Bat tree in Polonnaruwa

I was traveling on the Polonnaruwa-New Town Road, to my cousin’s house. It was about 4.30 pm. After traveling for about 2 minutes, I saw in the sky a lot of birds flying in one direction. 

I stopped and looked closely. There were a lot of bats, flying to east. When I looked closely, I saw that they were coming from a nearby tree.

It was a big tree full of bats. There were several bats in nearby trees too. The villages told that there are several bet trees like these in Polonnaruwa. Some people are truing to chase away these bats, but they always return to the same place. Chasing away bats from a bat tree is illegal in Sri Lanka.

There was a wood apple tree near the bat tree. There was couple of fruits on the ground. I tasted one and they are really delicious. You should try them too. 

I also found a “thalagoya” ( a commonly found reptile in the dry zone) in that place. This is a picture of it. It is not that clear. I couldn’t get a better picture, because I was afraid to go near it, because I have herd that they attack you by their tail. I don’t know whether it is true.

Trip to Udawalawa

Udawalawa National Park is a great place to visit in Sri Lanka. Many animal lovers visit here to witness its beauty

It is on the road from Bariel Handiya(junction) to Thanamalwila. After passing the Udawalawa town you come to the Udawalawa Tank. The road goes on the dam. 

At the end of the dam on your left hand side, you will see the beginning of the jungle. It is protected from an electric fence.

This electric fence is built to prevent from elephants coming  in to the village on the other side of the road. There are many human and elephant conflicts around this area, because these elephants are clever enough to break the electric fence and come in to the village. The villages grow sugar cane and elephants love to eat them.

How they break the fence is a amazing story. They bring a huge tree and put it on to the fence. Then the fence is broken and they are able to pass through it without getting electrocuted. 

Nowadays the elephants have learned a new method to earn themselves delicious food. All they have to do is waiting near the road. The travelers never forget to give them something to eat.

There were 5 elephants near the road on the day I visited there. In one place there were two of them together.

We stopped to give them something to eat. The bigger one chased away the smaller one and ate the banana we gave it.

These elephants have also made a way for the villages to earn. You may find a little stall in every place where there is an elephant. The villages are selling things that elephants eat in these stalls.

Hay, now you can’t see me.

The following books contain maps of Sri Lanka that could be handy when you travel in Sri Lanka.

  













I've seen a lot tourists who travel by local transport service in Sri Lanka with no guide. They find their way through these books, without asking anybody.



Once I saw a foreign couple whomade their way to Sigiriya without much difficulty. Even, some of us Sri Lankans it is a little difficult if you haven't being there before.

This shows many aspects of Sri Lankan life.

It worths more than its price. It is a perfect collection of all aspects of Sri Lanka.


                                    

From Dambulla to Polonnaruwa

Next we started to go from Dambulla to Polonnaruwa. On the way you may find a lot of stalls, selling water melons. These stalls belong to farmers, and some of them are built by those who buy them from farmers and sell.

There are two kinds of water melons. On of one with is dark green in color, and the other is white with green steaks. The later one is tastier than the former.

Dambulla town is fairly a big town. It is called the sleepless city in Sri Lanka, because there are people awake throughout the night.  

It takes about twenty minutes to come from Dambulla town to Hambarana town. On the way you will come across a jungle. If you come in this way at night or late in the evening, maybe you will see elephants and dears if you are lucky enough.

Hambarana is a very small town. There you will come to a round about, with four roads. When you are traveling from dambulla, the road straight ahead goes to Trincomalle, one to your left leads you to Maradamkadawala, and the one to the left goes to Polonnaruwa.

On the way to polonnaruwa, after traveling for about 10 minutes, you enter the Minneriya National park. Here you have travel for about 20 minutes through the forest. In the evenings, and early mornings you may find elephants, deers and many other wild animals on the way.

At the end of the jungle you on your left hand side you may see the Minneriya tank, built by King Mahasena. Most of the times there are herds of elephants in this place. Many people stop here for a while to enjoy the beauty.

The Cave Temple

At the top of the hill, you will reach the caves, but before you enter through the main gate make sure you take off your shoes and caps. When you face the temple, in your left hand side you will find a stall where you can keep them for safely. You can even keep your shoes anywhere you can, because it is very unlikely, that they will get robbed, but you better keep them in the stall, because you cannot trust anyone these days, can you?

When you enter through the entrance, you will see the caves on your right hand side. From out side they don’t look like caves, because the open parts are covered with a wall. At once you will think that you are looking at a long building.

There are 5 caves with hundreds of Lord Buddha’s and Bodhisathwa statues.

The roofs are also full of their pictures.

This is a picture of the door lock of one of the caves.

In one of the caves, there is a place where water leaks from the walls. The ancient people have designed the roof in a way that this water is guided to one place and drop in to a huge pot. This is very famous among Sri Lankans, and they never forget to see it.

Dambulla Cave Temple is a place where you must visit.

The following books contain maps of Sri Lanka that could be handy when you travel in Sri Lanka.


    

I've seen a lot tourists who travel by local transport service in Sri Lanka with no guide. They find their way through these books, without asking anybody.

Once I saw a foreign couple whomade their way to Sigiriya without much difficulty. Even, some of us Sri Lankans it is a little difficult if you haven't being there before.

 Sri Lanka, 3rd (Bradt Travel Guide) 

Don't Forget Your Passport - Sri Lanka 

  










This shows many aspects of Sri Lankan life.

It worths more than its price. It is a perfect collection of all aspects of Sri Lanka.
                                  

Way to the Cave temple

This is a famous place in Sri Lanka where a lot of tourists all over the world never miss to visit. If you go there you will see that I am telling the truth, because everyday, even it is a holiday or not the temple is full of tourists.

You have to walk up hill from the Golden temple, to reach the cave temple. You have to climb a rock to reach there. Ancient Sri Lankans usually built the temples at the highest place. This is a characteristic of many ancient places in Sri Lanka.  

On the way you may find a lot of monkeys on the way. Many tourists love to take their photographs. They have gotten used to eat from visitors coming to the temple. If they find that you are afraid they will definitely come near you to grab anything that you have in your hands. Therefore don’t be afraid of them.

They are very friendly, and have never attack a person who visited their. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. There are boards everywhere saying that you should not feed the monkeys, but what I’m saying is, what is wrong with feeding them? If they are not causing any harm to us and us to them, what is the wrong with that?

You have two options to climb up, either you can choose the steps or you can choose the path. If you have difficulties in walking, I recommend you use the path. Foreign visitors have to buy a ticket to visit the temple. It is free for Sri Lankans. 

 This is a photo taken from the top of the hill.

Dambulla – The Golden Temple

I got the chance to go to Dambulla for the third time with my parents. They were planning to go to Polonnaruwa, to visit one of my relatives and I suggested that I will also come if we can also visit Dambulla. This time we went by our own vehicle.

                       

When you are traveling from Kandy, Dambulla is in your left hand side. You will arrive there few kilometers before arriving to Dambulla Town, the sleepless city in Sri Lanka. There is a parking area beside the temple, and you will be charged about 50 rupees for parking.

When I first looked at the temple, I was charmed by the scenery. The golden temple, it really was ‘gold’.  The statue of the Lord Buddha reaches the sky, touching the clouds. I had visited Dambulla 2 times before, but that was before the statue was built. The scenery is charming enough to catch anybody’s eyes. It lightens the whole area, spreading the wonders of the Buddhism far and wide. 

 

My parents and I sat in front of the statue and enjoyed the peace for couple of minutes. We just sat there. I looked at my parents. There were worshiping with eyes closed. Their faces were full of peace and calm.

Aluviharaya

Aluviharaya is situated in Matale. It is a Buddhist temple where

Kandy to Aluviharaya

My first Step.

Aluviharaya is in the A9 road. If you want to get to Aluviharaya fast, you have to take one of the following buses.

• Dambulla
• Kekirawa
• Anuradhapura
• Polonnaruwa
• Wawniyawa
• Trincomalee

All these buses are parked side by side in the east corner of the ‘good shed’ bus stand. Dambulla buses go a little slower than others. Therefore, if you want to get their faster, you better one of the long distant buses, like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, etc.

You may always find any of these buses, except late at night. I choose a Kekirawa bus, and started my journey at about 8.00 am. I was able to take y favourite sheet, the left front sheet, since the bus was not crowded. Half the bus was empty, when it took off from the bus stand.

As usual I starred outside the window. There are a lot of stalls in the pavement. The stalls near the bus stand are mostly full of fruits and some are full of sweets. As we go far, then are the stalls full of clothes, accessories, shoes, anything and everything. I will describe my experience around these stalls in another post.

Then we pass the clock tower, which is about 500m away from the bus stand. After passing this, we start our journey deep in to the city, where major shops are the kings. If you look around there are various shops with eye catching show rooms and banners.

It takes about 10 minutes to get out of the city, since the buses go really slow in order to gather more crowd. Some times the bus is slow due to traffic, especially when the schools are over. Therefore you better not start the trip between 6.30-7.45 am and 1.00-2.00 pm, since those are the hours where schools start and end.

Then we slowly go far away from the Kandy city. After about 25 minutes we arrive to Katugastota. We enter Katugastota city by crossing a huge bridged. This bridge is built across the ‘Mahaweli River’ the longest river in Sri Lanka. Some times the river is brownish, which indicate that it has rained uphill.

Katugastota is comparatively a small town. Here you will see the bus taking a bent to your left. After that the road goes along with a small canal, a branch of the Mahaweli River. There are another three major towns to pass before arriving to Matale, the district to which Aluviharaya belongs to. They are,

• Ambatenna
• Akurana
• Alawathugoda

The road to Matale from Alawathugoda is very steap, and there are a lot of bents. The bus goes very slow, and it shakes like a cradle. This is the best part of the trip to have a little nap if you want, because there is nothing much to see around, except for the mountains and houses. Therefore you can sleep till you reach Matale city. It takes nearly an hour to arrive to Matale from Kandy.

In Matale, the bus will stop at the bus stand for couple of minutes. Do not get off the bus. Prepare your belongings, get ready to get off. After the bus starts again, call the conductor, and tell him that you want to go to ‘Aluviharaya’. All you have to say is just ‘Aluviharaya’ and he will definitely understand. It takes about five minutes to arrive to Aluviharaya. The conductor will inform you when the bus arrives there.

Aluviharaya is in the left hand side. Get off the bus. You may see a white wall with a row of black elephant statues. This is the Aluviharaya.  

Cheapest Way to Travel in Sri Lanka

sri lanka
From my experience, there are few things that you should be aware of when traveling in public transport. 

• Ask the conductor whether you can go to your destination from that bus before you get in. If your are a foreigner very simple  English  is  enough  to  get this  information.  For  example say  you  want to go to Matale,   just say 'to matale' and they will understand, and some may even step forward to show a better  bus. In some areas, there are several ways to get to the same destination, so better ask for the best bus, which reaches there faster 

• Choose a suitable seat, where you can sit and see around properly. According to my experience, the left front sheet is the best, both for security and for better view.

•  Never forget to take the ticket, especially if you are using government bus, because you will never know when the officers would come and check your ticket.

• Stay aware of your belongings. 99.9% Sri Lankan people are very nice and kind, butthere are few, who steel in the buses, so be  careful! Never take your eyes off your precious items.

• Ladies must be double careful, since there are some rascals who try to have some cheap fun. They should follow special method when traveling by public bus. Of course this wont be a problem, if you are a foreigner and look different, because then they wont even come near you. 

The following books contain maps of Sri Lanka that could be handy when you travel in Sri Lanka.

   















I've seen a lot tourists who travel by local transport service in Sri Lanka with no guide. They find their way through these books, without asking anybody.













Once I saw a foreign couple whomade their way to Sigiriya without much difficulty. Even, some of us Sri Lankans it is a little difficult if you haven't being there before.

Sri Lanka (Country Guide)

Sri Lanka Insight Guide (Insight Guides)



 













This shows many aspects of Sri Lankan life.

It worths more than its price. It is a perfect collection of all aspects of Sri Lanka.