7 Responses to “Old Arugam”

1. 1 shana
   13/08/2009 at 18:28

   old is gold………. great.. i really love this pictures & all.dear arugam bay ,you have long way to go………….. good luck
   cheers
   chamila

2. 2 anusar
   19/08/2009 at 14:52

   old vreey nice i love arugam bay pottuvil

3. 3 mark scanlon
   05/09/2009 at 17:53

   has anyone ever driven to aragumbay from colombo in 4 1/2 hours?????
   that would be a scary ride!!!

4. 4 Tom
   06/09/2009 at 19:08

   I’ve done it in 5hr. 35min. on a fast motorbike, at night.
   Not recommended – but I had to catch a flight.
   and surfed too long.

5. 5 dilsiri
   07/09/2009 at 13:36

   my colleage curt did it in 5 and 1/2 hours. in a jeep. you know, now that the roads are being done it would be much easier.

6. 6 Angela Turner
   01/12/2009 at 08:20

   Mark,
   I am sure if you put a V-8 or two in one of those red buses and ran it on empty you could come close to 41/2 hours. My memories of those red beasts are of teeth clenched, horizontal hairdo and fingernails dug into the shoulders of the person sitting in the seat in front of me.

7. 7 Lance
   20/12/2009 at 13:34

   In 1983, I did it in 48 hours via train to Batticaloa, survived election fights over night, bussed down to Pottuvil and another bus to the Bay, with a Wave Ski.
   The war and curfews over the next 4 months. Finally on the way back to Columbo, a lot of what I witnessed on the way in, had been destroyed.
   There were major developments within A’bay during that time, transforming it very quickly from a fishing village to a holiday town.
   ‘Surfed morning and late arvo every day – about 5 hours a day. As the season was turning off into September, surfwise, one afternoon a slight storm sent 8 footers around the Point for a couple of hours. The boardies couldn’t handle the cross-rip and wind on the face for too long, so I was left to goat-boat it all by myself with about x400 Euro Touros spectating.(15 minutes of glory).
   I had got to know a lot of the locals very well during that time and was shocked with the disaster. Photos coming out showed recognisable landmarks destroyed and old friends lost.

   A word of warning: Please take care not to get the sandfly bites (the locals call them cocoanut flies) and cover any lesions and keep them dry – there is a Malaria-like infection caused by the sandflies, called Leishmaniasis. Very nasty get it treated and get out of there and then get treated at home again.

   A lot happened during that 4 months – a lifetime of memories.