The Lankan Roadtrip - Around Sri Lanka on a Motorbike

(This is long. So if you need to pee or feed the dog, might as well do those and start :))

4 men, 2 bikes, 1600 kilometers around the edge of Sri Lanka in 4 days. We were called insane, mental and bat shit crazy from the moment we started planning it. It had been done before. There was an article on a popular local travel site about two guys who did the same thing on two bikes and this was the source of our inspiration. However, our goal was to touch the edge of Sri Lanka as much as possible without sticking to the main highways all the time, reach the four corners of the country and come back to Colombo in one piece.

And we did. This is how.

The Preparations

I can’t ride a bike to save my soul. Not something i’m very proud of. As it turned out, i’m not alone. Prishan couldn’t either. Which meant that from the 4 of us – Myself, Prishan, Indika and Rimaz – only Indika and Rimaz could ride a bike. But even they hadn’t ridden the proposed number of kilometres even in their dreams. Rimaz was all gung-ho from the word go. It took a bit more mental persuasion to convince Indika of the same. Either he convinced himself or felt sorry for us because he never refused to do it. So that was it. The mental game was all set.

Carrying a travel bag for all four of us was not a practical. We travelled very light. So we were able pack everything into two big backpacks. The plan was for the guys in the back to carry the backpacks. Easier said than done.

Next came the most important aspect of this roadtrip - the bikes. Rimaz owned a 150cc Yamaha FZ. So we needed to find another bike with enough horsepower and stability to withstand the abuse it was about to take over the next 4 days. We asked around from a number of people. Finally we hit the jackpot with one of our ex-colleagues who had a bike that he wasn’t using – another 150cc Yamaha FZ.

Then came accommodation. We had to find cheap accommodation for 3 nights. A colleague in office set us up with a place in Jaffna town for the first night and Rimaz was able to find a place in Kalkudah for the second night. We didn’t really worry about the 3^rd night since that was going to be in the south of Sri Lanka – we could ride and find a guest house. All that was left now was to get on the bike and ride!

Day one – Colombo to Jaffna

We met up in Nawala at our workplace at 4.30 am. Took a preliminary photo for good measure with all 6 of

us (The bikes were our friends) and got on the bikes. The itinerary was to ride to Jaffna on the route shown in the map.

We got on to Elakanda Road from Wattala and rode till we reached Negombo. It was still very early morning so there was absolutely no light. All we could see was the rippling waters of the Hamilton Canal as the last beams of streetlights fell on the slow moving ripples. The road was excellently done so we felt little or no vibrations on the pillion. Things were looking pretty good.

We reached Negombo at about 6am and turned the bikes into a mosque a little away from the heart of the town for Rimaz’ morning prayers. Talk about breakfast came about at this time and we unanimously agreed to cover as much ground as possible before the morning traffic built up. It was a Thursday. Other people had to go to work.

From Negombo we turned on into its most famous road – Beach Road. Travelling along this road leaves one in no doubt as to the biggest revenue stream of the city. Tourism in Negombo is always in season come rain or shine. The days we travelled were particularly cloudy with chances of rain. But still, the sheer number of white people trying to get a piece of the Negombo sun was amazing. The street was slowly waking up as we passed through it.

We took a turn to the left from the Poruthota mosque to join the Puttalam highway again. There was no road going straight through and all roads led back to the highway. So we thought why take a risk and took the biggest road to the highway. We continued on the highway for a couple kilometres more until we crossed the Gin Oya bridge. We made a brief detour to the Gin Oya damn since that used to be Rimaz’s old haunt in his telecommunication days. The fourth turn to the left from the Gin Oya bridge led us straight back to Beach Road.

Now this section of the Beach Road was unfamiliar to me. I’m sure i had been on this before at some point in my life, but definitely not in the recent past. The sleepy seaside town stretched right onto Marawila. The streets were laden with freshly caught fish and sea produce with fishermen shouting their wares to all and sundry. The street was bustling with activity as we carefully manoeuvred our way around the fishermen and the eager customers. This was not a town to piss anyone off - especially with the number of machetes lying around.

Past the endless shrimp and prawn hatcheries, we came across an old shipwreck right on the shoreline of the

Marawila beach. I’m assuming it’s more like a fishing trawler. Its rusted body and seawater spray was a sight for our sore eyes. This for me, was the indication that the adventure started. We stopped for a bit to click some pics and got on the bikes again to continue on our merry way.

The stretch from Marawila to Kudamaduwella runs across a man made causeway built right on the sea. This led us to the Chilaw Police Station. This also meant breakfast. We rode into the town and stopped at a small hotel to have some breakfast. String hoppers, bread, dhal and chicken curry with a dish of pol sambol was the order of the morning (Yes. I’m a sadist). Without wasting much time in Chilaw, we ate as quickly as possible and got back on our bikes.

We continued on the Puttalam highway for a few more kilometres until we reached the turnoff to Uduppidy. This was the first available road to get back to the edge of the country as soon as possible. There was a very slight drizzle at this point. We weren’t too concerned and as expected, it passed over in 5 to 10 minutes.

Uduppidy is a little remote town that defies explanation. It’s remote, yet bustling. Rural yet equipped. The little town had an air of authority of its own that I had never seen before. Barring the fact that I had never been here before, the town provided the perfect contrast to what we’ve grown to expect from normal civilization. It’s apparent that the town was a very close knit community and we seemed to provide the amusement for the day. Especially Indika who was at the front dressed like a Black Stig from Top Gear. We passed through the eerily beautiful yellow/golden kovil and continued on our way to Puttalam.

Google Maps is a wonderful thing. And one thing we must admire is the 3G and above reception right along the coast line of Sri Lanka. We were able to plot out a number of byroads between the sea and the main Puttalam highway to reach the Palavi-Kalpitiya road. We passed through some villages that I had never heard of before and some villages which probably hadn’t seen a motorbike in some time. However, closer to the Palavi-Kalpitiya main road the civilization became thicker and we came across a bike mechanic. Indika’s bike chain needed some break tightening and greasing. We attended to these before the mechanic pointed us in the right direction to the main highway. We were back on the highway before we knew it and on our way to touch the first corner of the country.

We rode along the Kalpitiya highway until we reached Kandakulli. From here we took a left turn to go visit the westernmost point of Sri Lanka on the main land. We couldn’t exactly reach the sea itself since there was an Army camp built right on the beach. But that was a trivial. We parked our bikes and took a picture to eternalize this occasion (I’m pretty dramatic). Kandakulli – The westernmost point of Sri Lanka, DONE!

We came back on the same highway and reached Puttalam. The time was past 1.30 pm and we had a pressing time concern now. The entrance gate to the Wilpattu – Mannar road closed at 3.30pm. So it was of paramount importance that we reach Puttalam as soon as possible. We decided to skip lunch and grab a bite once we’re out of Wilpattu. So we rode the 30 odd kilometres from Puttalam to the Wilpattu entrance gate without stopping.

This is where we hit our first snag. We were told by the military personnel at the gate that the road was closed temporarily. Apparently the road had taken some serious abuse in the recent rains and was extremely dangerous to tackle. The rain was slowly coming in even at that particular time. We explained to the military personnel of our objective. They finally agreed to let us though on a number of conditions which are beyond the scope of this blog post ;). I doubt they would’ve let us through if we had been on any other vehicle other than two bikes. And they were spot on about the road. It looked like an advanced version of the Katukurunda dirt bike track. The rain had left the dirt road covered in slippery mud from top to bottom and the bikes were finding it very very hard to stay upright. Indika’s bike slipped from right under his legs once and toppled onto the ground. Rimaz’s bike tilted dangerously close to

the ground and needed the strength of 3 guys to straighten up. Prishan and I got down from the bikes and walked certain stretches of road behind the bikes since the bikes weren’t able to handle the load on that kind of terrain. It was very slow going and was dangerous. In the end, we were extremely tired, hungry and the bikes had undergone a considerable bit of abuse. The weather was turning for the worse and the terrain was completely against us. Had we come in any other vehicle, we wouldn’t have been able to come out from the other side. But the point is, we did not deviate from the course. We made it to Mannar through the edge of Sri Lanka.

As soon as we were out of the wilderness, we had a very late lunch from the first available hotel and sped through (safely) to Mannar. At least we sped as much as possible given the condition of the road in most stretches. We stayed on the mainland and did not go into Mannar Island since we were way out of our schedule and still had close to a 200 kilometers to cover before we reached Jaffna.

This is when the going got very slow. Riding at night is difficult by default. And the condition of the road on many stretches weren’t helping either. Our rear ends were starting to hurt. This is no joyride on a 4 Wheel Drive. The two bikes and its riders were exposed completely to the elements and physical wear and tear was beginning to set in. In addition to shooting rain drops hitting our eyes, we had to deal with bugs on the road which were also hitting our face. We couldn’t put the visors of our helmets down because that would

decrease visibility. So the going was slow and tough. But common sense prevailed and we knew that getting to Jaffna in one piece should be the primary focus.

This is also when the rain gods decide to have a party. All this time we were riding under more than a slight drizzle. Past Pooneryn and on the way to Chavakachcheri, the rain came down in all its might. It was absolutely relentless. The drops were hitting us horizontally and fast, right in the eyes. We stopped sporadically for long periods of time collectively to shield ourselves from the rain. But there was no escape. So we decided to cover up our dry backpacks as much as we can and brave the rain. Finally, believe it or not, it was 4am when we reached our little guest house in Jaffna. 4am! That meant we’ve been riding for 24 hours at a stretch. Props to Rimaz and Indika for handling that so well. We walked into the guest house absolutely drenched, soaking right into our underwear and extremely tired. We had ridden just over 500 kilometers in one day. But we went to sleep with the content knowledge that the first leg our journey was successfully done. Tomorrow is a brand new day.

Day 2: Jaffna to Kalkudah

We started late. We had to. After turning in past 4am, we just couldn’t get ourselves to get up by 8am. So it was 9am by the time we all woke up and almost 10 when we left the guest house to start the second leg our journey.

But first things first. After the abuse that the two bikes took in Wilpaththu the day before, they needed to be pampered and taken care of. There was a guy down Old Park Road who knew his onions when it came to bikes. So we put the bikes in for a quick service. After that was complete, we rode to the iconic Nallur Kovil to take a commemorative picture and got back on the seats to continue our ride. We stuck to the mainland when going around the Northern Province and therefore had to give a miss to Kayts and the other connected islands. We rode on the Jaffna – Ponnalai – Point Pedro road. We went through Ponnalai, Naguleswaram Kovil, Keerimalai, Valvetithurai and onto the next big milestone on our itinerary. Prishan and I came to Point Pedro – the northernmost point in Sri Lanka once before last year. However, a round trip around Sri Lanka will not be complete without touching on the famous Kodi Gaha at Point Pedro. The weather had turned for the better that morning. We parked our bikes on the road, went to the Kodi Gaha and took some pictures for our albums. After spending about a half hour so there, we got back on the bikes and made our way towards Parantan through Varany.

By now, we were inclined to take more and more breaks since our backsides were giving us unimaginable discomfort. I must’ve devised a 100 new ways to travel on the pillion on this bike ride only. Once in Parantan, we took the left turn towards the Parantan-Mullativu highway. We rode through some absolutely breathtaking scenery and civilizations. One thing that’s really apparent is the value of the Tamil language when travelling in the North and East. The speaking language, the notices, the boards and pretty much everything is in Tamil. Thankfully Rimaz was fluent in it. But even he was saying that the dialect is somewhat incomprehensible.

By about 3.30 pm or 4.00, we made our way over the Mullativu bridge and onto the town. Rain seems to have something against us. When the rain decided to pour down again, we quickly scrambled into a vacant bus halt of sorts and planned out the rest of our day. It was past 3pm. Thanks to yesterday’s clock buster ride, we were getting hungry only now. So the first thing was to get some food in our bellies. We pulled into a nearby hotel which was blasting Sinhala bus songs in full volume (Surprise surprise!), filled ourselves with some hot paratas and a couple of plain teas and got ready for the next leg. Just as we had anticipated, the hotel owner confirmed that there was a by road cutting through Weli Oya which we can use to get on to the Pulmoddai road. Had we taken the highways it would’ve cost us 150 Kms and we would’ve had to go inland. This road, if we get our navigation right could save us almost a 100kms and keep us as close to the edge as geographically possible. When on two bikes under an overcast sky, a 100 kms is as good as 500. So we continued on the Mulativu – Kokkilai highway, cut across to Weli Oya and continued on – relying on Google Maps and the information we received. Sure enough, the shortcut was there. The area is frequented by military posts and military personnel and there was a rural bus going towards Pulmoddai as well. Darkness had fallen by now. We did pretty good time on some very bumpy roads and ended up on the Pulmoddai road. The only snag we faced was crossing a slightly inundated concrete bridge. Prishan and I waded through the ankle high water while the bikes carefully navigated through.

This left us with 61 kilometers to get to Trincomalee and 100 kilometers from there to our guest house in Kalkudah. Given the amount of fatigue we were under the day before, we were in pretty high spirits although we knew for sure that it would be past midnight by the time we get to Kalkudah. But the good news was the rain had almost completely ceased. So we capitalized on this window of dryness and made good time to Trincomalee. We took care of some more paratas and downed a plain tea at the busiest night kade in Trinco. One thing that kind of took me by surprise was the low temperature even in this dry zone. The burning hot plain teas went in like soft drinks with no difficulty.

Once refreshed, we got back on the saddles and rode through night time Eastern Sri Lanka though Mutur, Vakarai and finally reached Kalkudah. There were no clubs, no movie theatres, no hangout places, nothing. It makes you wonder what people in these areas do for leisure. I can’t remember the exact time, but we rode into Kalkudah, past 12 midnight. And as seems to be the routine now, we hung our wet socks to dry outside our room. The clothes had escaped the rain thankfully. So after freshening up, we settled in – content that Day 2 and 50% of our journey is now complete.

Day 3 – Kalkudah to Ambalanthota

Is there a profession somewhere for professional butt massaging? I mean the real deal. Not the kind you get

in porn. We definitely could have used one in Kalkudah had that been available. My rear end was practically sending me text messages asking what it had done to deserve another 15 hours on a bike. But then again, if it was easy, everyone will do it.

We checked out of our guest house and rode 5 minutes into Valachchennai town to get some bike servicing done. Indika, with his dirt bike armour was drawing a lot of attention. My Tamil is limited to words that cannot be spoken in public. But even i could sense that we’ve created a bit of a sensation. A few more paratas and some plain teas later, we rode into the service station amidst the watchful eye of local young ones who were obviously discussing our bikes (At least I hoped so). 

An oil change and a chain tightening later, we got on our bikes to head towards our next destination which was only 5 minutes or so away - the famous and iconic Passikudah beach. I had never been there before. So what I saw was pretty amazing. Under overcast conditions, the white beach looked as if it was a photograph from one of those travel magazines. The beach was very clean. I suppose most of the beach being private contributes to that. We didn't have a dip in the sea, but just walked around on the beach for about 15 to 20 minutes and got back on our bikes again. We will come here again on another day.

Our next key milestone was Batticaloa. The change in culture became immediately visible. Now we're riding through some pro Islam communities. Batticaloa, Kattankudy, Akkaraipattu are all predominantly inhabited by Muslim citizens. However, Tamil was still the primary spoken language.

There weren't really a lot of attractions on the way in the East of Sri Lanka. At least, not many that we could find along the road that we were travelling on. However, the highway between Batticaloa to Pottuvil is absolutely to die for. After the bumpy, muddy, gravel roads we went on during the first day, this highway came as a breath of fresh air. The A4 highway, starting from Batticaloa and ending in Colombo is Sri Lanka's longest highway and in my view the best one too. The road ran through some picturesque greenery and vegetation and was perfectly built. If we, riding on bikes, felt this comfortable I can imagine how comfortable it must be to drive on 4 wheels.

The next place to touch on was the Eastern most point in Sri Lanka - the beach at Sangaman Kanda. Sangaman Kanda is not a mountain as I initially thought. It is a town with by roads leading to little villages surviving on what appears to be harsh dry zone climate. Before we reached the Pottuvil town, we turned left towards the rural areas of Sangaman Kanda on the eastern beach to visit the eastern most point in Sri Lanka. We drove through some thin forestry which housed everything from pigs, roosters to majestic peacocks. The road came to an end before we reached the Sangaman point. So we parked our bikes on a nearby tree, hid our helmets behind some shrubbery and hiked the rest of the way across the sea sand to the beach. What a contrast! Never have I seen a beach so absolutely deserted. No people, no vendors, no fishermen, no buildings, no nothing. The beach is as clean as you can get. White-ish soft sand stretching for miles and miles on both sides with no signs of life. This is the easternmost point in Sri Lanka. We took our usual commemorative picture, made our way back to the bikes as quickly as possible (We weren't sure if the bikes would still be there) and started our journey back to Pottuvil. It was past 4pm when we got back on to the main highway.

We continued down the A4 highway although it didn’t exactly take us on a perfect round across Sri Lanka. We didn't attempt to go through Yala Block II because it’s nearly impossible to tackle with bikes. Plus, even if you obtain permits from the Department of Wildlife Conservation, you are required to tackle the track in a 4x4. Even then, there was no complete track from top to bottom even for a 4x4. So that part of the edge of Sri Lanka was not even in the plan from the outset. We stuck to our planned route and continued on the A4.

When we started this ride, we all wanted to take one picture that defined our entire ride.  We had the picture setup in our head and we unanimously decided that the location should be the little bit of highway running through the Lahugala Sanctuary. From our current location we still had to ride about 25 to 30 kilometers to get to Lahugala and the sun was setting fast. So our two trusted riders did the equivalent of 'pedal to the metal' to get ourselves into Lahugala on time. We had a brief stop at Pottuvil to grab a bite and a plain tea and continued on our journey.

The sun was just about to start setting when we reached the perfect picture point in Lahugala for our iconic

photo. We were lucky. There were very few vehicles on the road. We parked the two bikes blocking the road, used Prishan's helmet as a makeshift tripod, put the camera on self timer and took the picture. This is the picture you see on the home page on this blog. This is the picture which will carry a lot of stories to our grand kids.

Picture taken, we got ready for the next 180 kilometers that we now had to go through to get to our guest house in Ambalanthota. The traits of civilization changed obviously from Muslim households and populations to Sinhala. We passed Siyambalanduwa and made good time to Moneragala. The one thing that kept us at a discomfort was the shape of the road. There was a bend at almost every 50 meters for most of the route. Considering this, we still made pretty good time

In Moneragala we had a pre-dinner. Our body clocks must've been immensely confused. Given the times we ate at and slept at, they must've thought we were in Australia. We spoke to the hotel owner and he warned us to be a bit careful when travelling from Buttala to Kataragama. The route went through Lunugamwehera and Yala sanctuaries and that time of the night is notorious for Elephants on the main road. He assured us the animals are tame and are used to human circulation. We were also asked to travel with headlights on to spot the animals on the road and to calmly stop the bike and wait patiently till the Elephant (if any) crossed the path.

We pondered amongst ourselves if we should take this route in the first place. We had the option of the longer route through Wellawaya which was also more towards in land. We finally agreed on sticking to the route we planned and to take the B35 through Yala-Lunugamwehera. We rode to the edge of Yala and took a break. We had no chance to stop for a break for the next 23 Kms. Our next stop had to be in Kataragama for pure safety reasons.

We got on the bikes and started the engines to complete this next phase. Needless to say we were all more than a bit nervous. However, we found comfort in the knowledge that we were not alone. We saw a couple of vehicles coming back from the road we were about to take. It’s a main road after all. Maybe we were being a bit too paranoid.

I shall remember this stretch of the trip for the rest of my life. The time was around 8.30 pm. The first 6 or 7 kilometers had sprinkles of civilization. There were occasional houses with electricity and the occasional local man clad in a sarong going home after farming. I remember growing in confidence and letting my nerves rest gradually as the kilometers burned out between our wheels. Needless to say i was watching the odometer from the pillion all the time.

8 kilometers in and all signs of civilization disappeared. It was pitch black all around us with only the sound of our two bikes riding side by side for company. The only source of light came from our headlights. This is when our nerves began to build up again. Although we were on two bikes I could feel the tension engulfing all four of us. And then all of a sudden Rimaz's headlight caught a moving figure. It took a split second for us to grasp that this was indeed an elephant on the pitch black road. We slowed our pace down. But before we could even think of what to do next, the elephant dutifully walked away from the road and into the bordering bushes. 

Adrenaline rushing, all our senses came to full life. We were on full alert to spot any more elephants on the

road. This is when we spotted some small lights flickering in the distance. My immediate guess was a bunch of fireflies. We slowed down just in time to realize that was FAR from the case. A massive heard of water buffaloes had come onto the road and now they were right upon us. We almost came to a complete halt and maneuvered the bikes as skillfully as possible between the buffaloes, hoping we wouldn’t excite them too much. I once read somewhere that the most dangerous animal in Yala for a human is not the Elephant, but the buffalo. As the bikes practically walked through the buffaloes, our senses could feel the sheer life of the heard surrounding us. The smell, the glistening skin, the sound of their bated breath made seconds feel like an eternity. Finally we managed to ride through them and escape to open road. Rimaz was pretty agitated. Every kilometer he was asking me 'Thawa keeyada? Thawa keeyada?'. As soon as we were about to exit the forest, we met two more elephants. But we spotted them from a distance and they too exited into the forest before we came too close.

10 minutes later, we saw the first couple of houses at the edge of the forest. The sight of civilization after that ordeal just cannot be explained. We were relieved beyond measure and rode to Kataragama to take our first break in what seemed like an eternity. That was easily one of the most exhilarating half hours ever. A point to note is that this is not as dangerous as I make it out to be in normal circumstances. But the timing made all the difference. This wouldn't have been as half as exhilarating if we had done this at 10 am. But 9 pm made all the difference. The animals being black didn't help matters either.

After regaining our wits, we rode uneventfully to Ambalanthota. We rode through Sri Lanka's next capital city and its many forays into modernization. The Hambanthota highway map looks like a little piece of Dubai. So much so that we had to check our map several times to see if we were on our way to Ambalanthota.

We checked in past 12 (again) to our guest house. Day 3 is done. We've covered 75% of the original route. Final day is upon us. With happier thoughts, we laid our heads down to rest.

Day 4: Ambalanthota to Colombo

As seems to be the pattern now, we woke up at about 9 am. We were by instinct taking it easy since we knew that the distance we had to cover was relatively short (less than 250 kms). The good news was that the bikes were in very good shape. So with that time saved, we went to the Ambalanthota junction to have breakfast. The bad news is, my read end was about to go on strike. 

After a non-parata breakfast, we got on the bikes to visit the final corner to be reached - Dondra Head. I've never been to Dondra Head before although i've gone past it countless times. And neither had anyone else if I remember correctly.

The traffic was unbelievable terrible. I suppose with Matara being one of the busiest cities in the South, this was to be expected. I soon began to miss the joys of riding on vacant and open roads in the North and East. The buses and the tuk tuks seemed to follow their own rules as they do in Colombo. But this was part of the package. So we patiently navigated to Dikwella where we stopped to have some king coconut to refresh ourselves. By about 1.30 pm we were able to reach Dondra Head and the iconic lighthouse at the Southern most point of Sri Lanka. Unlike Sangaman Kanda, Dondra Head is a popular tourist destination especially with the locals. We snapped a couple of pictures for our albums dutifully, walked among the cool sea water for about 20 minutes and got back on the bikes for the home stretch.

We stopped only a couple of times afterwards till we reached Colombo. We were just excited to reach Colombo and complete the full circle. We passed through Matara, Weligama, Galle, Benthota, Kalutara, Panadura and finally reached Colombo. We reached our workplace in Nawala at about 8.30 pm. Needless to say we were ecstatic at what we had just achieved.

Around the edge of Sri Lanka in 4 days covering all 4 corners and 1600 kilometers. And on two motor bikes. That's something all four of us will be proud of till the day we die.

On a closing note, if you plan to do this trip, please don't take this blog post as the gospel truth. I cannot condone or recommend some methods that we used as appropriate. Riding for 24 hours at a stretch and riding so late into the night is far from the recommended practice. We might even agree with some folk who will say that we were fools to attempt the Yala stretch that late in the night. This is merely a collation of how our hours passed. Best to be objective and plan your own trip according to your strengths and weaknesses.

We must place on record our gratitude to Shamitha Peiris - an ex colleague for lending us his bike. And to everyone else who supported us by lending helmets, jackets etc.

And to everyone else who said we couldn’t do this on a motorbike – Thank you! You made it possible J

I can be contacted on ceylontripper@gmail.com. More pictures can be found on my Flickr profile right here.

Until the next time then,

Miranga