Sri Lanka's hidden pearl
The few visitors in town can’t get over their surprise.
Having been told about the so-called “Rainy Season” in the East.
Instead, they found the best possible weather;
Mild, Sunny, Dry = Perfect !
It has not rained a single day this Year at Arugam Bay!
Eastern "Rainy" Season. 30/January 2012
It is in fact the best time of year to explore the Bay and its beautiful surroundings.
Do not forget to visit Kudumbi Gala Cave Monastery!
Arugam Bay has not enough quality rooms.
To cope with the unprecedented demand.
So far, there have been few improvements since 2004.
Aerial View of the Bay
Room capacity just has not kept up with the amount of visitors wishing to explore the Bay and its unique surroundings.
Below are just two examples of current projects in the Bay looking for suitable partners:
Owner driven Apartments with Surf Point View
Some excellent opportunities exists now.
Arugam Bay is very popular and will have a brilliant future.
Property prices are set to rise sharply.
Wise investors are looking at the Bay.
They seem to realize that good profits will be made .
last weekend "Arugam Surf" passed 80,000+ friends
Basically, the entire Country just had 800,000 visitors last year, 2010.
Arugam Bay has attracted more than 10% of them on its Facebook page.
A strong indication how popular the remote, little Bay will become!
….”Even remote locations such as Peanut Farm close to Arugam Bay there is a unsightly build up of “garbage” – plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other trash that tourists have to literally walk through while accessing the beach – hardly the sort of experience that will generate a positive feedback on sites such as Trip Advisor which can make (or break) a destination”…..
72,000 PVC bottles per month !
By Suren R. Mirchandani
Background…
Tourism arrivals are expected to increase significantly over the next few years as Sri Lanka positions itself as one of the worlds best leisure destinations, from a base of approximately 500,000 per annum to 2.5 million per annum. This rapid influx of visitors will place immense pressure on the local environment, particularly on waste buildup and management by local government bodies.
Tourists- not locals- use bottled water. Shown are approx. 72K bottles: 1 month supply at Arugam Bay!
The potential for irreversible damage to Sri Lanka’s environment and reputation is very real and significant as evidenced by the already visible degradation and pollution in pristine environments such as Kalpitiya, Trincomalee and Arugam Bay. A significant increase of tourists will make an already bad situation much worse. Continue reading ‘As tourism grows PET menace looms large’
“……No more plastic bottles would be littering the beautiful Bay…”
This article was first published on arugam.info on 14th March, 2007
We re-publish it today, in response to “The Island” article above.
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Fresh drinking water at Arugam Bay still presents a major problem, to this very day.
None of the educated (?) NGO’s, who claim to be “experts” in their chosen fields ever managed to came up with a true, ‘sustainable’ idea which actually worked.
In more than two years (after our Tsunami) .
Instead, they managed to waste millions of donor’s hard earned cash.
Arugam.info sees no real problem.
Forward thinking Thais, just 2,000 km due East of Arugam Bay, have long embraced popular reverse osmosis water dispensers.
Even in the USA some, unlike “Mercy Corpse” may have heard of it….:
Indeed, on every street corner in the Kingdom of Siam you will see residents refilling their PVC bottles and containers with fresh, clean, and fully trusted water.
A good contribution to the environment:
Every sane person should be concerned about PVC waste piling up and spoiling the environment! And this for ages, maybe even 500 years ahead. Continue reading ‘Cool Idea!’
Another beautiful, mild & sunny weekend comes to a close
At Arugam Bay
Below are a few impressions how some enjoyed their last supper.
The Eastern Coastal road still ends at Arugam Bay & beyond,.
A real Dead End, at the the wide river at Kumana.
No modern catering facilities there. So far.
A rare leopard at Kumana. He had his dinner ...
Waiting. For his second supper....
A very peaceful, Happy Christmas to you All !
Sri Lanka Holidays: Sunken Treasure, Golden Pearl Island and Ravana’s Swaymbhu lingum by bunpeiris
If a sheer single word could bring about the most divine joy, the word “treasure” would take the pole position to race against the most precious of all words: father, mother, son, daughter and lover. Of course, you may re-order the words, for your lover would hardly approve the sequence. Of course, you may hold the sequence at your peril but nobody would twitch a muscle nor bat an eye. Keep your eyes peeled and ears open for there’s more to swing low and final thrust of the argument is still ahead. If such is the magic of the single word, the ultimate magic could perhaps be encapsulated in a pair of words: sunken treasure.
The Great Basses Lighthouse off Kirinda
In the year1958, Mike Wilson discovered a hitherto unknown spectacular underwater territory that sparked interest in snorkling, scuba diving (skin diving), wreck diving and submarine photography (underwater photography) in the southern coast of Sri Lanka Holidays. The location was the Great Basses Reef, 6 miles away (as the crow flies) from Kirinda in the mainland (island of Sri Lanka). Great Basses Ridge and Little Basses Ridge run almost parallel to the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The wave-swept line of submerged rocks of Great Basses is home to Great Basses Light house while the Little Bases Ridge houses Little Basses Light house. Both light houses were then run by Imperial Light House Service of Great Britain. Close to the location of Little Basses light house is Daedalus Rock the site where Her Majesty’s ship Daedalus had been wrecked upon.
In the year 1959, Arthur C. Clarke and Rodney Johnklass joined Mike Wilson on an expedition. Arthur narrates: around the lighthouse was a fantastic submarine fairyland of caves, grottoes, coral-encrusted valleys-and fish in numbers such as I have never seen anywhere else in the world. Sometimes they crowded round us so closely that we could see nothing but a solid wall of scales and had literarily to push our way through. They were inquisitive and completely unafraid. During our visit we met eagle rays, turtles, angelfish, jacks, tuna (up to three hundred pounds!), groupers, and sharks, especially the latter. Arthur C. Clarke: The Indian Ocean Treasure (1972)
The Great Basses Reef and The Little Basses Reef
In the year 1961 Mike Wilson was once again at the Great Basses Reef. Arthur C, Clarke and Rodney Johnklass missed him. But then Mike managed pretty well without them, for he was accompanied by a couple of first class divers, members of the official U.S. community. They were young fellows. Arthur C. Clarke had no idea how his buddy Mike had managed to persuade the parents of Boby Kriegal and Mark Smith. They were only fourteen and thirteen years of age respectively.
Travel to Kirinda from Colombo (175 miles)
Quote Arthur C. Clarke: Mark Smith’s (14) diary, March 12, 1961 “Arrived.” That one word covers a 175-mile drive down the beautiful, palm-fringed, southwest coast of Ceylon-surely one of the loveliest in the world-past dozens of fishing villages with their picturesque outrigger boats drawn up on the beaches. The journey goes through the ancient port of Galle-which, say some historians, may be the Tarshish of the Bible–and beyond that into a lonely landscape of still lagoons and patches of jungle. You may meet wild elephants here, but they seldom bother motorists. Unquote
The tricky rope trip from boat to the Lighthouse
The seaport of Galle is home to VOC Galle Dutch Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Galle is a conveniently located to make visits to Sri Lanka Holidays Wild life sanctuaries Udawalave, Ruhuna Yala as well as to Sri Lanka Holidaysancient cities of Kataragama andTissmaharama of Ruhuna, the cradle of the heroes of then Lanka and now Sri Lanka.
Boat ride from Kirinda to Light house of Imperial Light house Service at Great Basses Ridge (10 miles, as you sail)
Kirinda, a small fishing village is home to the boat house built by the imperial Light house Service of the colonial ruler, Great Britain. The boat “Pharos” leaves for the Light house Continue reading ‘The Basses. Just South of AbaY’
A good, remarkable video clip.
In perfect quality, with super clear images.
Great shots with a somewhat long, detailled commentary
….it’s been an exception here (at Arugam Bay) and we’ve been a bit more sociable and met loads of nice people from all over – Poland, Germany, Israel, UK et al Weirdly enough we…….
It was sad to leave Ella again but Andrew was chomping at the bit to get to Arugam Bay before the (surf) season was well and truly over. So after a last curd and honey we drove out past the Rawana Ella falls and eastwards towards the coast – the temperature climbing as we drove
After we hit Pottuvil a little Muslim town on the coast we drove on through the edge of the Lahugala National Park where we were really lucky to have our own ad hoc safari! First we saw a cobra -when we almost hit it when it reared up at us from the middle of the road, then we saw elephants in the wild – Continue reading ‘Oz to AbaY overland: drivingoz2uk2.com’
By Harischandra Gunaratna
Michelle Mitchelle and Natalie Loos Moutou, two sisters of Sri Lankan origin living in Sydney,Australia were on holiday in Arugam Bay and they were mesmerised with its bounden beauty, the sandy beaches and calm waters.
Sri Lankan emmigrants returned to base
But they had a word of caution “Arugam Bay should retain its tranquility and rustic charm and the authorities should not allow unnecessary development such as high rise buildings and overcrowd the area. Such action would ruin the pristine beauty for which Arugam Bay is known internationally.”
Michelle and Natalie are the daughters of Claudette and Patrick Loos, a Sri Lanka couple who migrated Down Under in the 70s and made Sydney their home.
Michelle and Natalie (from Down Under)
Continue reading ‘Arugam Bay should retain its charm and character’
The ’Sri Lankan Pro’-surfing contest commenced in the Arugambay coastal belt today. This is the largest Beach Pageant held in the Indian Ocean Region.
Arugam Bay. Is popular with Lady Surfers
More than 100 foreigners are set to take part in the contest.
Surfers from several countries will participate in the ‘Sri Lankan Pro’ contest which will be held until next Sunday.
A large number of locals too have gathered for the function with several other attractions in the area.
Among them are the Magul Maha Viharaya, Muhudu Maha Viharaya, Kudumbigala Forest Sanctuary, Bird Sanctuary and Crocodile Rock.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/latest/10421-surfs-up.html
…We were lucky enough to pair up with the Arugam Bay Surf Club to have them show us a few waves around the region and on our first surf one of the local surfers busted out his beloved Rusty Surfboard!……
Text and Photography: Brody
3 hours drive to Los Angeles. 17 hours from LA to Bangkok. 16 hour layover in Bangkok. 4 hours to Columbo, Sri Lanka. 10 hours drive across the country- seas of three wheeled moto-taxis (called tuk-tuks), cars, tractors pulling cartloads of people, herds of buffalo, and families on bicycles- all merging semi-seamlessly with a symphony of horn beeps and blares. Finally we had arrived, in what felt like the furthest I could possibly be from home.
For a few hours Sri Lanka seemed like another world. Different tastes, customs, rituals, and new waves to explore. We were lucky enough to pair up with the Arugam Bay Surf Club to have them show us a few waves around the region and on our first surf one of the local surfers busted out his beloved Rusty Surfboard! After all of that travel to get so far from home, our Rusty Surfboards were an instant conversation starter and the feeling of being “so far away” melted with the first exchange of waves. Continue reading ‘Close to Home in … Arugam Bay’
If there was heaven on earth, Arugam Bay would be it.
It has everything that I love about Sri Lanka; wonderful weather, surfing, jungle beaches, history, nature and a lively culture complete with people from all over the globe!
The surf season begins in May and runs to October. The journey to Abay itself has seen tremendous changes with a ‘carpet’ road built right from Colombo to Arugam Bay. You will see the best of Sri Lanka while you travel, rivers, lots of greenery, Elephants in Udawalawe National Park (No you don’t even need to go inside the park to see them!) and Lahugala, the Hill Country in the distance and historical monuments scatttered along the road.
Once you get to Abay you can chill at a number of restaurents and little shops dotted along the road. Being the avid explorer, I would venture to Pottuville Town and try the local Prawn and Crab Curry! You can get back into having some ‘normal’ food, pizza’s at Sun N Surf, Thai Food at Siam View followed by home made desserts at the Gecko.
My favourite breakfast is always at Hakeems, Banana Pancakes and Rottis at his little shop by the side of the street. Enough energy to get me on the board and last through the day! Continue reading ‘Arugam Bay, that’s where to catch the wave’
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