Day 1 - Road Trip Sri Lanka - Mili's Blog
Magalegoda > Kekirawa > Kala Wewa > Dambulla
This is my blog series about my trip to Sri Lanka in Dec 2018.
We planned this about months back in UK. So I am going to share all the details
with you all. Hope you will enjoy also it will help tourists to plan their own.
Even though I born in Sri Lanka but now living in UK & we haven’t been
there in 5 years. So this was very exciting. My little one 8 years old now so
this is the sort of age they can enjoy.
Also I bought a book from Lonely Planet about Sri Lanka so
she can read about each place we visit to get an idea. So we planned a 8 day
road trip to cover some amazing places.
We were based in Magalegoda my in laws place quite rural village
& lovely green village with lots of trees & paddy fields away from the
town. That’s where we started out tour.
Day 1 - We set off about 8 am from Magalegoda. For this road
trip we hired a good spacious comfortable tourist Van with A/C (is a must in Sri
Lanka) & a driver. This was sourced through a contact who doing tourism in
Sri Lanka.
Actually, we were supposed to pick up at 7am but we had to
get the driver out of bed with a call! Basically, he had forgotten to do the
alarm. Not good! But we forgave him after all the good work he has done for us
:D. His name is Nuwan a young man.
There were few other my family members were on for this trip
including one of our aunty & uncle from Canada, my sister in law family, my
mum & in laws mum. It’s good to have had some companies for this sort of
trips so you don’t get bored. But our sisters-in-law family will join late afternoon
with us because they had Christmas Carols for their little one.
First destination was Avukana Buddha Statue in Kekirawa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avukana_Buddha_statue. It was about 4-hour drive
but we stopped after about 2 hours for a good cup of tea & breakfast, &
of course for toilets.
Well I must mention that usually Sri Lankan toilets are not
that clean when compared to UK standards. Most of the public places only have
squat toilets. They don’t have toilet papers but has a little shower tap (hand
bidet) to wash your bottom!
So be ready for this. Keep a toilet roll/wet wipe with you
if you are travelling. After that we off to Kekirawa for the attraction. I probably
have been there about 30 years ago.
It is carved out of a large granite rock face but is not
completely separated. A narrow strip of rock has been left at the back of the
statue, connecting it to the rock face and supporting it. Now this mammoth
Buddha statue has a shade built recently. That is nice.
The statue alone is 11.84m in height, and with the pedestal
the total height of the Avukana statue reaches 42 feet (13m). It was a week day
so no that busy at all. There were plenty of little monkeys around.
Be careful & keep safe your belongings. Don’t give any
foods or show them. They will just nick & runaway. We spent about half an
hour there. Do not forget to offer some flowers to buddha for blessings!
After that just few miles away you can visit a man made
wonder "Kala Wewa" (a massive reservoir), it’s a massive man made
lake in ancient time. Kala Wewa, built by the King Datusena in 307 B.C, is a
twin reservoir complex (Kala Wewa & Balalu Wewa) which has a capacity of
123 million cubic meters. This reservoir complex has facilitated with a stone
made spillway and three main sluices. From the central major sluice, a 40 feet
wide central conveys water to feed thousands of acres of paddy lands
and ends at the historical capital Anuradhapura city tank
Tissa Wewa meandering over 87 km (54 miles) at a slope of 6 inches per mile and
is another wonder of primeval hydraulic engineering facility in ancient Ceylon.
Very beautiful scenarios. More details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_Wewa
After that we started the journey to Dambulla. It’s a lovely
green road. Plenty of trees. It being raining month ago so trees are full of
green & healthy. If you travelling in Sri Lanka another thing you must to
do is eat sweet cones. I am talking about the ones selling along the roads. On
the way to Dambulla we stopped at a place with a little hut a young lady
selling Sri Lankan sweet cones boiling on a pot. That’s is so fresh &
organic. Because they just grow these in their gardens. With just bit of salt
on it this is so tasty.
Later afternoon we arrive Dambulla temple. We visited the
temple. I have been here many time but last time it was in 2008 I think.
Nothing much have changed. Another reason we planned to go late afernoon
because to get away from sun.
This place can get hot in the mid-day. After visiting we
came to our over nigh place Jaana's Guest house. For the whole trip we tried to
book home sort of accommodation because we really wanted to feel that
experience & wanted to enjoy local food.
Jaana guest owner a lady we welcomed us very well. Also take
care of us very well. They prepared home cooked rice & with many different types
of curries meal for the dinner which was very nice. Accommodation was decent
& clean. But truly cannot match
with the pictures hey have posted in the booking site. I was
expecting a place with some garden space. After the dinner Our sister in laws
family came to your accommodation place to join with us.
Road Trip Day 2/3 - https://www.milisrilanka.co.uk/day-2-3-road-trip-sri-lanka
