Sept 2, 2024 – Negombo to Kandy with a stop at the Pinnewala Elephant Sanctuary
Pinnawela Elephant Sanctuary
We left from Earl’s Regent Negombo at 11.30 am for Kandy. Rohan, our driver-cum-guide picked us up exactly at 11.30 and the minute he saw the two cabin sized bags he remarked “you travel light”. As we chatted during the trip we realised that Rohan has spent many years in the hospitality industry, not just in Sri Lanka but also in Maldives. He sized us up in an instant and said, you must be travelling a lot, because packing light comes from experience :).
It took us nearly 2.5 hours to reach the Pinnawela Elephant Sanctuary. Just as Rohan parked the car and we got out and walked near the entrance, we noticed a big group of elephants running down a small street along with their mahouts. They were going for their river bath !!
Everyone just stood around to watch them… majestic animals and so protective of their young. Try and see if you can spot the tiny baby elephant amidst the big group in the video below –
Elephants Going To The River for a Bath
The elephant poo is collected immediately and paper is made out of it. You can buy some poo paper in one of the shops here.
We walked down to the river to see the elephants bathe. It’s a nice experience. For Indians who have travelled to Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu/Karnataka, seeing elephants bathe may not be exciting but it’s certainly nice to watch.
I tried to capture the littlest baby elephant and succeeded for a few seconds in this second video – do watch the right most elephant on the screen … to spot the tiny one.
We did a quick walk around the elephant sanctuary and took a few pictures. By the time we came back to the car, one of the elephants was returning after its bath :). If you want to catch the elephants walking down for their bath to the river, you need to be here by 9.30 in the morning or by 2 pm in the afternoon. Not sure if it happens for a third time.
Read more on this link – Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage.
Pinnawela to Kandy
The distance between Pinnawela elephant sanctuary and Kandy is about 40 kms and it takes an hour and a half approximately. Rohan first went to the Peredeniya Railway Station to collect our train tickets for Nuwara Eliya. We walked around the station and took pictures. It’s a 157 year old railway station !! Very quaint and nicely kept up.
Balaji Dosai, Kandy
From the railway station we went to have our dinner at Balaji Dosai. Initially Krishnan had identified Nagalingam restaurant as the place to eat. When Rohan reached the exact location we realised that the restaurant has gone out of business :(. Sadly google is not updated.
Rohan immediately suggested that we go to Balaji Dosai. It was a great suggestion and we had an amazing experience. The restaurant is clean and the food is tasty. The owners are always inside the restaurant overseeing the kitchen. Most importantly it’s an open kitchen …. so you don’t have to worry about cleanliness.
Before driving up to our hotel Eagle Regency, we requested Rohan to stop at some supermarket so that we could stock up on some snacks. We stopped at Keels Super market and bought some snacks, tetra pack milk etc for our trip to Nuwara Eliya the next day.
The route to Hotel Eagle Regency is a bit confusing …. if you manage to find the university road, you may reach easily, but we took a different route and not only was the road uphill but also very narrow. Rohan drove very well, and all his experience showed. But it still took us nearly an hour to find our hotel.
We reached Hotel Eagle Regency by 8 pm and that last one hour just exhausted us :). When the manager offered us a room with a view and we had to climb a lot of steps I just refused and said give us a room just nearby.
Beautiful room and the restaurant was nearby. So we discussed what we would eat for breakfast as we had to leave by 8 am to take the 9.03 am train to Nuwara Eliya.
A nice day and Kandy is so pretty !!
Footnote : If you need help organising your trip in Sri Lanka, reach out to Suren at Destination Sri Lanka. He put together a really nice itinerary and was very flexible with the schedule, changing it as we went along. Suren can be reached at +94 777 557 035. Attaching his visiting card below – 
Bindu, Interesting facts about elephants. Also, interesting travel updates. You and Krishnan are brave to travel, even in India, lately. Good thing you had a good guide.