Aluthgama and around

Aluthgama and around

 Dividing beruwala from bentota, the lively little town of ALUTHGAMA offers a welcome does of everyday life amidst the big resorts, and reaming refreshingly unaffected by the local package tourist trade. The main street is a colorful succession of trades: a fish market straggles up its west side, with all sorts of seafood lined up on benches supervised by machete-made cloth.

Aluthgama other attraction is its good and relatively cheap selection of guest houses; theses places aren’t actually on the beach, but just behind it at the edge of the beautiful lagoon at the mouth of the bentota river in many ways just as attractive a location as the oceanfront, especially at night, when the lights of the northern bentota resorts twinkle prettily in the darkness across the waters. A couple of guest houses have their own boats as Paradise Island otherwise its ten minute walk, or a quick tuk tuk ride, to the nearest section of beach at bentota.

 Around Aluthgama: Gardens

J Bawa design about 10km inland Aluthgama, the idyllic brief gardens (daily bam 5pm rs.325 including guided tour) comprise the former houses and surrounding estate of the writer and artist Bevis Bawa, J bewilder brother of the architect Geoffrey bawa the name alludes to bawa’s father, who purchased the land with the money raised from a successful legal brief bevis bawa began landscaping the five acre gardens in 1929 and continued to work on them almost up until his death in 1992, creating a series of terraces which tumble luxuriantly down the hillside below the house. The gardens are nice for a stroll, but the main attraction is the houses, a low slung orange building stuffed with quirky artworks, some by bawa himself several pieces (including two enter training aluminum sculptures and a big mural of Sri Lankan scenes) are by the Australian artist Donald friend, who came to brief for a fascinating collection of photographs of the imposing Bawa himself (he was six foot seven inches tall), both as a young man serving as major in the British army and as one of Sri Lanka’s leading social luminaries, posing with house guests such as Laurence Oliver and Vivien Leigh. The return journey from Aluthgama by tuk tuk including an hour’s waiting time, should coast Rs.400 – 500. Avoid visiting at weekends, when the place gets overrun.