Target Travels blog

Approximate 3 hour drive South of Colombo, lies the busy beach town of Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka 100 km (62 miles) from Colombo. Sri Lanka’s longest-established budget beach hangout, Hikkaduwa offers a lively down-market alternative to the more sedate and expensive resorts at Bentota, Beruwala and Kalutara, and attracts a stream of surfers, divers and party-loving sun-worshipers. Uncontrolled development has taken a massive toll here, however, with a long string of unregulated and trashy development which has eaten into the beach and polluted the environment, while the proximity of the noisy Galle Road, which ploughs through the heart of the town, adds a further layer of noise and pollution. This is still a very popular Sri Lanka Tour destination.

Hikkaduwa remains modestly popular, mainly thanks to its diving and surfing possibilities, to its cheap accommodation, and to its lively youthful atmosphere which offers a refreshing alternative to the more staid resorts further north.

Hikkaduwa’s principal attraction is its Coral Sanctuary, immediately off the

Hikkaduwa Beach

beach in the middle of Hikkaduwa town. Unfortunately, the magnificent coral gardens here have now been more or less killed off, though the gardens are still home to a colorful variety of tropical fish, as well as the occasional visiting turtles. The safest way to see the marine life and few patches of surviving coral is to take a ride in one of the many glass-bottomed boats which whizz around the sanctuary. Many Sri Lanka Holiday Packages offer this as an excursion, and is best to opt for it if your Sri Lankan Travel agent is offering it. Alternatively, rent a snorkel and flippers and take to the waters yourself, though the numbers of boats darting around the sanctuary can make this an unnerving experience.

Sri Lanka Scuba Diving Tours

Hikkaduwa is also one of Sri Lanka’s main diving centres, with a number of well-established schools offering dives for experienced scuba divers and PADI licensed courses for the uninitiated. Dives includes a number of interesting wrecks and underwater rock complexes.

South of Hikkaduwa the town of Dodanduwa is home to a florid Buddhist temple, the Kumarakanda Vihara, whose grand flight of stairs – more reminiscent of a Portuguese baroque church than a Buddhist temple – offer a welcome touch of distinction to the drab Galle Road. A couple of kilometers inland, the placid Ratgama lagoon boasts rich birdlife and is a popular Bird Watching destination. What’s more it offers and island with a serene Buddhist hermitage; boat trips can be arranged through local touts, either at the lagoon or on the waterfront at Dodanduwa. Once again it’s best to ask your Sri Lanka Travel Agent to book this in advance to avoid paying unrealistic rates.

The large and lively provincial capital of Ratnapura sprawls across the undulating countryside at the southern edge of the hill country, whose outlying peaks provide a picturesque backdrop to the town’s workaday streets. Ratnapura, literally “city of gems”, is famous for its precious stones, more of which are found in the surrounding countryside than anywhere else in the island, as they wash clown from eroded rocks in the hill country and mix up with gravel in the fast flowing mountain streams and rivers. Huge quantities of stones are mined, cut and traded here, mainly along Saviya Street in the town centre, where crowds of locals gather daily to haggle over handfuls of uncut stones. The prospect of picking up the bargain of a lifetime may be enticing, but the fact is that amateur gem-fanciers are likely to get their fingers burnt and wallets emptied.

If you want to have a closer look at the region’s mineral wonders, it’s safer to admire the dazzling displays at the small but instructive Gem Bureau Museum, a few kilometers out of town, which features an absorbing collection of coloured gems and minerals from Sri Lanka and abroad. Local touts will probably also approach you to offer visits to watch miners at work prospecting for gems in the impromptu mines dug into river beds around town. If you still have time to spare, the National Museum (open Tues–Sat, from 9am to 5pm) in the town centre has a modest selection of exhibits featuring traditional Sri Lankan crafts.

The most interesting place to visit hereabouts, however, is the sprawling Saman Devale,  around 4 km out of town. The temple was originally built by Parakramabahu in the 13th century but was demolished by the Portuguese (look for the statue by the entrance showing a Portuguese soldier killing a Sinhalese), and then built all over again in its current form –a large but harmonious complex of white Kandyan-style buildings topped by red-tiled roofs. An important perahera is held here annually on the Esala Poya day (late July or early Aug).

Half an hour’s drive northeast of Bandarawela, at the southeastern cusp of the hills, the idyllic little village of Ella is one of the most pleasant spots in the region. Perfect for long walks in the day and even longer dinners in the evening at the village’s homely guesthouses, which serve up some of the best home-cooking to he had anywhere in the island. The village’s biggest attraction is the drop-dead gorgeous view through the narrow cleft in the hills, the so-called Ella Gap, down to the hills below, one of the finest views in an island which is full of unforgettable panoramas. But the village has plenty of innate charm in itself, with an atmosphere almost of an English country hamlet – a hal­cyon change from the dusty streets and roaring traffic of most Sri Lankan towns. There are myriad walks around town, including the short but rewarding climb up Little Adam’s Peak (2 hours return) and the longer, more challenging clamber up Ella Rock (4 hours return), the rugged summit that looms up opposite the village. The village is also famous as one of the Sri Lankan sites most closely associated with the Ramayana, and particularly with the villainous Ravana, who is thought to have imprisoned Sita in the Rawana Ella Cave, just south of the village (though this claim is disputed by the rival Sita Amman Kovil near Hakgala).

AROUND ELLA

South of Ella, the road hairpins dramatically down through the hills to the Rawana Ella Falls, whose great cataract of water, almost 100 meters [328 ft] high, tumbles down over a cliff right next to the road. Even the myriad touts and tourists who congregate here cannot detract from the spectacle. Past here, the road continues to descend precipitously to the foot of the escarpment and the dusty little town of Wellawaya. Five kilometers past Wellawaya is the evocative archaeological site of Buduruwagala, where seven colossal fig­ures stand carved in low relief into a high rock face. The statues are thought to date back to the 9th or 10th centuries; the large central standing Buddha is the tallest in the island, at around 16 meters (or 52 ft) high. The trio of figures to his left is believed to represent the Mahayana Buddhist diety Avalokitesvara, along with two attendants; those on his right are thought to show the Tibetan Bodhisattva Vajrapani, the future Buddha Maitreya and Vishnu.

 From Wellawaya, you could loop back round to Haputale and Ella via another fine waterfall, the Diyaluma Falls, which drop 171 meters (or 560 ft) in a single leap. Alternatively, from the crossroads town of Beragala it’s possible to continue west towards the Bambarakanda Falls, the highest in the island, whose slender cascade falls a dizzying total of 241 meters (or 790 ft). From here the road continues west to Ratnapura, hugging the beautifully wooded country at the base of the hills through the small town of Belihul Oya, where there are several guesthouses if you want to break your journey. Belihul Oya is popular among many who like to trek through its wilderness and camping in the Sri Lankan outback.