Travel Tips

For the last leg of our tour we went to Kalutara which is famous for its white sand beach. Kalutara is around 40 kms from Colombo. We stayed at the Kani Lanka hotel. Have put up the review of the hotel here . After we left Yala, we visited the Galle Fort along the way. This fort built by the Portugese in 1588 is a UNESCO world heritage site. Heavy fortifications were later done by the Dutch. We did a "driving tour" of the town and saw old colonial building like Dutch church, old government house, National Maritime museum, light house etc. A walk along the rampart walls gives postcard views of the Light house. We saw a great sunset from here. The stay in Kalutara was spent enjoying the great beaches here. The mask museum at Ambalangoda is a short drive from Kalutara. An array of masks used in different traditional dance forms are put up for display. One can see the mask making process here as well. We also visited a turtle hatchery. The hatchery buys turtle eggs...

A butterfly garden in Mumbai would be a surprise for many but it does exist indeed as a surprise. Its a two acres agriculture plot converted by the enthusiast owner Mr. Rajendra Ovalekar into a butterfly park.  This is not his commercial project but shear out of interest. While going from Borivali, take right turn for Ghodbundar road and after around 8 kms, take right turn for a narrow lane for Ovala village. Hardly after 1-2 kms, you see Ovalekar Butterfly garden on the right.  The park is open on Sunday morning only. Owners charge small fees of Rs. 25 for entry. The garden has space for parking as well. Tiger Butterfly Mr. Ovalekar spends sufficient time touring visitors around the garden, explaining the life cycle of butterfly, showing eggs, pupa, caterpillar etc. which are hard to notice for the untrained eyes. Check below link of photographs where I have uploaded snaps of life-cycle of butterfly. Mr. Ovalekar knows the need of eager photographers and helps in...

Next on our itinerary, the Yala National Park, is famous for its Leopard population. This park became famous after the Discovery channel created a film on this place titled "Leopards of Yala". Since then the park has seen a major increase in tourist visits. We stayed at 'The Safari' hotel. Have put up the review of the hotel here .  One needs to book jeeps in advance for the safari. We were able to book our jeeps at the hotel. Do research the rates in advance. We were charged 5000 LKR for the morning safari. Separate tickets per person need to be bought at the park entrance. A forest official joins you for the safari. We did 2 safaris in the park, early morning and late evening. We had a much better experience of sightings for the morning safari. The park territory extends right up to the Indian Ocean. It bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Our guide informed us that the tsunami waters had come inland upto 1 km. It seems the animals in the par...