Jaffna, restricted beauty of srilanka since few decades. but not anymore, we started our journey from Hikkaduwa at about 8 am and had few breaks on our way and we reached Anuradhapura at about 5 pm. had a bath at ” Nuwara Wewa” (huge tank in anuradhapura) and we visit the sacred Bo Tree and spent the night at Anuradhapura.
On day 2 we started our journey at about 7 am. 203 Km to jaffna from Anuradhapura. on our way we stopped at ” Isin Bassa Gala” temple. its really a nice place to understand the Sinhalese concept ” Tank – Pagoda – Village and Temple” you can see all in one frame and really nice paddy fields around temple and tank. we spent more than one hour at there and started our journey again. After few Km from “Vaunia” we reached to “Omanthei” (the main checkpoint) at about 11 am. make sure that you have your ID/Passport with you and if you are visiting for Film making or something special you will need some special permissions (because of that channel 4 fake video). After we pass Omanthei checkpoint we had a strange feeling something like that you are entering to a grave yard. many destroyed human signs, but no people, rarely you’ll see a farmer or army person beside the road (on 2012 Oct). Then we passed “Kilinochchi” next city after Vauniya. now its totally civilized and few memorials and signs of war left at there. specially the huge water tank destroyed by LTTE. then again that grave yard feeling. paddys are cultivated, but no people nearby road. while we pass some villages we saw that group of school girls riding foot cycles, maybe its because of there are still not enough transportation facilities yet.
we stopped at Elephant pass, there are some important monuments and its the only one place that can see the Horizon of both East and West. After few hours drive from Elephantpass we reached jaffna. its about 7pm and little bit rainy. luckily we booked a place before, otherwise there are not enough logging facilities in jaffna (in 2012 Oct) specially in long weekends.
There are lot of places to visit in jaffna, Naga viharaya, Nallur hindu Shrine, Hot water springs, Jaffna fort are few of them, we missed Naga viharaya, because its a boat trip of 2 hours and unfortunately cyclone occurred and boat service has stopped. we went to Kites Island and even if its in a cyclone its really nice beside the way to kites. on a sunny day lagoon and fisher mans at prawn traps will be a haven to photographers.
There are some other special things that you have to experience at jaffna. Ice Cream , Countless products that made by “Thal Tree” , Vegetarian food at Malayan cafe. jaffna is well known for ice cream, tobacco and grapes, but we strongly believe that Vegetarian food and other foods also will be very popular soon. food at jaffna is also cheaper than other cities in srilanka.
Here are some footage that we captured during a cyclone situation. this look of jaffna will not be available soon, because she is developing faster than we expect. only problem we saw there was lonely cities, still no lot of human activities between main cities. and some areas are still not allowed to people due to security reasons. (not cleared for landmines and traps – in 2012 Oct )
Visit Jaffna, feel the culture, Help her to cure.
