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