FANTASTIC ANIMALS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: YALA WILDLIFE PARK

The park at Yala was created as a Game Sanctuary by the British in 1894 for shooting and hunting parties and was only established as a wildlife reserve in 1938, when it became Yala National Park. Henry Engelbrecht, thrust into managing Yala, over 100,000 hectares of wildlife with Kataragama to the North, Panama to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south and Kirinda to the west, loved the challenges that this brought into his life.

‘The last irreconcilable’ as Engelbrecht was known, one of the 5500 Boer prisoners of war, brought from South Africa by the British, when the Boer War ended in 1902. Prisoners who took the oath of alliance to the British sovereign were sent home but Henry Engelbrecht refused so was sent to be a warden as a penance.

The park today is divided into blocks numbered one to five and, besides being a wildlife hotspot, covers a number of archeological sites, including the famous ‘Magul Maha Viharaya’, dating back to 1st Century BC; an important memorial on the Indian Ocean side of the park to those that died in the 2004 tsunami, with a wave-like silver monument to remind us of the worlds worst ever natural disaster; and a pilgrims’ bridge from block 1 to block 2 to see Situlpawwa.

 

Read more:  FANTASTIC ANIMALS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: YALA WILDLIFE PARK

Facelift for Pegasus

The Pegasus Reef Hotel, Wattala has completed the renovations of its deluxe rooms. The hotel’s restaurants, banquet halls and pool side also received an upgrade. The Daily News visited this beautiful hotel and saw firsthand how comfortable and ‘customer sensitive’ this hotel and its facilities are.

“We have enhanced our property standard. First, we redid all our banquet halls, then the car park, the public area, and our new deluxe rooms. We renovated 81 rooms. It is a Rs. 250 million project. Now it is brand new, up to the five-star level and all the facilities are available in our rooms. There are three types of rooms – Standard, Deluxe and Suite Rooms. There are 53 Standard rooms. We have 81 Deluxe rooms and one Suite. The price ranges are Rs. 17,500 to Rs. 27,500. Pegasus is almost five decades old. This is the first five-star resort in Sri Lanka. Fifty five percent are tourists and 45 percent locals,” said Head of Sales and Marketing Dushmantha Fernando. 

Read more: Facelift for Pegasus

Aviraté unveils Christmas collection

Aviraté, an international lifestyle fashion brand owned by Timex Garments recently unveiled its drop-dead gorgeous Christmas collection to its diva customers who were invited to have a sneak peek while indulging in refreshments, conversations and complimentary vouchers.

Held at its flagship store recently, the collection preview included a range of evening wear maxis, shimmering dresses, colorful printed blouses, festive jewelry amongst many others, Avirate said in a press release. The invitees also received complimentary vouchers courtesy of Cinnamon Grand for hotel stays in over five of their hotels and resorts, Laundromat, Aviraté Café, Aviraté,Belissima, and OSMO fitness centre.

 

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Over 100 local & international surfers will vie for honours off Sri Lanka’s southern coast

After last year’s intense battles on the waves of the Eastern coast, the much-coveted event Red Bull Ride My Wave returns for its third edition on December 10 and 11 at Kabalana Beach, Ahangama.

This year will see 100 surfers both local and international searching for fast lefts and hollow rights aiming to score high on the judges boards which will give our top three winners a grand prize of US$ 3000 (1st place - US$1500, 2nd place – US$1000 and 3rd place – US$500) securing the winner with the title and crowning as the ‘King of the Wave’.

Red Bull Ride My Wave began in 2014, where surfers from the East Coast were pitted against their fellow surfers from the South Coast in a quest to determine which region was home to the island’s best surfers. Hosted by Costa Rican Pro Surfer, Diego Naranjo, the East Coast team emerged victorious and went on to represent Sri Lanka at the Red Bull Both Ways in the Maldives, where they placed second, third and fourth respectively.

 

Read more: Red Bull Ride My Wave lights up Southern waves

Construction of World’s Tallest Christmas Tree abandoned

The process of constructing the world’s tallest and largest Christmas tree, which was intended to set a Guinness world record, has been halted by Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga on the instructions of Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Coordinating Secretary of the Ports Minister and Christmas Tree construction committee chairman Mangala P Gunasekara said.

He said that Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith was informed duly through his coordinating secretary prior to commencement of the construction of this giant work. Besides, the constructing committee has taken measures to make the Pope aware through a letter in this regard.

The estimated cost of the project was Rs 12 million and the total amount had been planned to be raised through donations of well-wishers. Of the amount Rs 6 million had already been received as raw materials and all the major construction including the structure has already been completed, he said.

 

Read more: Tallest Christmas Tree ‘cut down’

Play golf in Southern Sri Lanka

Shangri-La’s Golf & Country Club in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, unveiled the island’s first resort golf course. Designed by Rodney Wright on a former sapphire mine, the 18-hole course is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, set within the hotel grounds of Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort & Spa, which opened to guests on 1st June 2016.

Spread across a vast coconut palm plantation, it offers spectacular views and distinctive challenges for both beginners and seasoned players. The par-70 course is designed by Rodney Wright,the globally celebrated designer and a firm believer in integrating the culture and environment of the surrounding area into a golf course. The beautifully-landscaped course takes players on a memorable golfing journey through three zones, each with its own unique character; The Coconut Plantation offers lush fairways and challenging bunkers, The Dune Area - with its subtle elevation changes - gives way to breath-taking views of the Indian Ocean, and The Sapphire Mine showcases generous greens with an abundance of water features.

The course development was approached from an eco-perspective, due to the resort’s dedication to biodiversity and habitat protection. The structure has revitalised an abandoned sapphire mine, restored vegetation, re-introduced birdlife and usesPaspalum grass for its salt-tolerant turf, which is resilient in the tropical climate and allows for the highest standards of course conditioning.

Each hole has three decks for tee-off; Championship Tees, which allow for a course length of 6,107 yards (5,584 metres), Ladies’ Tees, which allow for a course length of 4,424 yards (4,945 metres) and Gents’ Tees, which allow for a course length of 5,570 yards (5,276m.)

Read more: Shangri-la’s Hambantota Resort and Spa unveils Sri Lanka’s first resort golf course

Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Dambadeniya

The Third Kingdom Dambadeniya temple is only an hour’s drive from Negombo and worth the journey for the fascinating 800-year-old wooden structures with original picture house and columns carved with the timeless lotus flowers holding up the beams of the ceiling.
 

The temple has a unique form of architecture, including the elephant that guards the entrances to the sacred spots that you should visit in sequence. These elephants have over the top trunks; almost cartoon like that are unique to the Third Kingdom. The king, on arrival, would go through the royal gate at the front of the temple, which was designed to be in perfect alignment with Buddha’s position in the picture house. Walk slightly to the left or right and the perspective is altogether changed, which is extraordinary as it is clearly an architectural illusion.

Read more: Wood-looking Temple of the Sacred Tooth: Dambadeniya The Third Kingdom