The morning of the 7th was cloudy and windy, with some rain, in Nuwara Eliya. I actually enjoyed this last installment of cool weather before leaving on a bus headed east to Badulla about 11:30. Light rain fell as the bus left Nuwara Eliya, but less than five miles down the valley to the southeast the sun was out. As we descended we passed more vegetable gardens than tea gardens. The bus descended the valley below Hakgala Rock with great views down the valley. Up the valley towards Nuwara Eliya loomed a massive bank of white clouds.
It took the bus almost an hour to travel the 15 or so miles to Wellimada, a more than 2500 foot drop from Nuwara Eliya. From there it was about 20 miles northeast to Badulla, mostly down a narrow and very beautiful green canyon with many twists and turns in the road. Arriving in Badulla, at 2200 feet elevation, about 2, I found a hotel, had lunch, and then about 3:30 took a very slow bus north down a steep road with lots of roadwork in progress about four miles, descending about 250 feet, where I got off and walked about a mile, descending another 250 feet or so, on a path to Dunhinda Falls. The path passed through scenic jungle with views of the river below and a smaller waterfall downriver from the main falls. Dunhinda Falls drop about 200 feet down a massive rock face with jungle all around. I spent about a half hour at a viewing platform in front of the falls and then walked back in the late afternoon. There were quite a few macaque monkeys along the trail.
Back in town I visited a couple of temples, including one with a big white dagoba (stupa) said to hold some of Buddha's sweat, which is about the silliest relic I've ever heard of. I wonder if there are Christian churches with Jesus' sweat in a vial or mosques with Mohammed's.
The next morning I visited St. Mark's Anglican Church in town. The Sunday morning English language Holy Communion service was in progress, so I first looked around in the cemetery surrounding the church, with old tombstones and lots of small purple flowers growing among them. I did peer in the open front doors during the service. Not many were in attendance as the priest was giving a sermon. I sat for a while outside with several other townspeople and listened to the service. When it was over I went inside to look at the old plaques on the walls. On one wall was a plaque saying that the church had been built in 1845 in memory of the Major Rogers, the big elephant hunter, killed by lightning in Haputale. Ont the opposite wall was a plaque that was an obvious translation of the English one but in Sinhalese or Tamil. I looked around and spoke a bit with the priest and some of the parishioners as the church was filling up for the Tamil language service.
From St. Mark's I walked again to the Kataragama Devale. I had visited it the night before, but now in the light of day I could see the old murals on its walls depicting a perahera, or religious procession.
At 11:30 I left on a bus headed southeast to Monaragala, less than 40 miles away but a trip of more than two and a half hours. The bus first headed uphill, rising about 1500 feet through forest and tea plantations before dropping down to the town of Passala at about 2800 feet. From Passala a narrow winding road took us down through beautifully forested hills to Monaragala at only about 450 feet elevation. I could feel the increase in temperature and humidity. I had left the cool hills, although the area around Monaragala was still hilly, with a hill rising to about 4500 feet rising above the town. The hill rocky, forested hill is also called Monaragala, which means Peacock Rock.
After finding a hotel and having a lunch I began a walk about 3:30 passing a rubber factory and climbing up the slope of Peacock Rock on the edge of town into an old rubber plantation, with the trees planted among giant boulders on the hillsides. The trees are massively scarred by years of rubber tapping and may no longer be producing rubber, as there were no cups attached to them. A few houses are along the way with friendly people in them. I climbed only about 300 feet up the narrow road and then, hot and sweaty, sat for a while in a nice spot. The whole area was very green and scenic, with boulders, rubber trees, and other jungle trees and plants. I walked back and returned to town about 6, with birds chirping and frogs croaking as I descended.
The next morning about 10 I took a bus to the little village of Maligawila, less than 15 miles south, but an hour trip. The scenery on the route was again beautiful, with rubber plantations, big jungle trees, forested hills, and green meadows. From the village I walked on a trail past more big trees and many strangler figs a short distance to a 7th century limestone statue of Buddha, maybe 40 feet high, with a brick arch supporting his back. The statue had been in pieces, was found in the 1950's, and restored in 1991. The forest surrounding the statues is spectacular and I wandered all around for about two and a half hours. Langur monkeys climbed among the tree branches and I spotted four monitor lizards on the ground as I walked around. Three of them quickly scampered away, one up a tree. The fourth was braver and let me follow him around for a while.
Nearby are ruins of a monastery and further away is another limestone statue of about the same size, this one atop a five level platform, a sort of ziggurat, maybe 50 feet high. I climbed to the top, where it the statue is now under an ugly modern shelter. It, too, was found in pieces and restored, with big chunks of cement filling in the gaps. It is thought to be a statue of Avalokiteshvara or the Maitreya Buddha. Macaques were all over the area and I spotted two more monitor lizards on the ground. One, like the ones I has seen earlier, was about two feet long with its tail, while other one, which I followed around for a while, was about three feet long.
I walked back to the village through the beautiful forest and at 2 left on a bus heading back to Monaragala. I got off halfway there and took another bus that took me just past the town of Butalls, 10 miles southwest of Monaragala, where I got off and walked a mile or so to Yudaganawa, where stands the base of a huge dagoba (stupa) more than a thousand feet in circumference. The dagoba is said to be more than 2000 years old, though much restored over the centuries. It marks the site where semi-legendary king Dutugemunu, Sri Lanka's foremost hero, defeated his brother in the 2nd century B.C. before going on to conquer the island. Right in front of the dagoba is a small Kandyan style shrine with interesting paintings on its walls and wooden ceiling, including a very skinny Ganesh and a Buddha seated beneath a cobra.
The shrine was very hot inside, so I was glad to get out and walk around the dagoba, where I spotted yet another monitor lizard and several big white mushrooms growing in the grass. I walked back to the main road, stopping to look at another, much smaller, brick dagoba with ruins around it. People were very friendly along the way. I caught a bus to Butalla and then another to Monaragala, arriving about 6 after another pretty trip through green hills and forest.
The next morning I left on a 10:30 bus bound for Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's east coast, a 40 mile journey that took about two hours. Under a hot, sunny sky, the bus rounded Peacock Rock and headed east through the last of the hills and the ever present jungle. Leaving hills, the bus passed through very gently rolling flatlands sloping down to the ocean, crossing the lowland jungle of Lahugala National Park, a beautiful dry forest. At a glade with water beyond it we spotted two big elephants. The driver stopped to give another tourist and me a chance to take photos. Leaving the forest, the bus passed fallow rice paddies, flat and dry, and an army camp before reaching the coast at the town of Pottuvil, where it turned south, passing over the mouth of the lagoon, with a great view of the deep blue ocean to the east, and reached Arugam Bay just a couple of miles south of Pottuvil.
Arugam Bay is famous for its surf and must have fifty to a hundred hotels, big and small. I checked into one and then walked to the beach, where it was hot in the early afternoon sun. I had a small lunch and then sat under the shade of a tree on the beach, later talking to a guy who works for the local government when he stopped by. There was a breeze off the ocean, but not much of one. About 4:30 I finally got up and took a walk along the beach toward the southern headland (the northern headland is beyond the lagoon mouth and in Pottuvil). Lots of fiberglass boats sat upon the beach further down, in front of tiny fishermen's grass shacks. The boats seemed to be post-tsunami donations, with some of their donors (Rotary Belgium, British High Commission) painted on their sides.
Near the southern headland is a popular surfing spot, where about 50 people, both foreigners and a few locals, were surfing before maybe 30 spectators. I walked further along the dunes of the headland until I could see the coast running to the south, and then turned back. An almost full moon, two days short of full, had arisen. The sky was mostly cloudy and the sun set with a last flourish through the clouds behind the trees to the east. I walked back before dark and had an early dinner before heading back to my hotel. My room temperature was 90 degrees when I went to bed.
I slept late the next morning, getting up after 8 after staying up relatively late for me the night before, 10:30, talking to another tourist. After a late breakfast I read in my room till it was too hot and then went to an even hotter internet cafe and eventually lunch. In mid afternoon I went to the beach and sat in the shade until about 5, when I started a walk north towards the northern headland, passing the sand bar blocked mouth of the lagoon and then turning back as an almost full moon rose. Arugam Bay was a hot place for me after being in the hills and I sat on the beach, where it was coolest, until dark.
It took the bus almost an hour to travel the 15 or so miles to Wellimada, a more than 2500 foot drop from Nuwara Eliya. From there it was about 20 miles northeast to Badulla, mostly down a narrow and very beautiful green canyon with many twists and turns in the road. Arriving in Badulla, at 2200 feet elevation, about 2, I found a hotel, had lunch, and then about 3:30 took a very slow bus north down a steep road with lots of roadwork in progress about four miles, descending about 250 feet, where I got off and walked about a mile, descending another 250 feet or so, on a path to Dunhinda Falls. The path passed through scenic jungle with views of the river below and a smaller waterfall downriver from the main falls. Dunhinda Falls drop about 200 feet down a massive rock face with jungle all around. I spent about a half hour at a viewing platform in front of the falls and then walked back in the late afternoon. There were quite a few macaque monkeys along the trail.
Back in town I visited a couple of temples, including one with a big white dagoba (stupa) said to hold some of Buddha's sweat, which is about the silliest relic I've ever heard of. I wonder if there are Christian churches with Jesus' sweat in a vial or mosques with Mohammed's.
The next morning I visited St. Mark's Anglican Church in town. The Sunday morning English language Holy Communion service was in progress, so I first looked around in the cemetery surrounding the church, with old tombstones and lots of small purple flowers growing among them. I did peer in the open front doors during the service. Not many were in attendance as the priest was giving a sermon. I sat for a while outside with several other townspeople and listened to the service. When it was over I went inside to look at the old plaques on the walls. On one wall was a plaque saying that the church had been built in 1845 in memory of the Major Rogers, the big elephant hunter, killed by lightning in Haputale. Ont the opposite wall was a plaque that was an obvious translation of the English one but in Sinhalese or Tamil. I looked around and spoke a bit with the priest and some of the parishioners as the church was filling up for the Tamil language service.
From St. Mark's I walked again to the Kataragama Devale. I had visited it the night before, but now in the light of day I could see the old murals on its walls depicting a perahera, or religious procession.
At 11:30 I left on a bus headed southeast to Monaragala, less than 40 miles away but a trip of more than two and a half hours. The bus first headed uphill, rising about 1500 feet through forest and tea plantations before dropping down to the town of Passala at about 2800 feet. From Passala a narrow winding road took us down through beautifully forested hills to Monaragala at only about 450 feet elevation. I could feel the increase in temperature and humidity. I had left the cool hills, although the area around Monaragala was still hilly, with a hill rising to about 4500 feet rising above the town. The hill rocky, forested hill is also called Monaragala, which means Peacock Rock.
After finding a hotel and having a lunch I began a walk about 3:30 passing a rubber factory and climbing up the slope of Peacock Rock on the edge of town into an old rubber plantation, with the trees planted among giant boulders on the hillsides. The trees are massively scarred by years of rubber tapping and may no longer be producing rubber, as there were no cups attached to them. A few houses are along the way with friendly people in them. I climbed only about 300 feet up the narrow road and then, hot and sweaty, sat for a while in a nice spot. The whole area was very green and scenic, with boulders, rubber trees, and other jungle trees and plants. I walked back and returned to town about 6, with birds chirping and frogs croaking as I descended.
The next morning about 10 I took a bus to the little village of Maligawila, less than 15 miles south, but an hour trip. The scenery on the route was again beautiful, with rubber plantations, big jungle trees, forested hills, and green meadows. From the village I walked on a trail past more big trees and many strangler figs a short distance to a 7th century limestone statue of Buddha, maybe 40 feet high, with a brick arch supporting his back. The statue had been in pieces, was found in the 1950's, and restored in 1991. The forest surrounding the statues is spectacular and I wandered all around for about two and a half hours. Langur monkeys climbed among the tree branches and I spotted four monitor lizards on the ground as I walked around. Three of them quickly scampered away, one up a tree. The fourth was braver and let me follow him around for a while.
Nearby are ruins of a monastery and further away is another limestone statue of about the same size, this one atop a five level platform, a sort of ziggurat, maybe 50 feet high. I climbed to the top, where it the statue is now under an ugly modern shelter. It, too, was found in pieces and restored, with big chunks of cement filling in the gaps. It is thought to be a statue of Avalokiteshvara or the Maitreya Buddha. Macaques were all over the area and I spotted two more monitor lizards on the ground. One, like the ones I has seen earlier, was about two feet long with its tail, while other one, which I followed around for a while, was about three feet long.
I walked back to the village through the beautiful forest and at 2 left on a bus heading back to Monaragala. I got off halfway there and took another bus that took me just past the town of Butalls, 10 miles southwest of Monaragala, where I got off and walked a mile or so to Yudaganawa, where stands the base of a huge dagoba (stupa) more than a thousand feet in circumference. The dagoba is said to be more than 2000 years old, though much restored over the centuries. It marks the site where semi-legendary king Dutugemunu, Sri Lanka's foremost hero, defeated his brother in the 2nd century B.C. before going on to conquer the island. Right in front of the dagoba is a small Kandyan style shrine with interesting paintings on its walls and wooden ceiling, including a very skinny Ganesh and a Buddha seated beneath a cobra.
The shrine was very hot inside, so I was glad to get out and walk around the dagoba, where I spotted yet another monitor lizard and several big white mushrooms growing in the grass. I walked back to the main road, stopping to look at another, much smaller, brick dagoba with ruins around it. People were very friendly along the way. I caught a bus to Butalla and then another to Monaragala, arriving about 6 after another pretty trip through green hills and forest.
The next morning I left on a 10:30 bus bound for Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's east coast, a 40 mile journey that took about two hours. Under a hot, sunny sky, the bus rounded Peacock Rock and headed east through the last of the hills and the ever present jungle. Leaving hills, the bus passed through very gently rolling flatlands sloping down to the ocean, crossing the lowland jungle of Lahugala National Park, a beautiful dry forest. At a glade with water beyond it we spotted two big elephants. The driver stopped to give another tourist and me a chance to take photos. Leaving the forest, the bus passed fallow rice paddies, flat and dry, and an army camp before reaching the coast at the town of Pottuvil, where it turned south, passing over the mouth of the lagoon, with a great view of the deep blue ocean to the east, and reached Arugam Bay just a couple of miles south of Pottuvil.
Arugam Bay is famous for its surf and must have fifty to a hundred hotels, big and small. I checked into one and then walked to the beach, where it was hot in the early afternoon sun. I had a small lunch and then sat under the shade of a tree on the beach, later talking to a guy who works for the local government when he stopped by. There was a breeze off the ocean, but not much of one. About 4:30 I finally got up and took a walk along the beach toward the southern headland (the northern headland is beyond the lagoon mouth and in Pottuvil). Lots of fiberglass boats sat upon the beach further down, in front of tiny fishermen's grass shacks. The boats seemed to be post-tsunami donations, with some of their donors (Rotary Belgium, British High Commission) painted on their sides.
Near the southern headland is a popular surfing spot, where about 50 people, both foreigners and a few locals, were surfing before maybe 30 spectators. I walked further along the dunes of the headland until I could see the coast running to the south, and then turned back. An almost full moon, two days short of full, had arisen. The sky was mostly cloudy and the sun set with a last flourish through the clouds behind the trees to the east. I walked back before dark and had an early dinner before heading back to my hotel. My room temperature was 90 degrees when I went to bed.
I slept late the next morning, getting up after 8 after staying up relatively late for me the night before, 10:30, talking to another tourist. After a late breakfast I read in my room till it was too hot and then went to an even hotter internet cafe and eventually lunch. In mid afternoon I went to the beach and sat in the shade until about 5, when I started a walk north towards the northern headland, passing the sand bar blocked mouth of the lagoon and then turning back as an almost full moon rose. Arugam Bay was a hot place for me after being in the hills and I sat on the beach, where it was coolest, until dark.
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