Day 16 - Kochi - Homecoming

24.10.2024

Day 16

Today is the last day of our tour of Sri Lanka, which we started on 9th October 2024. 

We have enjoyed this tour of the island also known by various other names - Greeks called it Taprobane, Serendib by Arabs, Celao by Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch and Ceylon by the British. The island officially became Sri Lanka in 1972. Some popular nicknames are Teardrop of India, Island of Dharma and Pearl of the Orient. By whatever name you may want to call this tiny island country, it is a beautiful place to visit. We carry a lot of good memories from Sri Lanka - we must mention the help from Ms. Sharmini Serasinghe who helped us to find a car rental agency, retrieve our “forgotten stuff” at Kandy and her gifts to all of us.

But we must return home, where our families are eagerly waiting - to hear our adventures.

We are taking Sri Lankan airways, the national airline of SL, for the 75 minute flight back to Kochi. We all are packed and ready by 6.00 am and after a short drive we reached Bandaranaike International Airport, named after the former Prime Minister. We had web checked in and breezed through bag drop and passed immigration in few minutes. We only have few minutes to spare and some of us are hungry already! A visit to the lounge for a quick bite is a must and still we reached the gate in time.

Flight to Kochi was uneventful and landed in Cochin International Airport on time at 9.20 am. After Immigration we collect our pre-ordered DFS stuff. 

All of us are back home by 11.00 am.

We thank you for your wishes, prayers, encouragement and following us through our journey. 

Signing off for now (till next time)

#fulltankers

Day 15 - Negombo

23.10.2024

Day 15

Today we checked out of Hilton Colombo residences and moved to a boutique hotel in Negombo. We have to return our rental car and the rental agency is nearby. Moreover, our flight is early morning and it is only a short drive to the airport. Although the hotel was rated 9.8 in booking.com, we did not see much value in this rating. Well, then it is only an overnight stay. 

After check-in we drove to the rental car office to return the car. The SUV DFSK Glory car we toured the island has clocked 2079 kms on the odometer, did not give us any trouble. We were quite satisfied with the performance, but would have preferred a Toyota Monterro we had booked originally, which is more spacious.

After the formalities we returned to hotel.

All fulltankers have been to Sri Lanka many times on various occasions, but none of us had toured the entire country as the civil war prevented travel to the North and East. Fulltankers plan was to tour the entire country covering all major touch points.

What we saw fascinated and surprised us as well.

Sri Lankan culture is internationally associated with cricket, a distinct cuisine, religious iconography such as the Buddhist flag, and exports such as tea, cinnamon, and gemstones, as well as a robust tourism industry. 

Sri Lanka's Cultural triangle is situated in the centre of the island and covers an area which includes Sacred City of Anuradhapura, the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, the Ancient City of Sigiriya, the Ancient City of Dambulla and the Sacred City of Kandy. Our tour covered all except Polonnaruwa. 

We covered entire coastline, except a small section on the East - from Hambantota to Batticaloa. We traversed from South to North (Yala to Kandy and Jaffna to Anuradhapura). 

We went to Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu, Mullivaikkal, Killinochi and Jaffna - all battleground of LTTE.

What more a tourist wants to see?

End of day fifteen. 

Day 14 - Colombo

22.10. 2024

Day 14

Today we return to Colombo from Anuradhapura, the last leg of our incredible tour of Sri Lanka.

Anuradhapura is a major city located in the north central plain of Sri Lanka and the drive to Colombo is about 200 kms and approx 4.30 minutes travel time.

We started early and after a quick breakfast in the city we are on our way taking A28-E04-E03 to Colombo. Incidentally, Sri Lanka has an interesting naming convention for their road network. “E” are expressways (E1, E2, E3 etc). “A” are highways (A1, A2 etc) - these are further classified into sub classes AA, AB and AC. They have “B” grade highways as well. The Expressways which now covers 271 kms serves the southern and central parts of the country. All highways (we travelled) are two lane, but since the traffic is light the drive is smooth.

We exited E3 expressway to enter Colombo and traffic is now heavy as we traversed through the streets in Colombo. We checked in at Hilton Colombo Residences at 1 pm, for a well deserved rest after our tour of the country.

A view of the Sri Lanka we experienced in our tour. More on this in our next blog.

End of day fourteen.

Day 13 - Talaimannar - Anuradhapura

21.10.2024

Day 13

Today we start our journey back to Colombo, with an overnight stop at Anuradhapura. Instead of taking the shorter Jaffna-Kandy highway we take the coastal route via Navathkuli - Karativu - Mannar Highway for a stop at Talaimannar, which is believed to be the place where Lord Rama landed in Lanka. Total distance to cover is 288 kms and estimated travel time 5.30 hours. We start early at 8.00 am after breakfast at Fox Resorts. It was fascinating to see photo shoot of several bridal couples in the beautiful lawns. Apparently it is common for such photo shoot in Fox resorts.  

We are now travelling towards Talaimannar which is located on the northwestern coast of Mannar Island and about 18 miles from Dhanushkodi. The place once served as the gateway for travel and transport of goods between India and Sri Lanka. 

The roads wind through small villages. Traffic is light but we are careful not to exceed the speed limit. The road signs are excellent throughout Sri Lanka and the traffic police is very alert, as we see many motorcycle cop checkpoints on the way. Interestingly we noticed cars coming from opposite direction flashing headlights to alert police checkpoints. Nice camaraderie on the highway!!

We arrive at Talaimannar at about 11 pm and drove through the narrow road to Adam’s Point (Ram Setu) and walked the rest of the distance to the beach. It is very hot any humid and we took the customary photo at the point closest to India, similar to our visit to Dhanushkodi during our tour of India in 2022 when we had set foot on the other side!

Back on the road the drive to Anuradhapura is another 3 hours and ETA is 2.00 pm. Difficult choice to have lunch on the way or at Aarachi Heritage where we have booked to stay. We ordered food at the resort and it turned out to be a good decision as it started raining as soon as we checked in.

After lunch and some rest, we did a city tour and saw the oldest still-living, documented, planted tree in the world that is believed to have originally been a branch of the sacred fig tree under which Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. 

After city tour, we returned to resort.

End of day thirteen.

Day 12 - Mullaitivu-Point Pedro-Jaffna

20.10.2024

Day 12

Today we are travelling to Jaffna, about 230 kms to the north. We are in the strongholds of erstwhile LTTE - who controlled the East from Batticaloa to Jaffna in the North. We decided to take the coastal route, which takes more time but is more scenic and will take us through the battle ground of the civil war. 

First stop is Mullaitivu, a small fishing village and as we travel, we hardly see any agricultural activity. Clearly we are passing through the impoverished part of the country. Some roads are patchy and at times we had to navigate through mud roads. 

Mullaitivu, is close to the last battle field where LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed. The details of his death and burial is not available in the public domain.

Velupillai Prabhakaran along with the last remnants of the LTTE were cornered by government forces in a small pocket of land where by government forces. After some enquiry we found a person who offered to guide us to the location. It was a ten minute drive and we reached the place known as “Mullivaikkal” where a small memorial is built by locals. He also showed us the remains of a Jordanian ship captured by the rebels and a truck used by them. All in vain, and the sad end of a bunch of people who fought for their dream Eelam. 

After Mullaitivu, we took a detour to Killinochi, another nerve centre of the war. After a brief stop for lunch at Pizza Hut, we are on our way to our next stop Point Pedro, the northernmost point of Sri Lanka.

Nearing Jaffna we are stopped by police. In their interceptor our speed was recorded as 74 kms, which is above the limits. We met the two officers and explained our tour of the island, and our ignorance of the speed limit zone and apologised for our transgression. We offered to pay the fine, but the inspector let us go without any fine. They even took a selfie with us showing their camaraderie with fulltankers.

Point Pedro - also known as Sakkotai Cape, is the northernmost point of Sri Lanka. It was a trading post during pre-colonial and colonial times, and is an unpretentious spot marked by a simple signpost.

Jaffna resembles any tamil city would look like. Almost 98% of the population are Tamil. Signboards are all in Tamil and English - Sinhalese is consciously absent and the Tamil culture is very evident.

We are booked at Fox Resorts Jaffna and we found the place good, with nice rooms and well maintained lawns. The building is a mixture of old and new - the rooms are modern, bar and restaurant has the old look - interestingly the hotel has a bunker used by LTTE during the war. The property was later converted to a hotel.

Post war - At the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war in 2009, an estimated 1.6 million landmines were left in the ground, unmarked and mostly unrecorded, contributing to mass internal displacement in the Northern Province and beyond. During our drive we found at many places signboards of HALO Trust.

The HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization) is working with the SL government to clear landmines and other explosive devices left behind after the war. Sri Lanka has committed to clearing all known mine contamination by 2028.

True peace doesn’t come until the land is safe.

End of day twelve.

Day 11 - Trincomalee

19.10.2024

Day 11

Today we are travelling North, still driving through the eastern coastline to Trincomalee, a major resort port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka. We took the Trincomalee highway, a two lane highway, but the traffic is very light and we made good progress. Surprisingly we didn’t see much agricultural activity - there were vast areas of barren land. Major crop seems to be coconut and some cashew. At some places we could see palm trees.

The city is built on a peninsula. Trincomalee is one of the main centres of Sri Lankan Tamil culture and we met a number of Tamil speaking people and Muslims and one of them even spoke Malayalam fluently.

There are several historical monuments depicting Tamil culture and we saw a number of such structures on our way.

We are booked at Oceanfront condominium on a beach at Nilaveli, about 14 kms from Trincomalee. We found this place on Air BnB and it turned out to be a great choice.

After check in fulltankers went out for a swim and refreshed we are back in the condominium to prepare dinner - earlier we had decided to cook meals for ourselves in the cond and had bought provisions. Fulltanker Mathew Varghese took the lead in preparing dinner. 

Sri Lanka’s beach culture varies by location and Nilaveli has a stunning beach with a wealth of wildlife, including reef fish, corals and coconut palm groves.

The beaches in Sri Lanka are very clean. There is no garbage anywhere and they keep the place spick and span. Besides there are no vendors or touts harassing the tourists. 

End of day eleven.

Day 10 - Batticaloa

18.10.2024

Day 10

Today we travel towards east coast of Sri Lanka - destination is Batticaloa, which is about 160 kms east of Dambulla. We checked out from Jetwing Lake hotel at about 9.30 am. 

We are on the lookout for a breakfast place and soon found a cute cafe, which offered breakfast, but to our disappointment it took over an hour for them to serve us. After breakfast we are behind clock by 1.5 hours.

We are back on the road and it is a two lane highway, but traffic is light and we made good progress. We had booked our stay Karpaha Sands, Kalkudah which is about 20 kms before Batticaloa. 

Our drive from Dambulla, the terrain looks like a drive in Kerala, sans the mad traffic on our highways. As we are nearing our destination, we started seeing more Tamil shops, but noticeably majority of shops had their sign boards in English and Tamil - Sinhalese was conspicuously absent. 

Our plan was to tour Batticaloa first and then check in, but since we were back on the clock, we decided to check in to the resort first.

Karpaha Sands turned out to be a beautiful property on the beach. We checked in at 2.30 pm. After unpacking we went out for a late lunch. Kalkudah seems to be the place for resorts. Most of them are really good properties overlooking the sea and we met a number of tamils. 

Tsunami - East was badly affected by the Tsunami in 2004 and more than 3,000 were reported dead, but we did not find any trace of the damage and the place seems to have completely recovered from the effects of Tsunami!

Civil War - East was also affected by the civil war, which raged between 1983-2009. Batticaloa was a stronghold of LTTE and several bloody battles were fought between them and military. Fifteen years after the defeat of LTTE, the country has bounced back from the effects of the civil war and people are living in peace.

We had seafood dinner at the resort - what a treat it was! Fulltankers were overawed by the seafood platter and the jumbo prawns were the best we have ever had. 

The resort is one of the finest we have stayed in, though a bit off the main road (3 kms) we would recommend this property to anyone travelling to this part of the world. A few photos of the place.

End of day ten.