Galapita

Went on a little trip couple of weeks back to a place called Galapita, midway along the Buttala-Kataragama road. The place is called the Galapita Healing Garden, one of those one with nature eco-tourism places.

The place is so peaceful and quiet, it’s an ideal place for some R&R. The original vegetation is still pretty much intact, so there are plenty of trees to provide shade and to keep the place cool. The Menik Ganga runs through the property and provides a nice place for a dip.

There is a villa type bungalow which can sleep 8-10 people, and smaller cottages for singles and couples. You can’t really call them cottages because the whole place follows open architecture, minimum amount of walls are built. Even the villa we stayed in is open on 3 sides. Even the bathrooms are roofless. There is no electricity provided for the cottages either, so it’s lanterns all the way. It may not be the ideal for all, but I loved it. Three meals are included in the price, and it’s all vegetarian. If you want, you can provide meat and they’ll cook it for you, but once you taste those dishes, you won’t even miss the meat.

Galapita Healing Garden

One of the smaller cottages built on top of the rock

Menik Ganga - there is another cottage on the right shore. The water is so great. Once you go in you never want to come out.

The Menik Ganga carves a path through the rock.

There is a suspension bridge to get across the river

Tree house - you can sleep here.

The larger cottage which we stayed. This is the side and the back, all open. The river is right at the back doorstep.

The cottage from the front.

Another smaller cottage, the bedroom on the top level

Another smaller cottage

Another smaller cottage

Antique horse carving

Crazy horse

The Spa

Nil Manel

The sluice gates of the Weheragala tank, which was created by blocking the Menik Ganga

The Weheragala reservoir, with dead trees sticking out.

Diyaluma falls, on the way

Sleeping house guest

Why the Rush?

It’s a mystery to me why our people get a heightened sense of urgency when they get behind a wheel of a motor vehicle and put into the roads. It’s like they have a fire to put out somewhere and they must get through, no matter the consequences. Ok, maybe not all motorists, but there are many.

What are you going to do with the few minutes you lose if you stop and let someone cross the road, at a pedestrian crossing? Or let someone coming from the opposite side take a right turn? Normally I try to do this whenever possible, but what I’ve noticed most time is that people coming from behind just overtake and zip past. Once a guy nearly knocked a pedestrian who was crossing the road on a zebra crossing.

As for pedestrians, why is it so difficult to understand light signals? Red man says stop and the Green man say go. Is it that difficult? And don’t get me started on cyclists, three wheelers and busses.

If you think people talking on mobile phones while driving is bad, I’ve seen guys on motorbikes texting, while still riding. Once I was following a bike that was all over the road, only to see the guy nicely texting with one hand. I mean seriously, if you really want to send that text can’t you spare a minute and stop? After that I keep a look out for these, and I’ve actually seen 3 people doing this.

Aagh… I hate driving in Colombo…

A Study in Miniature

Thought I'd do some model photography :)

The car is a 1960's (me thinks) Cadillac and the truck is a Peterbilt tow truck.

Getting Ink Done

Well, got my third tattoo done a couple of weeks back. My mother thinks I’m going cuckoo in the head, but I achieved that a long time back. :)

It’s a design of a skeleton with a scythe, basically the personification of death.
I’ve had a fascination with skulls and skeletons for a longs time. No, it’s not something morbid. When we think about it, once the skin and the flesh is gone, we are all the same when it comes to the bones. I know there are slight variations in the bones, but it’s the flesh and the skin that makes us look the way we are. Without it we are basically all the same.

As for the Death part, well, you’ll definitely view it in a different way if you are familiar with Terry Pratchett’s character of Death from the Discworld series. He or it is one of my favorite characters from the series. Who else but the mind of Terry Pratchett can come up with Death who has a whacked out sense of humor, loves cats and rides around on a white horse named Binky. Who wouldn’t love that guy?

OK the pic is crappy. It’s really difficult to take a pic of your own arm, go figure.

The Journey

He stares at the road ahead

doubt racing through his mind

Burdened down with trouble,

and decisions he has to make

No matter the final decision

a trying future awaits

Because roads paved with gold

are nothing but a mere myth

I am back...

in good ole Sri Lanka. Yayyyyyyy!


It's hard to believe that 6 months flew by, but very glad to be back home. Landed on Sunday morning local time after leaving Canada on Friday night. A 25 hour long journey, the only part that i hate. Took 2 days off, and now it's back to work again.

View of Dubai on approach

View of Dubai on approach

View of Dubai on approach

View of parts of South India

View of parts of South India

View of Indian shoreline

A Glimpse of Western shoreline of SL through clouds

A Glimpse of Western shoreline of SL through clouds

Very Cloudy day

The View from the Top

In New York, they have the Statue of Liberty. In Paris, they have the Eiffel Tower. And in Toronto, it's the CN Tower that acts as the city's identifying landmark. It's categorized as an communications and observations tower, and stands to a height of 553.5 metres. It held the crown as the world's tallest free standing structure on land for 31 years, since 1975, but lost to the Burj Khalifa in 2007. According to the Guiness Book of records the CN tower still remains the tallest tower, but the Chinese have grabbed that with the Guangzhou TV and sightseeing tower.


The tower was built by Canadian National railway company, to have a large communications platform, and as well as to show their engineering prowess. Before the company was privatized it was transferred over to Canada Lands Company. In 1995 it was classified as one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers.



And the view from the top is awesome...

There are two levels you can view from. The lookout levels is 346m high and the Skypod is 447m high.

View from the base of the Tower

Standing on the glass floor. it's pretty unnerving at first, but you get used to it.

Shadow of the tower on the buildings below

Toronto Island Airport

A look towards the West. Supposedly on clear days you can even see Niagara Falls as well.

Another look towards the west

A look towards the East

A look towards the North

A look towards the South. Toronto Center island is also in the view.

Railway Museum. You can see the old engines as well.

Downtown buildings with Union Station

Train on the go

Rogers Center Baseball Stadium. Probably the best seat to watch a game.

Looks like ants. Things are so insignificant from way up high