A Road Trip in Srilanka: Day 6 - The End

You might have noticed that I mentioned Colombo in my previous post but didn't say much about the city. That is because we did not see much places there. The only sightseeing we did was, watching some luxurious hotels in their full glory on the night.

In morning, we did not want to jeopardise our departure to the airport by doing some extra sightseeing. So after having our breakfast in a 'Saravana Bhavan' style hotel with our friend's uncle's friend who arranged his van for our trip, we thanked him and did some shopping on the streets. Later we went to a mall on the way to the airport and bought some t-shirts there also.

I was little nervous about reaching the airport on time because of the traffic but we made it on time. After saying goodbye to our driver and the unforgettable van that gave us all these memories, we proceeded to check in. Some our friends bought chocolates from the duty-free shops in departure area for their colleagues. I could not find any connection between our Sri Lanka trip and the chocolates that are definitely not made in Sri Lanka, so I did not buy any.

And within forty-five minutes of our departure, we reached Madurai. Since all our buses were on the night, we decided to book some rooms in a hotel and take rest for the day.

Later in the evening, we took a walk to find Kumar Mess because all that Yogesha could think was 'I want to eat a good meal.Dot!' We were also in the same mindset. On the way, Adithya showed us Sethupathy Higher Secondary School were Barathiyar worked as a teacher.

If you ask Sathya, Yogesha and Me (Since others are Vegetarians) which was your favourite meal during this trip, we would definitely say this one. It became the best meal we had on this trip and the Crab Omelette I had here became the most memorable item about this trip for me. After the dinner, we had the famous Jigarthanda of Madurai in the nearby 'Famous Jigarthada Kadai'.

Since all of my friends came from Bengaluru they started together early for their bus after dinner. And as usual, Being the first person to start and end this trip always, I vacated the rooms by midnight and started towards Kovai.

When I reached home on Monday morning, I had the luxury of having rest for two hours before starting for my office.

(Now to the conclusion.. Damn.. I hate this part.. It has to be wholesome about the trip and awesome..Hmm.. Let's try it..)

This was my first trip outside India. From memories of friends almost getting arrested to engaged guys purchasing handbags for their future wives, it has given all kind of memories.I remember my first sleepless night on Kandy, watching the full moon through the open window/door and wondering how the coming six days are going to be. I remember the petty fights they had between them and how GB almost played a Lakshmi Ramakrishnan of 'Solluvathellam Unmai'. I remember how my friends were disappointed after climbing Sigiriya. I remember their happiness after India winning the match against Bangladesh.

I wouldn't say that everything was perfect. But 'Ethu Nadanthatho athu Nadragave Nadanthathu'.

With our driver and the van..

PS: I have this nature of comparing and calculating the cost for everything before starting a trip and never calculate the total expense after completing the trip.So I am not sure how much I had totally spent on this trip, but it should be around INR 25000 including food, accommodation and travel. The rent for the van was not included in this since it was taken care by Sathya's uncle. But if we had to pay it, it would have added another INR 40,000 as a whole to the group.

A Road Trip in Sri Lanka: Day 5 - Kataragama, Galle and Colombo

Kataragama

The morning dawned earlier and when we shared the information about the temple we got from our driver to others, they were also confused. After having some appams from a small tea shop in front of our lodge, we started towards the temple. We were early and the temple wasn't opened yet. So we paid a visit to the Buddhist Vihara behind the temple and spent some time there. Some of our friends were still hungry and had some more breakfast in the name of annadhanam. Later we entered the Kathirkamam Karthikeyan temple and worshipped the curtain. We learned that instead of an idol, a yantra placed is placed behind the curtain.

The story here is, this is the place where Lord Murugan married Valli who was a tribal princess. There is a place nearby called 'Little Kataragama' (Okanda) where Lord Muruga's elder brother Vinayagar came as an elephant to scare Valli so that Murugan can 'rescue' her.

There is also a museum in the temple complex.It has many ancient sculptures that explain the history of the place. It has a souvenir shop too and I bought my souvenir here. My friend and I were planning to bargain the price but later found out that the items had discount and we got those for the price we wanted. Earlier we were thinking about visiting the Yala National Park nearby but later dropped it due to time constraints.

Our next stop was Galle.

Galle Fort

For South Indians, it is easy to imagine Galle. If you have visited the old french streets of Pondicherry, just imagine it on a larger scale and you got Galle fort. Galle Fort, in the Bay of Galle on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, was built first in 1588 by the Portuguese, then extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards.

We reached there at lunch time and after some argument about which hotel to choose, we had a proper good lunch at a not so cheap hotel. Now we had a lot of time to spend in Galle and we split into small groups like the ones went to the beach, ones who wanted to shop and the rest who just wanted to have a walk inside the fort. I was in the 'rest' category and was just roaming through the well-planned streets and looking at the architecture. We even saw a Tesla car there.

Tesla.. Not to be confused with the above one..

Shops.. And Yes, The guy going behind the girls is one of my friend only..

Later all of us joined near the lighthouse and enjoyed the evening sunset and the performance of a snake charmer nearby. Since we felt Galle would be costly to stay, we decided to reach Colombo by that night itself. We felt it would be more easy for us to go to the airport on the next day afternoon.

It was one of the wisest decision we have taken during the trip. But we had already done a major blunder related to it. Initially, we thought that we won't make it Colombo for the last day stay and we had cancelled it. Now we had to search for rooms after we reach there.

Some of my friends wanted to have the dinner at 'Madras Cafe' which was popularly said as a place where the assassination plan of Rajiv Gandhi was hatched. Personally, I was not sure how much that story was accurate and whether the Madras Cafe now in Wellawatta is that Madras Cafe.

When we reached there, it was past nine and the shop was closed. It looked mostly like a fast food joint which reasserted my belief. Anyhow, now we were out of options for restaurant and lodge. We started our search. Or to be precise, Yogesha was doing it. Finally, he found a small shop which had some veg dishes and Kothu Parotta. We left the job of finding a lodge to our driver and after some phone calls, we reached the 'Ajantha Rest Inn'.

I have read about the Nazi concentration camps and now I know how they look. I know it was very inappropriate to say that but that's how I felt. I am still amazed how we got the enough air for three or four people on that night inside that windowless room and still alive in the morning.