Yalpanam - Srilankan Trip

Yalpanam - is the northern part of Srilanka, once the prime location for the Tamil Liberation movement during the civil war, as it was under the control of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  from the year 1985 to 1995. Beautiful landmarks like fort, library building with war stricken bullet wounds and the memorials of civil war are in the state of deep sorrow as it has lost many valuable human lifes in this place – there was sickening silence and anger buried in the soil which has lost war against the Srilankan army – that resulted in more check post for checking the movements and identity of the travelers, as most of the time it is only the Singhalese dirvers were used in the buses like ours from Colombo to Yalpanam.

I am from Chennai, and not fully understood the struggle of the Tamils in Srilanka, but during my younger days in schools, I use to hear about LTTE and their fight against the Srilankan army, as there use to be protest and slogans during that time by some political parties extending their supports to the Tamil in the nearby country, their protest gave us school holidays and support for LTTE Captain – Prabhakaran – was taken as a symbol of braveness among Tamils in Tamil Nadu too…I could remember the videos of LTTE warriors surrendering their weapons  - machine guns, missiles in movie theaters during the interval.

I was moved by Dilipan memorial, which is in the main area of Yalpanam with his photo, which I witnessed for the first time in my life, His life was heart wrecking story of a freedom fighter who died in the fasting protest adopting Gandhian style of non-violence moment for the liberation of Tamil elam from Srilanka unlike LTTE..….but he too failed!!!

Besides the impact of civil war, the city is now renowned with more promising future and development that are been brought up by the Srilankan government for the people who are intelligent and focused on their well being with their duties and daily routines, with their excellence in academics and improvement in the life after years of civil war – I could still sense their deep rooted pain and agony in the hearts and minds of Srilankan Tamil as they have not forgotten their struggle which ended as failure, they are in their prayer songs and in their thoughts as their fellow citizens  sacrificed their life!!!

Pictorially, I personally felt Yalpanam as an extension of Tamilnadu in terms of the climate, culture, location, its ethnicity along with the people, places, temples and the language spoken (of course with Srilankan  Tamil ascent ) where the majority of them are Tamils, I could hardly find anyone talking Singhalese. Yalpanam has the beautiful green and fern of Kerala even in the style of talking Tamil language in the Malayali style...or been spoken as esai (musical)  Tamil. Local transports in Yalpana, such as buses, auto rickshaws plying like our Chennai city only with the different currency. 

Nallur Kandaswamy temple gave the divine feel, it was the center of the city and the main area around which we stayed and roamed around – I could spend very less time for shopping as it was all busy day in the official process, we could make it only after 7 PM and couldn’t make it lively in the shopping spree and visiting more prominent places nearby…as I experienced the journey from Columbo to Yalpannam – the landmarks and the temples on the way was been cleverly scheduled. 

I could see the tamil people are very devotional people and proud to declare themselves as this is the land of shiva (Shiva bhoomi), prayers are in Tamil and detailed in all the temples I visited. Even in the eelam chindambaram temple in karai nagar which was in the large area with mini zoo and lots of greenery...

Every country has it's unique food  - though Jaffna / Yalpanam is almost like Tamil Nadu - it has its variance is some food items besides the usual banana leaf food of south Indian style, I tasted Pal appam, spicy sambal and fried rice, along with the Orange Barlie drink. Tea was very good even though we had it in a small shop called Kannan Lodge which is quit old and has seen the different shades of the war sticken Jaffna but now returning to normalcy.... I was in a habit of buying newspaper but was shocked to see the price of English newspaper  Rs.30/- (1 INR - 2.48 Srilankan Rupee) but still...spending Rs.30/- for a newspaper!!! Naaa...

I did the last minute shopping in a hurry during the late hours of the day in the main bus stand area where I have seen  very few shops opened at that time..one among that attracted me is the Malayan Cafe (photo below) - may be its referring to the native Malaysian had their business in Srilanka..quite an famous outlet...I could pick up some authentic Jaffna special stuffs like candy, coconut oil, tea powder, Rani sandalwood soap, woodoo...with all these purchase as a sovereign from Jaffna / Yalpanam...another memorable last ride was to Jaffna international airport which is just a make shift building having only 2 international flights a day...hence we were received with more smiles and warm greetings as we are from India and the people there were mostly Srilankan Indians..but before that there was a very lengthy process of security check in the entrance which is again a shed with young Sinhalese security giving us through check for our luggages and also givings us friendly adieu .... with all these memories studded with varying wonderful thoughts, gaining afresh experience in this land has given me a new bliss.

Tioman Isand

Tioman Island is the wonderful island in east cost of peninsular Malaysia,  the south china sea -  the must see place in Malaysia as I could see many tourist  in this place, this is the place for diving, scuba, snorkeling and surfing sport. The basic snorkling experience from Genting village is charged RM80.- per person with minimum 4 people for the wonderful snorkeling. 

In Tioman Islands, we opted for Genting village - as there are eaight such villages in Tioman Island like Rawa, Jabamala..etc..Genting village is very small village with limited shops with the long curvy stretch of  beach for the pleasant walk during the sunset...waves are not too high or strong...very mild waves like sweet smile of nature...scenic place with lovely local people around. There is no ATM, KFC and McD but authentic, local foods with western cuisines as barbecues specials all around.

My experience in the month of June which happend to be the Hari Raya holiday (Ramadan Holidays) hence crowded ferry and long queue at food centers - shop owners were not able to handle the crowd and asked to wait for an hour for the order to be delivered. Though we felt the crowd was annoying at times but this place will be very lonely without crowd and good friends along...

Tioman Island is marvelous, wide sea in front of you...starring at it endlessly will make the time to still...I stopped time here...did  you?

Do enjoy my clicks and comment for your opinions

Bukit Tinggi

Post diwali celebration happened to us in Bukit tinggi, the exotic location for the people who wants to write a book.(thats how some of my colleagues described the place) Well, we didn't intend to write a book either as it's a leisure trip. Bukit tinggi is one of the must see places in kuala lumpur as it is just one hour drive from KL and also to take photos which is my HOBBY.

Located 3,500 feet above the sea, the Japanese Village has garden, tea house, spa, botanical garden..the cool breeze, tall trees, colourful landscape..it was really an interesting place for nature lovers to see the nudity of nature!

Botanical garden was with dense trees with narrow lane to walk along the nursery, we were shocked to see professional photographers with their mega zoom cameras patiently waiting for the rare birds in that dense woods, the silence of the nature was disturbed by the surround stereo effects by monkeys, bees, insects...

Flower- a flower is a flower is a flower, without going to the botanical name of it I simply love to take photos because it shows the richness in the colour/clarity/natural/variety/softness





Japanese village in Malaysia,this model japanese village had small hut house where you can see doll like girls wearing kimino, you are not allowed to take photos, you can pay RM50 for wearing it and taking photos, the hut house has stone footpath that will lead you through a beatiful garden to a waterfall, over a bridge spanning a koi pond and up to a Japanese Tea House.




Colmar tropicale has the century old Alsace charm at this French-themed resort, settled at 2,700 feet above sea-level amidst 80 acres of rainforests. This French village has picturesque surroundings with fort like domes, fountains, ponds - with white swan, black swan, golden fish, across the pond the big fort gates will lead to the cobble stone street which has many restaurants, hotels, caricature shops, fountains, pool table, video games.






Rabbit park, deer sanctuary, donkey ride, horse trails, were the next stop which we enjoyed. Rabbit park here you can buy the food for rabbits are you can personally feed them. The rabbits are quite bulky because of this.Donkeys were almost like horse, white colour, brown colour various types of donkeys...we didn't had donkey ride as its not that interesting!

My daughter fed the deer, only now I came to know that deer too likes potato chips!!!

When we reached to the end of that place to spot the horse trail, we lost the interest to ride the horse after seeing the tariff it is RM25/- for 10mts ride, moreover the horse will just walk not, for a slow walk over the horse along the walking jockey it was too childish,much better is our marina beach horse riding, wherever it goes it will come back to the original place with full speed.We pity those visitors on the horse just giggling when we saw them on the top of the horse walking slowly!

One day from 10AM to 6 PM the complete butik tinggi was enjoyed with family and friends.

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