Sri Lanka Day 63 (Trincomalee): Beaches & Wildlife but Missing Whales Watching -Part 1
We spent our night on the train and the sleepers train was better than expected.There are only 2 persons to each room and there would be shared toilet with the room next door. However, the toilet tin the trains are usually in rather bad condition and so I avoided drinking water before boarding the train and also washed up properly in Eurolanka Hotel before leaving to the railway station. I got to sleep on the upper deck and it has been long since I last slept on one. This was also the first time I got onto a sleeper train.
Reached Trincomalee 1h earlier than expected and honestly I have been waking up endlessly at night to check our location. The railway route to Trincomalee from Colombo was really quite shaky in my opinion and it wasn’t difficult to wake me up. I don’t understand how people can sleep peacefully on it, especially it is difficult to gauge the time when we will reach.
Booked into our guest room in THSC Guest House and I think my expectations and standards for accommodation has dropped drastically while being here in Sri Lanka. I was never a person who would stay in cheap guest house honestly since my family always follow tour groups and we get to stay in 5-star hotels like Marriot. I am changing for the better I guess! So this was our room.
Washed up a bit and then off we go to the town! We started exploring the Northern beach – Nilaveli Beach, where people would usually take the boat out to Pigeon Island as well as Coral Island. They are actually very close and you could see them from the shore. However, we decided to give it a miss since the people are usually there to snorkel and we had no intention to do so and therefore the price that we were going to pay was not justifiable.
We got to chill at Nilaveli Beach Hotel, which costs around USD200 for a night. The restaurant is beautiful and so is the pool. But what I like most about the place is that it is very spacious and you get to lie down on those benches and just enjoy the sea breeze.
Having said that, it has been so long since I stay at a beach hotel. I still remember how my family and relatives used to travel specially down to a beach hotel in Malaysia and have a vacation there when I was young. Now, we would venture overseas and usually it would the winter time and so you wouldn’t want to be by the beach because the cold and strong wind.
After that, we wentdown to the world war II cemetery. It is a British military cemetery for soldiers of the British Empire who were killed or died during World War II. You can see some dying at an age of 18 and some which is unidentified. The place is being maintained by the British but they have a place keeper who lives just beside. It is actually the top attraction in Trincomalee. I don't take photos of graveyard and so I only have a photo of the gate.
After that, we took a tuktuk to Velgam Vehera and then to the Kenniya Hot Wells. The driver charged us $10 which I felt was a little pricey but it was ok since the most we could bargain was to $8. And anyway, he was a friend of the keeper and personally I felt that since the keeper is helping us so much, we should try to get a tuktuk from him, or at least someone close to him. The view on the way to Velgam Vehera is really awesome and I have no idea if someone were to take a bus to Hot Wells and then to Velgam would be able to enjoy seeing that because our route from Velgam to Hot Wells was really just ordinary.
Periyakulam Tank
Velgam Vehera. Velgam Vehera is a Buddhist temple‚ which is respected by both Buddhists and Hindus. This is because the same Velgam Viharaya is known to Hindus as Natanar Kovil. This was one of the few Buddhist sites that was not destroyed by the "Cholas" attacks in the past. Initially when we reached there, my feeling was that this was just like the ancient cities like Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura but after reading up the hisotry behind this place, you would realise that it is a place worth going.
Nearby was a buddhist temple still under construction.
At Kanniya Hot Wells, the first thing that caught out eyes was this coconut lookalike fruit. After some researching, we found the name of it, which is palmyra. We met some locals there and they offered theirs for us to try. It is like agar agar! We went back to get one for ourselves after that but we had no idea why ours had so little flesh. The fruit some juice in it but it is very minimal and it was so so difficult to suck it out.
The people here in Trincomalee, in my opinion, are genuine friendly people and those at the Kanniya Hot Wells kept inviting us to feel the water. Paying a small fees of 50 cents, you can enter this attraction and see how the locals happily wash themselves in these wells and appreciate their culture. Kanniya Hot Springs is famous hot well in Sri Lanka from the past. There are seven wells in a square shape. Wells are only 3–4 feet deep and you can clearly see the bottom. The temperature is considerably high but vary from one spring to another. Behind the wells was another Buddhist temple.
After so we took a bus back to the town to get our lunch.
Fried rice with omelet, sausages and chicken @ New Parrot Restaurant
(to be continued)
