Kataragama and Yala National Park

A brief stop in Matara.

No time machines in this excellent adventure, but lots of good times were had! In Part 1 of our adventure, we started off in a rather cramped A/C bus in Colombo heading to to Galle. A brief pit stop in Galle to use the bathrooms and stretch our legs we quickly continued to Matara, this time on a regular non A/C bus. We briefly stopped in Matara for lunch before getting a bus to Tissamaharama, where our accommodations would be for the next two days. Travelling along the coast rather than going inland rewarded us with some amazing views of the coast!

In the garden of My Village Guesthouse.

We booked at My Village Guesthouse which turned out to be one of the best guesthouses I've stayed at so far. Sujith, the owner and his friend Alae, who was down from Colombo helping him were amazing hosts. We wanted to get to Kataragama for the evening puja (about 7pm) pretty quick so they helped us organise a tuk tuk for 1200LKR. No hassles, no problems!


Puja at Kataragama was interesting and different. Unfortunately, it was raining so we spent quite some time just standing under cover. I was later told that the Puja at Kataragama is mostly attended by Hindus and Tamils which have different traditions than the Sinhalese (as witnessed at Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic/Sri Dalada Maligawa). We saw one lady who was twirling head of long hair around (similar to headbanging) to the chiming of the bell at the temple, like she was possessed by some sort of spirit. Then there were a couple of different groups with drums, flutes, dance, and chants that paraded through the grounds touching and worshipping in particular ways. The one thing that I wanted to see was people smashing coconuts. So there are these two, giant tiles I suppose, in the ground on which people wish upon their coconut. This said coconut is sometimes on fire. When the wish is completed, the wisher smashes the coconut into the ground. If it breaks, it's good luck. If it doesn't, well, I guess what you wished for doesn't come true!

We got back to My Village to an amazing Sri Lankan dinner consisting of the proteins of our choice (chicken and fish) accompanied by 6 other side dishes! We were stuffed at the end and still couldn't finish. We got our full day safari organised for the next day (8000 LKR for the jeep and driver/guide + entrance fees). A note to expats with residence visas - try to get your driver to get you the local entry fee. It's something like 150 LKR as opposed to 2500 LKR! Photo is on my iPhone... will upload when I remember!

Entry Gate to Yala.

The next morning we were up at 4:30am with a tea ready for us. Alae and Sujith had been up preparing and packing our breakfast and lunch which we would eat in the park. Just after 5:00am we departed with our awesome driver who passed a bunch of jeeps on the way to the park to get us as close to the front of the pack as he could. We were in the park by 6:30am in time for the sunrise and immediately started to spot animals! We broke for breakfast at around 9:30am at a stopping point on the beach in the park. Most half day safaris leave the park by 10:00am leaving the park to just those on the full day safaris (which was just a handful) so when we drove around for another hour and a bit it was much more peaceful, allowing us to observe the leopard we spotted for quite some time!

We stopped by the river for lunch for a couple hours before starting the afternoon portion of the safari. Again a bonus was being able to start before all the afternoon half-day jeeps arrived. During this period we had some amazing close encounters with a few elephants where they were just a foot from the jeep while walking by. Just amazing. Also these elephants were such a contrast to the elephants in chians at Pinnewala, which I really don't like.

It started to rain, then pour at around 3:00pm. However, we weren't quite done yet! The jeep drivers have a bit of a network so if they spot a really cool animal they call each other. So at this point, there was word a sloth bear was spotted so we were rushed to that position where about 10 other jeeps were already. However, our driver, being patient, predicted that the sloth bear would exit the brush a little farther back and backed us up away from the other Jeeps. Eventually he moved a bit forward again but he was spot on! We got the closest sighting of the bear as it walked right past our jeep!

On our way back it was a bit of a slow trip on the wet rainy roads following or passing the local motorbikes/scooters/tractors. We waved to many of these locals and got some great smiles. One local man and his family on a scooter even tried to have a conversation with us while driving along! We arrived back at My Village for another amazing dinner after a nice shower. After dinner, Sujith asked us to help him place his guesthouse on Google Maps. This came up because when I booked his guesthouse I asked him to point out where he was located on Google Maps. Anyhow, it wasn't a really easy task as Tissamaharama ends up being Trincomalee on Google Maps but we figured it out eventually (we put Hambantota which allowed us to tag his guesthouse in Tissa). Sujith was so appreciative and we were so happy we could help!

The next day we were a bit sad to leave, but after a relaxing breakfast in the garden we said our goodbyes as the tuk tuk they arranged for us pulled away to drive us to the junction where we needed to catch our bus to Nuwara Eliya!

For more photos, go to my Facebook album.