Ahila's travel highlights

Stayed at the Welcombe Hotel on Orr's Hill in Trincomalee overlooking the sea. The hotel was fully occupied with people visiting the district on work missions. I was given a room in an old, renovated bungalow a short walk away from the main hotel building, which was designed in the shape of ship's bow. A small four post bed, from the colonial era, a desk and chair and a TV with a couple of local channels was the only furnishing in the room. Hot water showers was more of a luck, than a regular feature as the water was being heated by a solar-powered heater. Though there was a nice dining room in the bungalow, the hotel unfortunately did not serve meals there and so I had to go to the restaurant, which was also nice with outdoor seating overlooking the sea.

The first floor porch was not yet fully renovated, so I did not attempt to cross the fragile looking boards but opted to stay in the garden restaurant, where only set menus were served.

There was an ongoing photography exhibition by one of the resident guests at the hotel. Agron Dragaj was displaying some of his photos taken during his work travels in Jaffna and Trincomalee and also from his holidays in South Sri Lankan beaches. There were some from his travels around Europe. He said that he was holding the exhibition as an auction to raise money for the purposes of charity and from his book, I saw that the bidders were mostly from the small expatriate community living in Trincomalee.

If peace could return to the country in the near future, I would really recommend Trincomalee as one of THE travel destinations in Sri Lanka. Such a tranquil and beautiful place with lovely beaches, beautiful sunrises and sunsets and expanses of bird sanctuaries, lovely hills and rock formations and green paddy fields, where they were still being cultivated. It was really sad, however, to see that many once heavily populated villages were all deserted due to the conflict and now heavy checkpoints existed within every few metres around the district and people, both on foot and vehicles, were stopped and underwent security checks. Of all the three Eastern districts, I found the current atmosphere of Trincomalee more disturbing.