Blogs from Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 5

We left the Lakeside hotel in Tissa early relieved to be going, and all bar Nicky tired. Elliot had fallen asleep early, and slept through several rearrangements of the mosquito net as he and Jake wrestled with it in their sleep, not to mention Jake waking in pain and getting up for the toilet and pain killers. We had to wake him and his first word was “Tired” - frustrating since he had had twice the sleep that Jake and I had managed. Frustrating was also the adjective for catching the bus (although in the end we both felt we had been lucky again!) We were taken to the bus stop, and prepared to get a bus. When it arrived it was packed - like the Polonaruwa on Poya day bus, and we decided that it ... read more

The area is famous for large herds of elephants even during the day. Between Buttala and Pottuvil situated so many ruins and one is worth visiting. This is the ancient Magul Maha Vihara built by King Dathusena between 516 -526 BC. Later, Vihara Maha Devi wife of the Parakrama brothers renovated the jungle covered shrine and installed one of the most exquisite moonstone carvings in Sri Lanka. ... read more

As we set off to the local police station, we realised that it was not going to be easy to renew our travel documents. There was a long queue of lorries, vans and all sort of vehicles. We waited hours and hours for our turn to meet a police officer who is in charge of checking the vehicles. We filled some documents and our vehicle was checked by the police officer who rejected the travel permission first-hand because the vehicle I was driving was already registered under someone's name who currently lives in Ampara. I am in a big pile of troubles here. No one is convinced by my stories here. All they wanted was the piece of paper which was probably on someone's desk far from 90kms away from here. There was no choice left ... read more