Sri Lanka, Arugam Bay, Haputale - News & 130 Photos

Dec 13th, 2004, 01:25

Some people think is it worth to visit Sri Lanka? – I say yes and as evidence you will finde here 130 photos from all around the island, from the nature, animals, people, pollution, highlights, beaches and my favorite hillplace Haputale.

.

Why Haputale? Cause of the climate, people and nature. Since years I´m going there every year to relax from the european winterand Live with a local family. I walked some hundreds kilometer over this island, the jungle and mountains, swam in many bays and lagoons (with snakes and crocodiles) but Haputale and this people gave me a second home.

Okay, but what can I do around Haputale within a day by taxi (~ 1500 Rs.)?
There are several beautiful and interesting places around like

Horton Plains

Worlds End

Badulla: Dunhinda Fall (60m)

Doha Temple (10 BC)

Bogoda Bridge

Koslanda Dyaluma Fall (170m): Downview: Road from Arugam Bay to Colombo.

Dyaluma Topview

Dyaluma Top Pool

Bandarawela is good for shopping, Internet and photos.

Hatton: Adams Peak

Adams Peak Sunrise

Adams Peak Shadow

Close to Haputale are:

Adisham Monestery (1 hour walk west from Haputale)

Lipton Tea Factory (Dambetenne/9 km east from Haputale):

Lipton Seat View Point (1-2 hours walk from the factory/no photo)

Koslanda Estate Horse Temple

Thotulagala Cave (1-2 hour walk from km post 3 Thotulagala/no photo)

At clear days you will have same good views from Lipton Seat and Thotulagala Rock (km post 3) as at World´s End but there you have to pay 12 Euro/16 US$ entrance fee.

You will find some nice hotels in Haputale, like Kelburne Tea Estate

Amarasinghe Guest House, Cuesta Inn, Highcliff, Hyacinth Cottage and the New Resthouse.

But my favorite and the most amazing place I stood east from Haputale is my the only one comfortable low-budget guesthouseWhite Monkey Dias Rest in Thotulagala. 1500m above sealevel builded between a tea estate and a 700m deep abyss with free view over the planes to the coastline in 70 km distance. After all the Tsunami damages and bodies I have seen driving down the east coast from Kalmunai to Arugam Bay this cottage was the best of all to relax. Same sad all foreighn tourist who run away from the desaster to find a better place. Living with a tamil family, their five children, dogs and cat 3 km east from Haputale town where there was no any polution or disturbing sounds except wild animals and playing children. A comfortable, simple place with western toilet, big beds and cheap, delicious food from the owners wife. Walking through the estates, find temples and a cave, house-size rocks lying around like murmurs, forest, good top viewpoints, climb on Lipton Seat, visit a tea factory, go to Adisham Monestary or make a tour to Horton Plain, World´s End, Baker Falls, Dyaluma Falls Koslanda, Duhinda Fall Badulla, Ella Gap, Kandy, N`Eliya, Arugam Bay or Colombo Airport. Everything is possible and lot of taxis offer good service and long distance drives.

Down the steps alongside the Thotulagala Tea Estate

lives the tamil family of Mr. Dias

They have built a cottage 700m above the jungle. Here some pictures of the foundation

and Building

There´s is no any noise from the road and the view is fantastic. The local food is excellent. Take a look at

White Monkey – Dias Rest
http://www.people.freenet.de/diasrest/

Walk down to Dias Rest

Thotulagala Rock (700m) - View from the Cottage

Beragala Wellawaya Road and Plains

Koslanda Estate Panorama

Haputale Map

Dias Rest Map km-Post 3

Good taxi driver are Nazeer and Mahalingam from Haputale and Ralahami, a shop owner in Thotulagala. He don´t know english but he is a good and safe driver. Dias loves to be together with foreighners. Don´t misunderstand. He´s not a guide. Give him a chance. You wouldn´t regret it. Everybody who´s open for foreign cultures is welcome to visit his family.

When we made friendship in 2000 Dias lived in a difficult situation with eight family members in a 16m² house with 2 beds only. Together with them I learnt a lot about their live and worries and the daily fight for water, food and work (1-3 Euro/day).

Dias knows all this area very well as well as he knows lot about singhalese, veddha and english languages. He´s much interested to protect the environment. He has done two big trekking tours with me. In 2000 and 2003 we walked 250 km and 600 km all around the mountains alongside the mainstream Mahaweli Ganga to Trincomalee. It was our idea to explore the Mahaweli Ganga and find it´s spring near Malborough Estate (Hatton). From N`Eliya we went to Horton Plains, Adams Peak and Hatton and down the riverbanks to Trincomalee Bay. A bottle of spring water we took with us and gave it to the Government Agent Nelumdeniya in Trincomalee.

On the way we saw a lot of environmental pollution. To fight against it we contacted some newspapers and gave them this fotos:

Adams Peak – Sri Pada

Ghinigathena

Highland Milk Company

Peradeniya Botanical Garden Kandy

Polonnaruwa - Mannampitiya

Trincomalee Swami Rock

Trincomalee Deers

Man made fire

Like to see more pictures from Arugam Bay, Adams Peak, Animals, Nature, Children, Workers, Hanging Bridges?

Animals:

Beetle - Arugam Bay

Kandy Bird at the Mahaweli Ganga River

Buffalo Treck near Arugam Bay

Hirans Cat - Thotulagala

Green Chameleon - Arugam Bay
,

Red Chameleon - Uma Oya

White Cock

Kantale Cow

Horton Plains Deer

Trincomalee Deer

Devil

Olivers Dog near Elephant Rock

Elefant - Mahaweli Ganga

Fish - Arugam Bay

Jimmy

Lizard 1

Lizard 2

Lake Kandy Monkey

Haggala White Monkey - Nuwara Eliya

Langur Monkeys Family - Arugam Bay

White Monkey Haggala Botanical Garden– Nuwara Eliya

Mosquito Bites - Somawathia Dagoba

Snake Eater

Snake - Arugam Bay (Came out from a surfers board-bag)

Spider - Dodanduwa

Stork

Storks - Mutur

Tree Squirrel - Gampoha
and

Kantale Termites

Tiger

Black Worm

Red Millepede

Arugam Bay:

Pottuvil Bridge

Arugam Bay
http://www.people.freenet.de/diasres...rama1992-2.JPG

Elephant Rock in the background and Crocodile Lagoon on the right.

Crocodile Rock

First Crocodile Lagoon

Second Crocodile Lagoon infront of Elephant Rock

Fishermen

View from Elephant Rock Cave to Surf Point Arugam Bay

Ancient Temple Ruines

Inside the Jungle

And ancient Mason´s Work

And sometimes early in the morning or evening you can see some crocodiles or their footprints. Carefully, there are some of 15 feet size eating little careless walkers and buffalos. And it happens I walked twice alongside the beach before and after a rainfall and found fresh footprints of an elephant and a bear in the sand.

Still I have no crocodile pictures. Only from a 4 feet skeleton I found 1991 near the crocodile rock.

but I saw lot of them around Yala, Akuressa and Hulannuge (Lahugala). There I swam in a reservoir, climbed on a dead tree and saw a group of crocodiles in 80-100m distance. A strange feeling on the way back with all this triangles on the surface behind me.

Good places to stay in Arugam Bay you can find at

http://www.arugam.info/

Adams Peak:

City Shop Maskeliya Road

Adams Peak Bus Stop at Poya Festival

Adams Peak Fall

Maskeliya Panorama from Adams Peak early in the morning

Next Peak

Adams Peak Top Steps

and Down Stairs

Waterfalls:

White Monkey – Dias Rest Fall

Back View from the Rock you can see from Dias cottage

Uncle and

Oliver on top of Dyaluma Fall.

Have a Diyaluma Picnic

With Kids

Dyaluma Jungle Swing

Dunhinda Fall Current
http://www.people.freenet.de/diasrest/duhinda1.JPG

Uma Oya Fall

Gampoha Float Service

Children:

Like to eat with their fingers

A boy at Dambetenne Tea Factory

Chanu with a Squirrel on his Head

Tamil Kids

Mask Boy

like Ice Cream

Arugam Bay Surfers
.

Veddhas

Nature:

Clouds

and Fog
.

Burned Forest

and North Yala Plains with the south-eastern mountains in the background.

Hanging Bridges:

Hanging Bridge Adams Peak

Uma Oya Hanging Bridge 1

Uma Oya Hanging Bridge 2

Sloping Bridge Dyagama

Kandy Bridge

Workers:

Diyaluma Rubber Fabric

Norwood Fishermen

Cook

Mason

Pottipola Railroad Workers

Pottipola Train

Dambetenne Tea Tester

Fareena Cooking

Fareena Washing

Glasgow Town Kitchen

Thotulagala schools:

Thotulagala Creech
,

Thotulagala Elementary School 2004

Middle School 2004

Did you get curious? – Than come and enjoy Sri Lanka!

Do you know the organisation SUROL in Colombo and Switzerland?

They are helping people having leprosy. Last summer 2003 we had a 15m-high river wave in south-west Sri Lanka between Ratnapura, Matara and the west coast. Thousands of houses, shops, vehicles got destroyed, wells flooded, people lost their lifes and existence.

With SUROL I had a god-child, I helped to built and repair their house which was 2m under water for 3 days.
,

Also we had to clean the well and buy new dresses and furnitures.

To finance this help I do sell via EBAY as adams-peak and donate up to 25% from the sales. Who ever likes to know about leprosy help take a look at

SUROL Colombo http://www.igotthrough.com/v01/comservice/surol/ or

SUROL Switzerland http://www.lepra.ch/

Thanks for your attention time and hopefully lot of positive feedbacks,
Oliver

Neena · Dec 13th, 2004, 03:15

Thanks a lot Oliver for sharing info and your amazing pictures! Makes me look even more forward to own my Sri Lanka trip in january-february.
Neena

skell · Jan 16th, 2005, 02:07

Thanks for the wonderful photos and all the great information. I will check out your ebay store.

It's important to keep this topic alive to remind people that the suffering is far from over and help is still badly needed!

Dec 13th, 2004, 01:25	#1
adamspeak Posts: n/a	Sri Lanka, Arugam Bay, Haputale - News & 130 Photos Some people think is it worth to visit Sri Lanka? – I say yes and as evidence you will finde here 130 photos from all around the island, from the nature, animals, people, pollution, highlights, beaches and my favorite hillplace Haputale. . Why Haputale? Cause of the climate, people and nature. Since years I´m going there every year to relax from the european winterand Live with a local family. I walked some hundreds kilometer over this island, the jungle and mountains, swam in many bays and lagoons (with snakes and crocodiles) but Haputale and this people gave me a second home. Okay, but what can I do around Haputale within a day by taxi (~ 1500 Rs.)? There are several beautiful and interesting places around like Horton Plains Worlds End Badulla: Dunhinda Fall (60m) Doha Temple (10 BC) Bogoda Bridge Koslanda Dyaluma Fall (170m): Downview: Road from Arugam Bay to Colombo. Dyaluma Topview Dyaluma Top Pool Bandarawela is good for shopping, Internet and photos. Hatton: Adams Peak Adams Peak Sunrise Adams Peak Shadow Close to Haputale are: Adisham Monestery (1 hour walk west from Haputale) Lipton Tea Factory (Dambetenne/9 km east from Haputale): Lipton Seat View Point (1-2 hours walk from the factory/no photo) Koslanda Estate Horse Temple Thotulagala Cave (1-2 hour walk from km post 3 Thotulagala/no photo) At clear days you will have same good views from Lipton Seat and Thotulagala Rock (km post 3) as at World´s End but there you have to pay 12 Euro/16 US$ entrance fee. You will find some nice hotels in Haputale, like Kelburne Tea Estate Amarasinghe Guest House, Cuesta Inn, Highcliff, Hyacinth Cottage and the New Resthouse. But my favorite and the most amazing place I stood east from Haputale is my the only one comfortable low-budget guesthouseWhite Monkey Dias Rest in Thotulagala. 1500m above sealevel builded between a tea estate and a 700m deep abyss with free view over the planes to the coastline in 70 km distance. After all the Tsunami damages and bodies I have seen driving down the east coast from Kalmunai to Arugam Bay this cottage was the best of all to relax. Same sad all foreighn tourist who run away from the desaster to find a better place. Living with a tamil family, their five children, dogs and cat 3 km east from Haputale town where there was no any polution or disturbing sounds except wild animals and playing children. A comfortable, simple place with western toilet, big beds and cheap, delicious food from the owners wife. Walking through the estates, find temples and a cave, house-size rocks lying around like murmurs, forest, good top viewpoints, climb on Lipton Seat, visit a tea factory, go to Adisham Monestary or make a tour to Horton Plain, World´s End, Baker Falls, Dyaluma Falls Koslanda, Duhinda Fall Badulla, Ella Gap, Kandy, N`Eliya, Arugam Bay or Colombo Airport. Everything is possible and lot of taxis offer good service and long distance drives. Down the steps alongside the Thotulagala Tea Estate lives the tamil family of Mr. Dias They have built a cottage 700m above the jungle. Here some pictures of the foundation and Building There´s is no any noise from the road and the view is fantastic. The local food is excellent. Take a look at White Monkey – Dias Rest http://www.people.freenet.de/diasrest/ Walk down to Dias Rest Thotulagala Rock (700m) - View from the Cottage Beragala Wellawaya Road and Plains Koslanda Estate Panorama Haputale Map Dias Rest Map km-Post 3 Good taxi driver are Nazeer and Mahalingam from Haputale and Ralahami, a shop owner in Thotulagala. He don´t know english but he is a good and safe driver. Dias loves to be together with foreighners. Don´t misunderstand. He´s not a guide. Give him a chance. You wouldn´t regret it. Everybody who´s open for foreign cultures is welcome to visit his family. When we made friendship in 2000 Dias lived in a difficult situation with eight family members in a 16m² house with 2 beds only. Together with them I learnt a lot about their live and worries and the daily fight for water, food and work (1-3 Euro/day). Dias knows all this area very well as well as he knows lot about singhalese, veddha and english languages. He´s much interested to protect the environment. He has done two big trekking tours with me. In 2000 and 2003 we walked 250 km and 600 km all around the mountains alongside the mainstream Mahaweli Ganga to Trincomalee. It was our idea to explore the Mahaweli Ganga and find it´s spring near Malborough Estate (Hatton). From N`Eliya we went to Horton Plains, Adams Peak and Hatton and down the riverbanks to Trincomalee Bay. A bottle of spring water we took with us and gave it to the Government Agent Nelumdeniya in Trincomalee. On the way we saw a lot of environmental pollution. To fight against it we contacted some newspapers and gave them this fotos: Adams Peak – Sri Pada Ghinigathena Highland Milk Company Peradeniya Botanical Garden Kandy Polonnaruwa - Mannampitiya Trincomalee Swami Rock Trincomalee Deers Man made fire Like to see more pictures from Arugam Bay, Adams Peak, Animals, Nature, Children, Workers, Hanging Bridges? Animals: Beetle - Arugam Bay Kandy Bird at the Mahaweli Ganga River Buffalo Treck near Arugam Bay Hirans Cat - Thotulagala Green Chameleon - Arugam Bay , Red Chameleon - Uma Oya White Cock Kantale Cow Horton Plains Deer Trincomalee Deer Devil Olivers Dog near Elephant Rock Elefant - Mahaweli Ganga Fish - Arugam Bay Jimmy Lizard 1 Lizard 2 Lake Kandy Monkey Haggala White Monkey - Nuwara Eliya Langur Monkeys Family - Arugam Bay White Monkey Haggala Botanical Garden– Nuwara Eliya Mosquito Bites - Somawathia Dagoba Snake Eater Snake - Arugam Bay (Came out from a surfers board-bag) Spider - Dodanduwa Stork Storks - Mutur Tree Squirrel - Gampoha and Kantale Termites Tiger Black Worm Red Millepede Arugam Bay: Pottuvil Bridge Arugam Bay http://www.people.freenet.de/diasres...rama1992-2.JPG Elephant Rock in the background and Crocodile Lagoon on the right. Crocodile Rock First Crocodile Lagoon Second Crocodile Lagoon infront of Elephant Rock Fishermen View from Elephant Rock Cave to Surf Point Arugam Bay Ancient Temple Ruines Inside the Jungle And ancient Mason´s Work And sometimes early in the morning or evening you can see some crocodiles or their footprints. Carefully, there are some of 15 feet size eating little careless walkers and buffalos. And it happens I walked twice alongside the beach before and after a rainfall and found fresh footprints of an elephant and a bear in the sand. Still I have no crocodile pictures. Only from a 4 feet skeleton I found 1991 near the crocodile rock. but I saw lot of them around Yala, Akuressa and Hulannuge (Lahugala). There I swam in a reservoir, climbed on a dead tree and saw a group of crocodiles in 80-100m distance. A strange feeling on the way back with all this triangles on the surface behind me. Good places to stay in Arugam Bay you can find at http://www.arugam.info/ Adams Peak: City Shop Maskeliya Road Adams Peak Bus Stop at Poya Festival Adams Peak Fall Maskeliya Panorama from Adams Peak early in the morning Next Peak Adams Peak Top Steps and Down Stairs Waterfalls: White Monkey – Dias Rest Fall Back View from the Rock you can see from Dias cottage Uncle and Oliver on top of Dyaluma Fall. Have a Diyaluma Picnic With Kids Dyaluma Jungle Swing Dunhinda Fall Current http://www.people.freenet.de/diasrest/duhinda1.JPG Uma Oya Fall Gampoha Float Service Children: Like to eat with their fingers A boy at Dambetenne Tea Factory Chanu with a Squirrel on his Head Tamil Kids Mask Boy like Ice Cream Arugam Bay Surfers . Veddhas Nature: Clouds and Fog . Burned Forest and North Yala Plains with the south-eastern mountains in the background. Hanging Bridges: Hanging Bridge Adams Peak Uma Oya Hanging Bridge 1 Uma Oya Hanging Bridge 2 Sloping Bridge Dyagama Kandy Bridge Workers: Diyaluma Rubber Fabric Norwood Fishermen Cook Mason Pottipola Railroad Workers Pottipola Train Dambetenne Tea Tester Fareena Cooking Fareena Washing Glasgow Town Kitchen Thotulagala schools: Thotulagala Creech , Thotulagala Elementary School 2004 Middle School 2004 Did you get curious? – Than come and enjoy Sri Lanka! Do you know the organisation SUROL in Colombo and Switzerland? They are helping people having leprosy. Last summer 2003 we had a 15m-high river wave in south-west Sri Lanka between Ratnapura, Matara and the west coast. Thousands of houses, shops, vehicles got destroyed, wells flooded, people lost their lifes and existence. With SUROL I had a god-child, I helped to built and repair their house which was 2m under water for 3 days. , Also we had to clean the well and buy new dresses and furnitures. To finance this help I do sell via EBAY as adams-peak and donate up to 25% from the sales. Who ever likes to know about leprosy help take a look at SUROL Colombo http://www.igotthrough.com/v01/comservice/surol/ or SUROL Switzerland http://www.lepra.ch/ Thanks for your attention time and hopefully lot of positive feedbacks, Oliver Last edited by adamspeak : Jul 28th, 2005 at 00:53.

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Dec 13th, 2004, 03:15	#2
Neena Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sweden Posts: 1	Thanks a lot Oliver for sharing info and your amazing pictures! Makes me look even more forward to own my Sri Lanka trip in january-february. Neena

Jan 16th, 2005, 02:07	#3
skell Maha Guru Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: The OC Posts: 975	Thanks for the wonderful photos and all the great information. I will check out your ebay store. It's important to keep this topic alive to remind people that the suffering is far from over and help is still badly needed!

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