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.

We started around 6p.m. for Dambulla. A short cut was suggested past the last gate of the harbour and to Ja-Ela, then branch off to Dambulla, via Kurunegala. This route took us past Modera, where the famous fish market, after the Colombo Pettah in the Western Province was located. We drove by the Hamilton Canal, which was built by the Dutch, and the setting sun cast a magical glow over waters and the colourful boats which were anchored in it. Vendors in push carts sold their fish and poultry under the flourescent bulbs fixed to their carts. We paused by a bridge where we could see the canal waters meet the sea, in the distance and the pinkish golden waters was a pretty sight.

We stopped over at Gimanhala Transit Hotel in Dambulla, a nice, friendly and small hotel right on the main road. This morning, we reached Trincomalee, after passing through the numerous checkpoints along the way.

I stayed at Ariyawan Rest, after nearly three years. The rooms had undergone a fresh coat of lilac paint, instead of the pink it used to wear. The exterior also had shed its pink coat and donned a dark-yellow. As far as I am aware, there is only this place to stay at in Ampara for visitors passing through on short visits. I checked in around 6p.m., having pre-booked. I heard that the management had changed hands and indeed, the current people seemed more enthusiastic. A badminton court had been set up in the courtyard in the middle and the staff played enthusiastically. I was very much tempted to join in, except that I was already too tired and had to get up early the next morning. So, opted instead to have an early dinner and sleep.

Around 6a.m., we started our drive back to Colombo, stopping for an early breakfast of stringhoppers, coconut sambol and ginger tea at a roadside 'kade' near Parakramabahu Road.

Ampara is at its most beautiful in the months of December and January. All the green from the rains is very pleasing to the eyes. We took the route passing through Bibile and Kandy, which had a very scenic route past lakes and mountains. Serendipity would best describe that route. Puppies and kittens seemed perfectly content at lying on the middle of the road, sleeping or playing and birds were loath to fly away from the road they had alighted upon. I worried that we would end up hitting one of them but our driver skilfully managed to steer the vehicle away from them.

The drive from Ampara to Kandy, though nearly 200kms, took us only three hours but the remaining route from Kandy to Colombo, which was less than 150 Kms took us more than four hours because of the heavy traffic.