Post #14 October 13

Breakfast is always included in our hotel stays and each place either has a buffet or sets out a menu.  This hotel offers us a menu because making a buffet for such a limited number of guests doesn’t make any sense.  There is lots of equipment on tables at the back of this restaurant, so they do provide a buffet in busier times.  With so many staff we have several people waiting on our table.  Communication is a bit of a challenge so it’s really hit or miss if you want any substitution of omission on the breakfast offerings.  This morning Judith ordered the scrambled eggs which normally comes with bacon, sausages and grilled tomatoes.  She asked for no meat and when her scrambled eggs comes, it’s only the scrambled eggs on a small teacup saucer sized plate.  We had a laugh over that.

Because there are fewer English speaking tourists in the north part of Sri Lanka, the locals and hotel staff aren’t nearly as fluent as we have found in the southern part of the island. There is a large population of Tamils in the northern part of the island.  Street signs are made to accommodate three languages:  Tamil, English and Sinhalese.

 

 Street sign in Tamil, English and Sinhalese.

Jaffna is located on a peninsula.  The area around is pretty low lying and there are many islands surrounding the peninsula.  Today’s tour will be traveling to some of these islands.  And checking out sites of interest.  We drive out of the city of Jaffna and head onto a narrow roadway, Pannai Bridge that  connects it with some of the small islands to the west.  The waterways along the bridge are shallow; there are many fish weirs set up by the locals.  The weirs also have resident cormorant and fish eagles perched on the upright posts, waiting for dinner to appear.

Fish weirs 

There isn’t much to these islands.  They are sparsely populated.  The first island we go to is Velenai.  We are there to check out a colourful Hindu temple.  Since these islands are flat and because there aren’t any buildings over two stories, we can see the temple as we drive over the connecting bridge.  

 

Velanai Vangalavadi Murugan Kovil.  We just stay long enough for a couple of pictures.  

We then drive over to the village of Kayts.  Due to the civil war between the Tamil Tigers who wanted to create and independent state in the north and and Sri Lankan government who was dominated by the majority Sinhalese.  The war lasted between 1983 and 2009.  There are many ruins of homes which exist to this day as many people have not come back to the area to rebuild.  

One of many abandoned homes.

We stop off at the north end of Kayts to watch a small ferry going to one of the outer islands.  Sura points out an old island fort built by the Dutch on one of the outer islands.  

Back into the van and we tour through Kayts to see many churches from the Dutch and Portuguese colonization times.  There is a surprising number of these buildings for such a small area.

These churches were within a city block of each other.  The old architecture of the buildings were interested and contrasted with the more traditional homes in the area.  

We drove to the outer island of Pungudutivu which is accessed by crossing over another fixed road bridge, this one very narrow and very potholed.   We visit a Hindu temple.

Kannaki Amman Hindu Temple.  The door is open and we can also see the inside of it.

Our next destination is to Chaddy Beach located on the south coast of Venanai.  We have to cross back over the same bridges to get back to Jaffna, so Chaddy Beach is on the return trip.  The beach has a surprising amount of garbage on it and isnt’ really that appealing.  We dip our feet into the Indian Ocean.

Judith stepping into the Indian Ocean.

Our visit to the the local island was complete and we head back into town to have lunch at a “Veg Restaurant”.  Apparently this is the thing to do when in Jaffna, but when we get there, the restaurant is no longer there.  A woman coming out of the location said the restaurant had closed so we went with plan B.  I thought this was better than the first choice since we decided to go to the local and very popular ice cream parlour, Rio’s.  

Rio’s Ice Cream Store.  Subsequent to experiencing ice cream here, we had many conversations with locals and when we mentioned we had been to Jaffna they always asked if we had gone to Rio’s.

Lunch.  And this is what we ordered.  

Next up was an archaeological site at Kandurugoda.  This is a collection of small domed stupas constructed from coral stones.  They are thought to be over 2000 years old and range in size of up to 23 metres in diameter.  

Mini Stupas at Kandurugoda

We drive back to Jaffna and the rest of the day and we’re back to the hotel by about 2:30.  It seems like a good time for a nap before dinner and then bed.