The Land of the Horses – Delft & Re-awakening Jaffna

Having read so many interesting reports on Delft and Jaffna, I decided to visit the Peninsula yet again. Coz last time, I only managed a few places.

So I decided to do a bit more comprehensive Jaffna tour and a trip to the Delft Island which is the biggest of island of Sri Lanka.
So I checked the bus services available and Thinakaran Express of Lake House came highly recommended and it really was great. I booked the tickets for that and for the return journey, the train from Vavuniya at 3.10pm.

On 14th, we got onto the bus at Rama Krishna road in Wellawatte around 8.45pm. The bus left around 9.30pm and reached the Lake House for them to take more passengers and their papers for the following day (That’s the main reason they’ve introduced a bus service so that they could make some money while delivering the papers to the peninsula). The service was great and they showed the controversial movie “Vishwa Roopam” on DVD.

However, unlike most other services, the noise levels are not too high and after around 11.30pm, the DVD is completely switched off so that people can sleep in peace.

Day 01. – Kadurugoda Temple / Keerimalai / Dambakola Patuna / Jaffna Dutch Fort / Archeological Museum

We reached Jaffna around 7.30am and took a tuk-tuk to the Uthayan Rest. (Always check with the tuk-tuk drivers about the prices as they sometimes don’t understand what you are saying or try to rob you in daylight whenever possible)

Ravi, the Caretaker at the Uthayan Rest, was there to meet us. He really is a wonderful person who tries his level best to make sure your stay is comfortable. Uthayan Rest doesn’t make meals, but provide you from outside. Ravi makes sure that you’re getting the best and not over charged.

After a typical Jaffna-style string hoppers, pittu and curries, we got into Mayuran’s brand new TVS tuk-tuk around 9.00am. We took the Palali Road, and around mid-way, I saw some beautiful plantations and immediately recognized them to be grapes. I checked with Bimalan, mostly in sign-language, if we could take a few pictures at one of the places and he happily obliged.

The one we went was about 40 perches and there was an elderly person fertilizing the creepers. When we asked if we could take pictures of the place, he was very happy and showed us around and gave a comprehensive explanation. Unfortunately, we understood only a few things coz our Tamil knowledge was minimal. It was the first time I visited a grapes plantation and it really looked gorgeous. There were green bunches of grapes hanging from creepers and it really was something to look at.

Udayan Rest Garden from our Room (1st Floor)

Wow….

Beautifully done

Not ripe yet

Couldn’t resist

Afterwards, we went further up and turned left towards Manipay road and along the Uduvil road up to Kadurugoda Temple. It’s yet another sacred area under threats by the locals as the temple premises is being captured and looted by them. The area which used to be more than 7 acres now reduced to around 3 acres. The temple houses 56 pagodas (now only about 30 visible) containing sacred relics of 60 Monks (Rahathan Wahansela). There are no monks nowadays but the Army soldiers to protect it from those bandits. One soldier said the fences start walking if they are not there. I guess the relevant people must look after these places and make sure they are protected for the future.

.	The Legend – Click Image to Enlarge

.	Remaining Pagodas

One of the big ones

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The Budu Medura in a shed

Our next stop was Keerimalai. We traveled along the KKS road passing Chunnakam and Tellippalai. We then reached the Maviddapuram Kandasamy Kovil at the Maviddapuram junction where we can see the KKS cement factory clearly. I wanted to go see the place but the Military police politely declined our request as we had no prior approval. Disappointed, we took the left turn towards Keerimalai. It really was something to see and one of my friends decided to go for a swim in the famous pond over there. Surprisingly the water was not salty even though it’s only a stone wall between the pond and the sea.

Maviddapuram Kandasamy Kovil

KKS Cement Factory

Keerimalai

Good place to play too

Religious ceremonies

The water is surprisingly not salty and sticky

Afterwards, it was time to visit the Dambakola Patuna where Sangamittha Theraniya brought the sacred Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi to Sri Lanka. Navy came “Agbo” is located near the temple and they have renovated the temple and now looking after it so that we can worship in peace. It really was a very peaceful place and they even have built a replica of the ship that brought Sangamittha Theraniya to Sri Lanka. Don’t forget to have Belimal from the Navy canteen there with original Thal Hakuru.

Waiting patiently

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The replica

Sangamitta Theraniya

Dolosmahe Pahana

.	The scene depicted well here

The path she took to reach Dambakola Patuna – Click Image to Enlarge

They certainly are unforgettable – Click Image to Enlarge

Don’t forget to have a cuppa – Click Image to Enlarge

Afterwards, we took Mathigal-Sandippai road to reach Jaffna and went around seeing the famous Jaffna fort. It was threatening to rain and started drizzling. However, it didn’t last long and we managed to do a thorough tour of the fort. It’s being renovated to its former glory and hopefully be finished very soon. It was around 2.00pm by the time we finished seeing the fort and feeling ravenous.

I told Mayuran that we need a good place to have thosai and wadai and he took us to the Grand Bazaar Street and stopped at Malayan Café. The thosai and Ulundu wadai was delicious and the service was grand. They serve you on a Banana leaf and the Sambar Curry was excellent. It had everything from Dhal, Beans, Egg Plant, Potatoes and Cucumber. 5 Thosai and 5 Ulundu wadai cost us only Rs. 290/-. Once you’ve finished eating, you have to take the banana leaf and put it into the garbage area. They only bring you the bill, and you have to take it to the cashier and make the payment. It really was a funny thing coz it deprives of the waiters getting any tips.

Afterwards, we got into the tuk-tuk and reached the Archeological Museum which is around 300m from the Uthayan Rest itself. There ended our tour with Mayuran and he charged us Rs. 2500/- for the whole tour which must have been more than 50km and it really was worth.

The museum is in an old property on Navalar road, and has so many old things from Statues, sketches to so much more. It’s apparently forbidden to take the pictures inside the museum but we managed to get the permission from the caretakers.

Entering into the fort

The walls had been painted with maps

Must be the world atlas

The central tower

All in ruins

The canal surrounding the fort

Being renovated

Archaeological Museum is behind

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The Skeleton of a whale

.	Dutch artillery

Wooden sculpture

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.	Reminds me of Ambekke (This is called Kenimadala)

Must be something used in their festivals

Dolawa (on the right for the Ladies and the left for the men)

Oldest Telephone????

Surgical items (wouldn’t wanna be operated by these)

Found in Mannar

Carved Lion’s head

Telescope

Queen Victoria’s painting

Found in Kadurugoda

Dutch Sign

After about an hour, we reached the Rest and had a wash. When someone visits Jaffna, there’s a place you shouldn’t miss. That’s the Rio ice cream shop and it’s a hallmark in Jaffna. We walked up to the Nallur Kovil and then took a left to the Rio Ice Cream shop and had Chocolate and Nuts which was tasty.

Then it was time to call it a day and after a tasty dinner with typical Jaffna-crab curry and turned in for the night.

Nallur Kovil

Rio Chocolate and nuts ice cream

Not an easy life

Still hunting for fish

Giant Paraw fish

Couldn’t get the name

Famous Kattawa dried fish

Day 02 – Delft Island / Yamuna Pond / Rajamanthri Walawwa

After so much protest from my friends, I got them up and running around 5.00am. Ravi very kindly prepared tea and arranged a tuk-tuk for us to go to the Bus Stand. We reached the bus stand around 6.10am, and a CTB bus was there and got into it immediately. However, there was a private bus too and it left at 6.30am and I started to get worried as we couldn’t afford to miss the only ferry to the Delft.

We then around 6.50am left for Kurikkattuwan and it really was roller-coaster ride. The driver was traveling at maddening speed and it took only 40 minutes to reach the jetty which usually takes an hour or more. Sri Lanka has definitely missed a Formula I driver in him. The jetty is about 32km from the Jaffna town. We got off at the Jetty and it’s the same as you get on board to the Nagadeepa. They now have introduced a semi-luxury ferry to the Nagadeepa called “Mani Nagadeepa”.

We were hanging about till the ferry was ready to leave at 9.00am and it’s for free. There’s another boat that carry goods to the island called “Save the Children” and it too takes passengers providing there’s enough space and they charge Rs. 60/- per person. The passenger ferry “Kumuthini” takes an hour to reach Delft and the ride was smooth. The life jackets are stinking and hardly wearable. I would’ve liked to drown than wearing one.

Bimalan was waiting at the jetty and we immediately set off. The most significant thing in Delft is that it has no brick walls or chain or Thal leaf fences. Instead, the gardens are marked using blocks of Corals kept on top of the other without using anything to keep them in place such as a cement mixture.

Delft is locally named as Neduntheevu. The island’s area is 50 km² and it is roughly oval-shaped. Its length is 8 km and its maximum width about 6 km.

Delft is a flat island surrounded by shallow waters and beaches of coral chunks and sand. There are horses (In reality they are the feral ponies) on the island that ware abandoned after Dutch period. The island was named after the Dutch city of Delft by Rijckloff van Goens. He named the eight most important islands after Dutch cities, but the seven others are now named with domestic names.

Things to see at Delft, in the order we saw them.

1. Famous Pigeon House and the Court Complex – This really was amazing to see in person as opposed to see it in pictures. Bimalan said it used to send messages. The Court complex still has the symbol and the year says on it 1905.
2. Dutch Fort (Through the Hospital) – You have to go through the Delft hospital to reach this and it’s in ruins now and however, has walls still rising to the skies. We can still climb to the first level and it needs protecting as soon as possible.
3. The Tank – This is another sad story of the Delft, coz the legend says that the Dutch wanted to breed horses and get people to work for them, plus they wanted the land so that the horses could be fed using the grass grown. However, Delft was near self-sufficient due to the fresh water tank as it contained the people used to grow everything they wanted and had no desire to work for the Dutch or the English. They then did a very wicked thing one could imagine. They dug a canal from the sea to the tank so the sea water mixed with the fresh water and made using that water for drinking and farms redundant. So the people were left with no choice other than slaving for them.
4. Fresh Water Wells – These wells provide Delft with water, however Bimalan told us that’s the drinking water is very hard to find and specially in April and after when the drought hits, things get very worse.
5. Wild Horses – Such beauty I’ve never seen before. It was so nice to watch them running about. That’s the icing on the cake.
6. The Giant’s foot-print – This is another amazing thing and it looks like a huge right foot print. Even though, the toes are not visible, the shape is very much like a foot. It’s on a rock surface and difficult to believe even a giant could print his foot on a rock surface like that.
7. The stone stable – This is the place where horse were kept. The whole stable was made of rocks and corals.
8. Pagodas – We now can see the remains of the foundations of two Stupa. There’s has been an attempt to build the foundations and try to raise them back. It seems apparently that the treasure hunters had been at work there too.
9. The Swimming Beach – This is something to cherish as the sea stretches into the horizon miles and looks sparkling in the glistening sun. I’ve never seen such a beautiful beach and vivid colors anywhere else. One my friends couldn’t resist the temptation and he went about 1km into the sea and still it was around his waist height.
10. Baob Tree – This is the biggest tree I’ve ever seen and very unlikely to see a bigger one. The tree must be about 40 feet in circumference. It has a whole in the middle where about 10 people can stay.
11. Growing Stone – This is another interesting thing. Bimalan said it really is growing and people worship it in big time. I guess there must be something in it for the people to believe in such a thing called stone growing.

We finished our tour around 1.00pm and sadly there was no such place called a hotel to have lunch. This is mainly due to the fact that they haven’t got a proper supply for fresh water. We then had to wait at the jetty till 2.30pm for the ferry back.

Kurikkatuwan Jetty

Semi-luxury ferry service to Nagadeepa

Nagadeepa looming in the distance

The meter board on the Ferry

View from the pilot’s seat

Here he is

The engine and the fuel supply

The engine and the fuel supply

“Kumuthini”

Delft Jetty

Such vivid colours

Pigeon cage and the court complex

The symbol

Up close is grander than on pics

Post office at Delft

Delft Hospital

Through the hospital to the Dutch fort

Behind the Dutch fort

All in ruins

Inside

The entrance

Delft Cemetery in the back

The tank in the middle of the island

Tame one

Oh ho, we’ve got visitors….

Better to stay away

Kachchativu, last land mass of SL before India lies 10km from here and from Kachchative it’s barely 12km to India

Horse’s skull being used as a Scarecrow

Giant’s foot print

Stone Stable

Pagoda foundation

Small one

Tell me if you can resist taking a bath here

Inside is plenty of room

Mammoth tree

Inside

Growing stone

Up close

Navy still on the move

SL Coast Guards too

Guess who won???

We reached Kurikkattuwan around 3.35pm and our morning bus was there. I happily got into it and expected another mad run. However, it wasn’t like in the morning even though he broke so many records. It was around 4.30pm when we reached Jaffna and feeling hungry like wolves and headed straight to our friendly water hole, Malayan Café. After yet another thosai and Ulundu wadai feast, we took a Point Pedro bus and got off at the King Sangili statue. This was largely due to Christy’s report that I wanted to go see this and we went towards the Church behind it and a group of boys showed us the way to the Yamuna Pond which is about 600m from the Statue. (There’s a proper Road in front of the Rajamanthri Walawwa).

It’s said that the Yamuna pond was where the queen of the Rajamanthri Minister bathed and there allegedly was a tunnel dug from the Walawwa to the pond where she could go and bathe without being seen by anyone. The steps leading to the pond is still there and nowadays it’s being used by other people and we could see a few tubes running from the pond to the nearby houses.

Then it was time to go see the Rajamanthri Walawwa and we almost gave up on that as no one knew about it. This might have been that they didn’t understand what we were trying to ask. However, Dimuthu pushed on the Point Pedro road saying that it must be there and he was dead right. It was about 200m from the Statue onto the left side and the Archeological Department had put up a sign saying it’s a protected area but the gate was open so we helped ourselves.

It’s in ruins and must’ve looked grand in its prime time. However, we could see the well in the house is being used by the nearby people and saw some ladies’ under skirts hanging too. The place apparently used as the tunnel now being used as a dumping place by the same villages and we could see heaps of garbage in it.

After that, it was time for another ice cream at Rio. Tired but exhilarated we went back to the Uthayan Rest and Ravi was waiting at the top of the road wondering if we had lost our way. After yet another tasty dinner we fell asleep and got up to go back to Colombo.

Don’t forget to taste their thosai and ulundu wadai

Here’s the King Sangili

Yamuna Pond

Steps leading to the pond

Rajamanthri Walawwa

From behind

The well

Still standing tall

This should give us a clue

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The entrance may have been to the tunnel, now being used as a dumping area

Second storey is no more reachable

Day 03 – Jaffna Station

On our way to the bus stand, we got our tuk-tuk to stop near the Jaffna station which now has become a paradise for all the hooligans and vagabonds. We could see lots of broken bottles and cans lying around. The walls are peppered with bullet holes and all the door and window frames including bathroom ware have been looted.

We took the Vavuniya bus at 9.45am and reached Vavuniya around 1.15pm. Went to one of my school friend’s house in Ambalangodella, 2km from Vavuniya town and had lunch. Then took the 3.10pm Express train and reached Fort by 8.00pm.

What a grand tour it was. We didn’t waste a second and everything fell into place.

Special thanks to Christy for his support getting the info on Uthayan Rest and Jaffna.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and now

From left (Ravi, Me, Podi and Ranjith Kumar)

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No one around

The railway track is not there but will soon be

Hope to come here one day by train

Inside

From the stairs

“Ananthayata yana para dige” – A9 from Mankulam