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travel Below: a bird’s eye view of the negombo lagoon from the taj samudra hotel in colombo; facing page left: a sea-side resort at the picturesque bentota beach
Jyoti Mulchandani
left: a kingfisher enjoys the morning sun on the banks of the dutch canal in colombo far Left: one of the fun things you can do at negombo, is take an elephant ride on the beach
istry including exquisite Buddhist sculptures and Hindu images. The driver took us to various shops where we bought some garments, Sri Lankan tea and ceramics, though we were rather disappointed with the handicrafts. The next morning, we drove down to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. Taking an early start from Colombo, we visited the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, a really fine and interesting Buddhist temple. We stopped for an early lunch, a traditional Sri Lankan meal of fish, beef, chicken and vegetarian curries, pol roti (coconut roti), rice and milk pudding. After lunch we arrived at the Pinnewala Elephant Orphan-
age. Set up in 1975 to take care of a few orphaned elephant calves, this orphanage now houses about 80 elephants. We saw the elephant calves being bottle-fed and then headed for a restaurant above the river from where we could gaze down on a huge herd of elephants bathing and playing in the water. At Pinnewala, we also visited a workshop making and selling pachyderm paper. This novel initiative involves drying the fibre rich elephant dung in the sun and then boiling it, resulting in a pulp that is used to make artistically textured paper. We bought some interesting elephant dung stationary to take back home as gifts. The next morning, we took the road south to Bentota. Though this is a haven of tourists staying at the many resorts in the area, the Bentota beach stretches are not overcrowded and quite enjoyable. Bentota’s lagoon is popular for waterskiing, jetskiing, windsurfing, banana boating, speedboating, sailing and other watersports, and boat trips are offered on the Bentota River to see the biodiversity. Operators also arrange snorkelling, diving and glass bottom boat trips at sites near Bentota, like the coral gardens of Hikkaduwa. GETTING THERE: You can fly to Colombo from most Indian
metros PLACES TO STAY: At Negombo: The Gateway Hotel Airport Garden offers a pleasant environment (www.thegatewayhotels. com/airportgardencolombo) At Colombo: Taj Samudra is a luxe property ideally situated at the Galle Face Green (www.tajhotels.com/business/taj%20 samudra,colombo) january 2012
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