We landed at 3a.m and were driven to a Green Center at Tholangamuwa- near Kegalle. We were so tired that we crashed the moment we arrived. (Though we did manage to squeeze in a sumptuous meal with countless varieties of fish cooked with exotic spices). I woke up early the next day and the view from the window shook away all the sleep from within me. Steaming cup of Ceylon tea in hand, I stepped out of a cottage where I had apparently spent the night to discover why the place was called Green Center. I found myself on the top of a hill, surrounded by hills in all directions save upwards. Our cottage was perched right there, with flowers and trees all around. And for the first time in a long, long while, I could hear birds chirping so close to me. The Lankan sun was creeping up from behind one of those hills, giving me my first view of the beautiful country. I fell in love with it at first sight.
We started off with a tour of the Elephant orphanage at Kegalle. The sight of elephants feeding and later, much to the joy of tourists, bathing in the river was delightful. The baby elephants seemed to be having the time of their lives playfully spraying themselves. As for us, we felt glad seeing them in an environment where they weren’t made to carry logs or overweight people on their backs. Immediately after that, we headed towards the South coast. (The Northern Side is where peril lies, so we avoided it altogether) It sure was a long drive but amazingly memorable. What took away our breath was the roadside view. We were driving along the coast, so there were houses by the road and their back doors opened up to the ocean. How would you feel when you are driving along with waves crashing 20 feet away from your window and the blue ocean stretching to infinity? We could, of course, see some reminiscences of the Tsunami- a few felled trees, a few broken houses here and there to remind you of what an ugly disaster hit this beautiful place. I shook such painful thoughts away from my mind and stuck my eyes on the window to soak in as much of the moment as I could. 
(Abaauw: A view of the coast from outside the car window. I repeat, Roadside)
As we neared Ambalagonda, the view kept getting more beautiful and the twenty feet that separated us from the ocean grew increasingly painful. Sensing our temptation, our driver (who in total knew four words in English- van, late, OK and beer) graciously stopped and we ran out. It wasn’t like we hadn’t seen a beach before. It was just that we hadn’t seen such a clean beach. The only thing lying on the shore was a single rose with a red ribbon somebody must have rejected, or left it there to tempt Neptune to come pick it up. We climbed rocks, chased crabs and I was lucky enough to fall down and hurt my toe- giving me something to remember the golden moments by.
Next stop was a turtle conservation center where we played with turtles of all shapes and sizes. One of them even managed to whack me with its flippers. And believe me, they sure aren’t as soft and vulnerable as they look!
It was getting pretty late so we hit a guest house and before we could even keep our bags, we rushed to another beach. The sun was setting, and the feeling was incomparable. It was like us and the sun on two sides of the ocean. As we dropped clothes and ran into the waves on this side, the sun sank into the ocean on the other side. After exhausting all energy we had, we lazed on the shore with the ocean washing our legs and filling whatever clothing we had with sand. And as I looked into the ocean (it was grey now), I realized how small I was, how small and powerless we all were. The tiniest of waves could wash us two meters away. The full fury of the ocean was unimaginable. It suddenly struck me that if nature wanted to, she could finish us all, including the mightiest of men and the tallest of buildings without having to waste a tenth of her energy. And as I walked back, I suddenly felt this growing respect for the seas.
That night, we ate from a table that seemed to have a menu that was as endless a the Ocean itself and dead cheap, considering the complimentary beer that came along with it.
The next day’s trip started with a visit to Maduganga- a huge backwater lagoon near Ambalagonda. The three thousand Sri Lankan Rupees (Twelve hundred in our money) we paid was worth every paise and more for the hour long boat ride on the green water that included two stops- one at an island temple (where giant squirrels came kissing our camera lenses) and another at the famed Cinammon island. As we passed under canopies, we saw huge, powerful and smelly water monitors lazing on the rocks. We also were lucky enough to see two crocodiles ambushing just below the surface with their eyes and nose made visible only by the air bubbles bursting around them.
(Abaauw: A water Monitor, Still more abaauw: Maduganga Boat house)By this time, we were all wondering why we had chosen to live in such polluted, crowded cities where the only wildlife one can see is stray dogs when there are indeed such beautiful places still on earth. In the same frame of mind, we hit Hikkaduwa beach. It was pretty crowded with a lot of tourists, most of them from inland Germany (and two breathtakingly pretty ones probably from Korea) soaking up the sun. We hired a glass-bottom lake and rowed (not exactly, it was a motorboat) towards the horizon.
A hundred meters from the beach, the water was still as clear as crystal. And right underneath our feet, was a sight that beats every Discovery show hands down. Brightly colored coral reefs grew from the bottom and black striped yellow coral fish darted in and out of them. They were so close to us, all we had to do is look outside the boat and we could see hundreds of them swimming fast and random. The boatman gave us food to feed them, we dipped our hands into the water and the little yellow beauties came and licked it clean from our fingers. (Now you are getting jealous, aren’t you?). Just to make the Discovery show complete, our boatman (I wonder how long he had been in the business to predict the animal’s routine) steered our boat right on top of a probably century old Olive Ridley turtle. We stood transfixed, our eyes not leaving the glass bottom. Sir Olive Ridley did not even notice a boat above his head. He just swam about non-chalantly.
Resisting the urge to go scuba diving (which could have proved financially suicidal), we headed towards Galle, the ‘Capital of the South’. We drove along the coast again, this time the view getting only better. At Galle, we went to an ancient fort that the Dutch had built sometime in the 16th century, to protect against a possible Portuguese attack from the sea and locals from the inland. The fort is today a free tourist spot and a lover’s paradise. Dozens of couples sat along the fort walls, covered from the world by their umbrellas and least bothered by tourists around. We had on one side an aerial view of the city and on another of the never-ending Indian Ocean. We wondered what the next stop would be if one started swimming along towards Australia. (We were, of course, joking. It’s humanly impossible)
We took a long ride back to Tholangamuwa, stopping at Colombo for a brief while to shop for our loved ones back home. (The fac t was that we were so engrossed in the beauty that we missed very few people, but we didn’t want them to know that).
I had to leave the next day. I came back and went to work directly from the airport. My friends were lucky enough to spend another three days visiting the most beautiful places in Sri Lanka while I was taking in the pollution. Three long days where my body was in office in front of my comp but my mind was back with the rest of them, in Sri Lanka, driving along clean roads, running along its beautiful beaches and jumping the waves of the godly Indian Ocean.
i am so glad u "tossed "..ur thoughts about the marvelous place ...... gosh it look gorgeous .. i am so.... green with envy ....loved the article.. love the post .. will always love it ..... my want to see srilanka has magnified ... because of u ........ p.s ... the elephant is a HOTTIE .....:P:P
yeah yeah... its male too....
next stop- andaman!
heheh u are stuck with andaman ...... heheh this time .. take me along .... :P:P:P... i cant go throught the torture of feeling it all sitting on my bean bag ...... i want a whiff of them seas too ...... :P:P..... and yaaayyyyy mister elephantu be male .... yaayyyyyy :P:P
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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