By PN Sampath Kumar
Concluding Part
Our stay in Colombo was taken care of
by the Colombo Dock Yard. The Guest Relations officer of the Guest House helped
us immensely in chalking out the trip.
Colombo has traditionally been one of
the major commercial hubs in the sub continent from at least mid 19th
to mid 20th Century which has attracted professionals from all over
the places including India. Colombo has a rich maritime tradition; the tea,
cinnamon and other spices from this land are even now very much sought after all
over the world.
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| Colombo City Road drenched in rain |
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| Colombo Railway Station |
Current day Colombo is a modern city
trying to regain its glorious past. There is a sigh of relief among the Sri
Lankan people at the end of the internal conflicts. At last peace is returning
back. Under a proper leadership, this land has the potential even to overtake
Singapore in the very near future.
Colombo is the best place to shop
items like gems (sapphire is mined from a place called ‘Ratnapura’) and
readymade clothes. Sri Lankan tea, painted masks and batik works are also in
high demand. Though coconut is a local produce, costs SL Rs.45/- (Indian
equivalent of around IN Rs20, which is high by the Indian standards). Similar is
the case with locally cultivated vegetables, rice and pulses.
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| Coconuts on sale |
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| Masks displayed in a shop |
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| Galle face hotel |
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| Slave Island Area |
“Peta” is the main market place where
one can bargain any item under the sun. There are good shopping malls which are
relatively costly. Galle Face Road is the business centre and the beach on one
side of it is the weekend escape for the families. National Flag is hoisted
here. This is where the major hotels (including our TAJ Samudra) are located and
also most attacked place in Colombo by the extremist elements. Adjacent to this
is the “Cinnamon Gardens” the posh residential area. Places like Slave island
are home for government and commercial offices.
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| Lord Ganesha kept inside the Monastery worshipped by Buddhists |
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Ganga Ramaya Monastery
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| Murugan (Karthikeya) temple |
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| Mosque |
Colombo is the home for the Ganga
Ramaiya Buddha Vihara, a Buddhist monastery, a couple of famous Hindu Temples
dedicated to Kartik and Shiva, a mosque and a Portuguese church.
Sri Lanka has a number of world class
beaches. Selecting a couple of beaches to visit during a short visit is
difficult as there are quite a number of them to choose from. We took the
coastal route through the west coast to reach Galle, the southern most point in
Sri Lanka. The railway and road go side by side and was pleasure watching sea on
our right throughout.
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| Sea on our right while going |
In between, we passed through a
village (in the sea coast) of carpenters specialised in making Sri Lankan
Furniture. They still make those wooden easy chairs and rocking chairs which has
market all over the world. These carpenters are excellent artisans who also made
excellent masks and craftwork. En route near Hikkaduwa beach, we visited one
mask museum dedicated to promote the works of the artisans.
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| Masks Museum |
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| Hikkaduwa beach |
Hikkaduwa beach is one of the famous
tourist destinations around 60 miles south of Colombo. It was about 10 am in the
morning, the most horrible time possibly to visit a beach. The sudden rain added
to the spoilsport. No wonder, the beach was deserted.
We ran into a building, having
“Hikkaduwa Diving School” written on top. The inhabitants there offered us to
take to sea to show us the famous coral gardens and the underwater world. We
readily accepted in exchange of SL Rs. 1500/-, which according to our driver was
a good deal.
A couple of Kilometres into the sea,
has in stock the most beautiful views of the underwater life. We get a good view
of the underwater life through the glass bottom of the boat. It was fascinating
to watch flower like corals in different designs (cabbage coral is one of them)
and shapes and the multi coloured fishes swimming in group. I found it difficult
balance myself to take proper photographs. Sea was rough. We turned down his
offer to take us to go further to watch dolphins.
The effect of dreaded Tsunami would
have been even more severe had there been no Coral reefs in the coastal sea.
Incidentally, it was in Hikkaduwa, the devastating tsunami overwhelmed a
passenger train killing some 1,500 passengers.
Half an hours journey from Hikkaduwa
brought us to Galle. This town is also known for the devastating Tsunami which
killed thousands. Galle is a decent town having Railway station and a good
Cricket Ground (international cricket is played here). Portuguese and later
Dutch built Fort and maintained their control over here. Ruins of the Fort and a
functioning light house are the major attractions. The town and the antique
shops resembled our own Fort Cochin Area. Yes, both the places are sharing
similar history. Galle was the ancient seaport. Cinnamon is said to have been
exported from Sri Lanka as early as 1400 BC.
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| Galle Fort gate |
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| An Old Building inside the Fort |
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| Galle Fort |
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| A Lane inside the fort |
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| A Light House at the Southern Tip |
The "modern" history of Galle starts
in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship was driven there by a storm. However,
the people of the city refused to let the Portuguese enter it, so the Portuguese
took it by force. In 1640, the Portuguese had to surrender to the Dutch. The
Dutch built the present Fort in the year 1663. They built three bastions, known
as "Sun", "Moon" and "Star". The British took over the country from the Dutch
and preserved the Fort unchanged, and used it as the administrative centre of
Galle.
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| Unawatuna Beach |
Three miles further south East is one
of the 12 best beaches in the world (at least that is what they claim this to
be). “Unawatuna”, the 4km expanse of palm-fringed sand is a paradise for all
those who enjoy the silence of the sea and dive deep into the blue waters of the
ocean. There is a reef protecting the beach, which makes it perfectly a safe
haven for bathing. Other major attractions of this southern beach include
shallow waters for swimming, and diving.
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| Unawatuna Beach |
It is the most favoured beach for all
those looking for some exciting water sports like scuba diving or snorkelling,
which, of course, we did not venture into. We spent bathing floating and
swimming in this beach for about 3 hours. It was only in the evening our son
readied to leave this beach. This, according to me is the best beach that I have
taken bath.
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| Unawatuna Sea |
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| Unawatuna Sea |
Post Tsunami, for about a couple of
years, there were nobody ready to return to this place. Many of them migrated to
central Sri Lanka. Only in the recent couple of years, tourism has started
picking up, thanks to the efforts of the government and also the interest shown
by the international tourists.
Back in India, after a fortnight, we
checked once again what all places we missed to visit in Sri Lanka. Definitely
Trincomale, the famous harbour of the British (Thirukkonamalai in Tamil, famous
for the Shiva Temple, as important as Rameshwaram or any other Jyotirlingas),
Kathirkama (Kataragama), the historically important Skanda Kumara (Kartik)
Temple in the southern Sri Lanka, a couple of very good beaches in the East,
“Yalle” National Park, Adams Peak, and the disturbed North. Now that the
shipping services are restarted between Tuticorin and Colombo and another one
due from Tuticorin to northern Sri Lanka, a second trip to this land is
thinkable. That is the beauty of some places; you tend to visit again and again,
like your home town.
