations of waterfalls in the world.

The hill country, which is located in the middle of the island, receives rain almost throughout the year. Number of rivers, start from these high mountains run radially across the country and meet the sea at the end. When those rivers, streams and tributaries descend from high mountains to lowlands you will see these magnificent creations of the nature.

The top image is the tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka known as Bambarakanda Falls. I have included a few such spectacular waterfalls here and I will add more pictures in the future.

To All Nature Lovers

Hi Friends,

I felt this unusual feeling the other day as I am not sure whether I’m doing the correct thing or not by exposing the beauty of Sri Lanka.

I heard that some of the unique and beautiful places in Sri Lanka were flooded with people after a few television programs broadcast sometime back. Also I heard that the pristine beauty of those places was damaged due to such mass influx of people.

I usually do not give the exact details of the locations for simple but weird reason that I do not want to see these places get crowded with people in times to come. In simple words, I prefer to see only the nature lovers visit these places. Hope I’m not showing my jealousy here. :)

I just thought of posting this to get the views of everyone before embarking on my next moves. I am planning to give some of the most exciting places of Sri Lanka in the next few months to come.

Best Rgds
K

Tagging Challenge

This is a different post from me for a change :)

I was tagged by Harumi and invited for a tagging game.

The rules are;
•You write five words to describe how you feel about recent events in Sri Lanka.
•You tag five bloggers.
•You sit back and relax.

So here it goes...

My words

1.Despair
2.Hope
3.Trust
4.Unity
5.Prosperity

My Tags

1.Chavie, The one who is on the run
2.N, The one in a bit of a confusion
3.Dilsiri, The Kitesurfer
4.Niroshinie, The one with lots of imagination
5.Sumedha, The one who enjoys the beauty

Thanks
K

Rainy Seasons

The climate and weather patterns are changing globally and it is true for Sri Lanka as well. Still we can identify distinct rainy periods according to the region.

Usually February and March are dry months. The famous Sri Pada (Adam's Peak) climbing period falls during this time because of the dryer and better weather.

April is the month of thunder and lightning. During this period we experience quite a lot of rain mainly during the evening.

May and June is the typical monsoon season in Sri Lanka. There will be heavy rain from the South Western Monsoon Winds. Travelling in the wet lands in the Western part and the hill country will be more difficult during this period. So this is not the best period for hiking unless you like to be in the middle of a jungle during torrential rain.

After the monsoons, the month of August would be dry and latter part of monsoon may bring heavy rain in September.

Usually October is a good month for travelling. North Eastern monsoon starts in November, which brings rain mostly for Eastern and Northern face of the hill country.

December would be generally chilly and windy.

Sri Lanka Map No.4

Hi Everyone,

I'm attaching a sketch map of places I have portrayed since 8th March.

Thanks

K

The Land of Unmatched Splendour

Sri Lanka is unique in many ways. These dimensions include culture, geographical location, people and many more.

The natural beauty and the environment is also unparallel compared to anywhere else. Lots of people believe it has the potential to be the no.1 tourist location in the future. There can be only a handful of places that has better potential for eco-tourism and medical tourism. To my knowledge this exclusivity is attained due to some of the key points mentioned below.

1. The change of climate, geography and vegetation within a small distance.
2. More predictable weather patterns.
3. Warm tropical climate subdued to a cooler ambiance due to the sea around the island.
4. Highlands in the centre and low lands in the perimeter - This distributes water more equally. Most of the rivers start from the central highlands and runs radially across the country till they meet the sea.
5. Massive water fronts from the east, west and south - this brings rain throughout the year from two monsoons.
6. Not proned to natural disasters like volcanoes, bushfires, earthquakes and hurricanes.
7. One of the highest concentration of waterfalls in the world - Central highlands.
8. One of the highest concentration of wild animals - Just visit any of the wild nature reserves in Sri Lanka.

To read more about Sri Lanka click below links.

* The history of Sri Lanka in brief
* A few sketch maps of Sri Lanka
* Weather Patterns of Sri Lanka
* A brief about 'Ceylon Tea'
* An introduction to Sri Lankan Cricket

More interesting links about Sri Lanka


* The Official Website of Sri Lanka Tourism
* Invest in Sri Lanka Tourism

Sri Lanka Map No.3

Hi Everyone,

I'm attaching a sketch map of places I have portrayed since 13th February.

Thanks

K

Sri Lanka Map No.2

Hi Everyone,

I'm attaching a sketch map of areas I have described since 27th January.

Thanks

K

Sri Lankan Map

Hi Everyone,

I'm attaching a sketch map of areas I have so far described.

Thanks

K

PS : Click here for more maps.

Hiking in Sri Lanka

Hi Everyone,

I'm addicted to hiking and camping. Although it is difficult to find time for hiking , as I used to do a few years back , I still make it a point to visit somewhere close to nature and refreshing whenever possible. This blog will update on some exciting places for hiking in Sri Lanka which I have visited and also try to share information on some of the best routes in Sri Lanka.

Thanks

K