Monthly Archive for November, 2009

To Batticaloa

Cheap indinavir stones

We took the 7.15 train to Batticaloa from Colombo Fort, which seems to be the place from where most of our travels begin. It is also possible to get to Arugam Bay via Ampara but spending A?11 hours in a bus wasna??t exactly our idea of fun.

The train ride is long. We only got to Batti at 5 am. It stopped at various places for no apparent reason. Traveling on a Sunday night in second class will get you double seats for yourself. But, unless you are a midget, youa??d be hard pressed to get some comfortable sleep. Tickets are Rs. 500. Its a longass train ride that takes you through Habarana and Polonnaruwa seemingly just to avoid the hill country.

At Batti, following the guidance of Lonely Planet we visited a very mediocre looking dutch fort. The generalA?architectureA?of Batti is reminiscent of South India. There arena??t many trees but the ones there are have been colonized by pigeons, with very bad bathroom habits.

We ate at a restaurant called Hotel Thameemy at the end of main street. We had Parata and pol rotti with potato curry, pol sambol and beef. The food was excellent.
Good price for nolvadex

To Arugam Bay

The ride to Arugam Bay was in three stages. Batti to Kalmunai, Kalmunai to Akkaraipattu and Akkaraipattu to Pottuvil. The landscape is dry and arid. Its got a strange beauty about it.

The first two stages were in hot buses. We had interesting chats with the driver on the second stretch. The roads are being developed at a rate and this provides a lot of employment to area residents. On the stretch from Akkaraipattu to Aa??bay we took a tuk tuk. This cost us around Rs. 1300. We recommend you take the bus.

Eating and Sleeping in Aa??Bay

We stayed at Sooriyas, the only place in Sri Lanka (pendingA?verification) whereA?accommodationA?can be gotten for 200 bucks per person. The room comes complete with bathroom, fan and fresh linen. The host, Asraff, is friendly and a good cook. Food is billed for separately though and if youa??re looking for ultra cheap meals then Aliraa??s, a fewA?metersA?north on the beach side, is a good option.

Peanut farm

We rented 3 push bikes and biked over to Peanut Farm. Bikes can be gotten from Hakeema??s for 300 rupees a day. Peanut farm is a surfing point that is roughly 8kms south of Arugam Bay. Its got beautiful deserted beaches and some interesting looking rocks on to the right side with some caves in them.

The road heads through fields flanked by thick dry zone forest. Elephants are said to haunt the roadsides after dark and we had a close encounter with one on the way back. It gave us the stink eye. We assume there is rap music involved somewhere.

This post might be a bit delayed because we are currently using internet that apparently uses smoke signals and monkeys overdosing on Acid for transmission provided by the dude over at indi.ca via dialog. Phone reception is particularly good with most areas covered by that operator.

source:

http://sinhalayatravels.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/day-1-arugam-bay/