Another great crossing through the endless island

It's time to ride across the good ol' island again, and this time it is not professional but more family oriented and leisure-fun purpose. Company staff i am currently employed decided to go on a fun trip to the ancient city called "Anuradhapure" on last weekend. Everything was well planned and all the people from all the branches were invited and so they all went. Me, my wife and some of my very good ol' friends also got together from our branch and decided to join the party. Me and my wife came to a conclusion that going in a car or something else would be boring so here we go, an job for good ol' me, so we hopped on to our trusty Yamaha virago 400 and started the journey.

It was three days long and covered nearly 450 Kilometers, we went through all the important places in "Anuradhapura", some of them are "Sri Mahabodhiya" "Ruwanwelisaya" and of course sri lankas most magnificent rock cut buddha statue ever "Avukana". We were well accommodated at "Palm Garden Hotel at Anuradhapura. You can see that in the picture starting from left, My self, my wife and my good old friend, we are starring at the grandeur of finest and tallest rock cut buddha statue in whole of island which dates back to 5th century during the reign of king "Dhathusena". This statue is completely carved out of solid granite rock. According to the legend the precision of this masterpiece is so accurate that if one lays a drop of water on the forehead of Buddha it should glide all the way down and falls in right exactly between the feet of the statue.

The statue is facing over the "Kala Weva" one of the largest man made reservoir in whole of island, also made during king "Dhathusena's" period. I think this photo is pretty good since we should not take any photographs facing back to any religious and sacred monument. We came across a small church in the hotel ground that we were accommodated, it was within the hotel garden and we thought it is because entire hotel was owned by a Italian who must have been a roman catholic. I thought i would post a snap or two of that little neat place.

I was starring at the nice painting and my friend manage to steal a snap of me. Well it was a good thing again that i was facing to the religious painting. The other photo to the right shows the main entrance of the church which looked really nice when lighten up with candles and small electrical lights. It had enough room for about fifteen to eighteen people to comfortably sit and do their religious prayers. In all my life of traveling through out the island i never come across a place like this before, that is why i thought i would post it on my blog. a small church within a fiver star hotel. really a great idea i think. Entire fun trip was finished within three days and many hours and kilometers on the road. Slightly exhausting but major fun. It was all great to follow up my friends vehicle and sometimes do overtakes and pass them and then later catch up with each other. Like i always say, there are no other better way to see this island than on a trusty motorcycle.

Once again i got caught in the island spell..... 12 days of touring

I know this is a bit of too old news to publish as a new post in my blog but here goes, as I always say nothing really matters as long as you feel good about it. These are some snaps and thoughts of the tour I had all around sri lanka last February. Since I am a National tourist guide lecturer, I always get to tour around this island and explain about it to the tourists, but something that really amazes me is that I never got fed up of this island no matter how many times I have travel through it.

On this tour we have taken two motorcycles, one is a Yamaha XT 400cc which and the other is Honda XR Baja 250cc. They were pretty sturdy enough to get us through all twelve days of the tour. I went up as the tour guide and Jane was the tourist. She is from England and wants to tour all around sri lanka on a motorcycle specifically because she is a photographer and she says best way to see the island is on motorcycle. I sure do agree with her.

Above picture shows the two motorcycles we have used on our tour. Well pretty good for their old age since the owner of them have kept them in very good (engine) Condition lol.

Here is just a glimpse of knuckles mountain range over the my side mirror. It is one of the most scenic places here in this island. Every time i go there, the beauty of it really do capture my heart and soul.

Well that's me after few hours of riding up in the knuckles mountain range. It is fun really it is.

This is my self has stopped to rest for a while and jane also wanted to take few pictures of the surroundings.
This picture was taken on our way back to hotel from polonnaruwa. it is an ancient sri lankan city, it contains remnants from the kings times which they use to govern the country from this specific place. It's a very good place to ride around because not many mountains and hard turns to take, just straight road, endless straight road to all your destinations.


To the right you can see a photograph of my tent in the "Ella Adventure Park". That is one of the coolest places to stay when you are on a slightly adventure type tour. It was quiet late when we reached adventure park. We could not see a thing, with very little amount of light we had to walk about a kilometer in to the jungle where we also had to cross a hanging bridge to the camp site. It's an amazing place with barely no electricity. So later onwards my tourist had to go to a cabana which is near by the main office, restaurant etc in the camp site. then i was escorted to the most remotest place in the entire area, the furthest tent which was quiet fun. nothing but just kerosene lamp light, wind, sound of the river, bats and owls. after a cold water shower, i crawled in to my tent for a soothing quiet goodnight sleep. It was the off season so my self were the only person who were in the furthest campsite from the main office. Scary eh? Fun though.
I manage to take a picture in the morning of the bridge we crossed to come to camp site, well i am sure that is not a place to cross especially at night in pitch black. So if anyone of you who is happen to reading this entry in my blog, If you ever visit "Ella Adventure Park" of Sri Lanka, make sure you go there in a morning because otherwise it will be very difficult. Best way to go and enjoy "Ella adventure park" is go there in the morning, relax and get to know the surroundings. you could do some of their many great adventure activities, have your lunch and relax a bit at your camp site in the evening and make sure you hop in to the restaurant before it gets dark for dinner.
Well that was just a tiny fraction of the entire tour so i thought of sharing it with everyone. well last picture was taken at the "Galle" in "dalawella hotel", as the final farewell picture for the 12 day motorcycle adventure tour all around the island. Well goodbyes are always sad but for some reason when it comes to adventure, recreational touring it is not that sad because everyone takes a pinch of the memories that they have made out through out the entire tour. i hope you all liked this entry and please feel free leave comments about it.