Galboda Falls

Galboda is located near Hatton; we learnt that the easiest way of reaching Galboda is by Train. We went to the Fort Railway Station at 5.30am on 5th April 2010 to get the tickets. We were initially planning to get 1st Class tickets but later decided to get 2nd Class tickets. The train started at 5.50am as scheduled and we reached Galboda after a 5 hour journey without any delays.

From the Galboda railway station the waterfall is located about one or two kilometers uphill. It took nearly half an hour to walk that distance. And finally we reached our destination; the waterfall.

Galboda Waterfall

A small train at Galboda

Snorkeling

Me and Dinuka were planning to go diving in Hikkaduwa since the start of this year. Due to many reasons it got postponed and finally we decided to just go Snorkeling instead of diving since Dinuka hasn't done snorkeling at Hikkaduwa before.

Meanwhile Hasini called and she said she was bored at home, so I asked her to join as I had enough space in my car. She has invited Oshani and she too joined in this journey to Hikkaduwa on 26th March 2011.

I had my snorkeling gear but they were too old and even leaking. So I went to Arpico a day before and bought 2 sets of Masks and Snorkels for approximately Rs. 4000. Without even testing at home took them to Hikka and found out those are the worst! The masks barely fit and soon as you dive water comes into the mask. My advice; don't buy snorkeling equipment from there ever!

So we had to hire masks, snorkels and fins from Hikkaduwa. And we hired a boat for 1 hour which was a little expensive. Much of the Corals are destroyed but there were beautiful fish as always. It's amazing how close you can get to those fish. Unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera, which we'll be buying soon I hope :)

Me and Dinuka snorkeling under the boat

Boats near the rocks where the corals are located

Big screens at CR

I'm not a big fan of cricket but was invited to watch the cricket match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at CR & FC grounds by a friend who has got some extra invitations. So I went there to see the match but that's exactly what I couldn't do!

CR ground was packed by the crowd. I was expecting a more chilled out environment to watch the game but this was more like a carnival. There were big screens everywhere but couldn't really see much of the thing. So what we did was eat, talk, enjoy and occasionally shouting "yeaaaaah" with the crowd.

Air Force 60th Anniversary

The 60th Anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lanka Air Force were held at Ratmalana Air Force base. I and some friends went to see the air show on Saturday 5th March 2011. Initially it was sunny but it started raining towards the end of the air show.

PT-6 Training Air Crafts

60 years in the skies

K-8 Training Jet Air Crafts

Ammo of MI-24 Helicopter

Paratroopers

A Bell 212 helicopter deploying Sri Lanka Air Force Special Forces

Alumni on Valentine's Day

People may think it's definitely the wrong day to launch alumni, but do people really care about valentines' day either?

I was invited to participate for the inauguration ceremony of the Curtin Alumni chapter in Sri Lanka at the Galle Face Hotel. I wasn't expecting many people for this event but at the end of the event I saw no empty seats in the hall. On the other side of the Galle Face Hotel there were several functions organized to celebrate the Valentine's Day and I saw large number of people there despite the high price of the tickets. Well the Sri Lankans know how to spend for sure!

KIK Party

The latest cola in the market KIK were planning for a Beach Party in December, but at the last minute it got called off due to bad weather. Finally they decided to have the party indoor at SLECC on 14th January 2011.

Drum performance

The drummers, dancing and music was good but there weren't enough crowd to fill the huge SLECC premises and to make things worse some local band called "Jaya Sri" started to perform and everyone started to leave the place :P

Link(s): KIK Cola

Yala - Block 2

I've been to the Block 1 of Yala in 2009. That was the dry season back then. That was an ordinary visit to Yala as most of the people have experienced. But Block 2 is a totally different story; especially during its wet season.

This trip was not planned at all; I didn't know that I'll be going to Yala till Trishan called me on Sunday, 9th January 2011 morning and ask whether I would join their trip to Yala. Since I had no plans in mind I was ok with it. So myself, Trishan, Dharshana (Trishan's friend) and Dharshana's driver were the only people who were in this trip. The plan was simple; leave Colombo by Sunday evening and go to Dharashana's house at Katharagama and rest a few hours at that night before we go to Block 2 of Yala National Park the next day and return back to Colombo on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure what this Block 2 was but I remember that I covered only one part of Yala during 2009 trip. The Block 2 visit takes more than 12 hours and we need to hire 2 jeeps for the visit because the authorities won't allow entering only one jeep into Block 2. Luckily jeeps, trackers and everything were pre-arranged and I had nothing to worry. So we stayed the night at Dharshana's place and got up in the early morning for the adventure. The jeep driver we hired was "Mada Shantha" the term "Mada" comes because he is a guy who’ll put his jeep in the mud and do all the ticks. Well wasn’t a big 4x4 fan before but this was a different experience for me.

Muddy tracks of Yala - Block 2

My intention of going to Yala was to do some wildlife photography but the weather conditions were not so good. It was a gloomy day and no sunlight for the leopards to come out. Therefore I couldn’t get the photographs I was planning for but we have a good time at Yala :)

Elephants protecting their babies