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Bentota beach in Sri Lanka is an ideal romantic beach. Bentota is an open
air theatre showing folk and mask dancing with clusters of palms overlooking everything.
This section of the southwestern coast gives a typical picture of a tropical beach
dotted with palm trees; white sandy drenches and blue waters. The Beruwala Bay Beach
that is just before reaching Aluthgama at the Bentota Bridge and Bentota Bay Beach
just over the bridge is the most popular twin beaches in the coast. The coast to
the further south and onwards to the Deep South too is replete with lovely topical
beaches.
Beach
Sprawling under an endless canopy of palm trees, the beaches continue several kilometres
south from Bentota. The attractive southern end of Bentota beach, i.e. south of
the railway station, comprises a wide & tranquil swathe of sand that's home to one
of the island's finest clusters of top-end luxury hotels, tastefully located & set
at decent intervals from one another down the coast. Some of the hotels herein provide
high quality Ayurvedic healing centres. Some of the most sumptuous places to stay
in the entire island are located in these beaches from the resort Bentota to village
Induruwa. Induruwa too has a small cluster of places to stay on a lovely, quiet
length of beach.
Calm seas of Bentota during the season from November to April make Beach ideal for
snorkeling, diving, sailing, wind surfing, water-skiing, and deep-sea fishing on
a traditional outrigger canoe. Bentota enriched with safe swimming conditions in
the season combined with fun water sport and exciting excursions that set up an
ideal background for a relaxed holiday in Sri Lanka, is an attraction for the world
tourisam.
Lagoon
Other Excursion connected to Bentota Beach.
- Induruwa located immediately south of Bentota with its offshore reef is another
safe swimming beach.
- Kosgoda Beach located 8km south of Induruwa beach is home to a community based turtle
hatchery and turtle watching project set up by the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP)
in association with Wildlife Department of Sri Lanka
- The historic Galapatha Raja Maha Vihare Buddhist temple at Bentota contains stone
inscriptions, stone carvings, pillars, ponds and troughs from the medieval period.
- Brief Garden -combination of a garden and open-air museum.
- Bentota river and lagoon-The lovers of water sports, Bentota, in addition to its
pristine palm fringed beach, brings in still more pleasures nowhere else to be found,
by virtue of River Bentota Ganga and Bentota lagoon.
Bentota Resort Complex
Bentota Resort Complex is a romantic rendezvous of river and sea with several hotels,
railway station, post office, shopping arcade, cafeteria and an open air theatre
showing folk and mask dancing with clusters of palms overlooking everything.
Bentota, Sri Lanka, 64 km down from Colombo, is the second tourist resort following
Beruwala Bay Beach, 55 km down from Colombo by the same highway, is the gateway
to 140 km (86mile) stretch of tropical beaches from Beruwala in western coast to
Tangalla Bay Beach in the southern coast. The outstandingly beautiful stretch of
road is one of the most scenic routes in the island.
River
Entertainment-
Boat safaris in River
Boat trips along the River Bentota are quite popular. The Bentota lagoon is the
last section of the broad River Bentota, a popular spot for boat safaris. Starting
at the Bentota Bridge & cruising inland, soon we will be in the lagoon dotted with
tiny islands fringed with tangled mangrove swamps. Among aquatic birds-herons, cormorants
& colourful kingfishers - as well as water monitors & crocodiles, the boatmen ferry
(Who pay the ferryman? Allow me) us right in the thick of mangroves. The sight is
mysterious & beautiful at once, as we cruise through shaded waters beneath huge
roots. The longer the cruise, the further upriver we cruise, the more unspoilt the
scenery becomes. Longer excursion includes side trip to coconut factories & handicraft
shops. Most trips cruise for three hours while the Dinner Cruise last 5 hours. Grilled
prawns with garlic butter, steaks, rice & curry & of course, the best dessert in
the world, curd with Kitul palm honey.
Turtle hatcheries
At the north end of Induruwa is one of the turtle hatcheries set up to protect turtle
eggs till they hatch. Turtle eggs, which would otherwise be eaten, are bought for
a few rupees each from local fishermen & re-buried along the beach. Once hatched,
the baby turtles are kept in holding tanks. Small tanks contain hundreds of one
to three-day old turtles, as well as larger one, including an albino, kept for the
collection. In the night, you can release a three-day-old turtle into the Indian
Ocean to fend off it. The beauty of the operation is the beaches are guaranteed
the female baby turtles released herein will find their way back, sans GPS, in the
depths of seven seas to their natal beach ten years later to lay their own eggs.
The wonders & mysteries of our planet are endless. Let's protect it from the poachers,
marauders & mass murderers. Five of the world's seven species of marine turtle visit
Sri Lanka's beaches to nest, a rare ecological blessing. The government support
for the conservation is a far cry from an ideal conservation project for an island
that could easily be converted to the world's prime turtle-watching destination.
In buying a baby turtle (from privately run turtle hatcheries) so that it could
be released to the ocean.,.
Kosgoda Independent turtle hatcheries run by villagers & Turtle conservation project
(TCP) sponsored by UNDP Turtle Conservation Project.
Brief Garden
Ten kilometres north of Bentota is pretty Brief Garden. It used to be the home of
landscape artist, sculptor & bon-vivant Bevis Bawa, older brother of illustrious
Geoffrey Bawa, one of the twentieth century's foremost Asian architects whose work
includes the new Parliament, Ruhunu University & renowned top-end eco-friendly hotels,
Kandalama Hotel, Bentota Beach Hotel etc. of the island. In 1929 Major Bevis Bawa
of British Army in Ceylon began landscaping the 5 acre garden his father had purchased
following a successful legal brief. Having cleared the Rubber plantation, Bawa set
to work creating a verdant romantic folly of inviting alcoves, nooks & bowers &
garden sculpture. Bawa continued his masterpiece to his death in 1992. In the backdrop
of undulating landscape of paddy fields & scattered villages on a hillside, Bawa
designed a delightful series of cool shady terraces of wonderfully composed views,
designed in various moods with references to European & Japanese style gardens,
which tumble luxuriantly down the hillside below the house. And then there are wide
lawns, ponds & a hilltop lookout too. The house itself wouldn't take a backseat
to the garden. The artwork on display is eclectic, ranging form homoerotic sculpture
to a wonderful mural of Sri Lankan life in the style of Marc Chagall. Some of the
artwork was done by Bawa himself. The mural was created by the Australian artist
Donald Friend, who hadn't intended to stay more than six days but ended up staying
in Ceylon (then name of Sri Lanka) for six years. The fascinating collection of
photographs includes a photograph of Bevis Bawa posing with house guests Vivien
Leigh (Gone with the Wind) & Laurence Olivier (Oh! Ah!) during their filming of
Robert Standish's famous novel "Elephant Walk" in 1953. And Emperor Edward the 8th
to the boot.
Robin Maugham at Brief Garden
Spurred by his uncle William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), Robin Maugham (1916 -1981)
an investigative journalist, novelist, travel writer set off on what he would later
describe as his Search for Nirvana. Nirvana being almost endless cycles of death
and birth away and next to the supreme enlightenment, Robin Maugham, to his consolation,
found Brief Garden at Bentota six miles away from the Bentota National Holiday Resort.
He gushed: Brief Garden is a Paradise; it is a Shangri-la, a glimpse of Nirvana-call
it what you will after you have been to see it. The harmony of the Brief Garden
is unexpected because, as Bevis Bawa explains it, it consists of a collection of
several small gardens-thought out by him in various moods and at various times during
its growth over the last forty years. The result is a climax of loveliness, a proclamation
that nature can triumph over the hideous inventions of mankind. In the leafy trees
and shrubs the wild birds call and sing. Flowers glitter in the sunshine. Gracefully-shaped
vistas reach out towards the horizon. Tranquility pervades the green terraces. Peace
covers the house with a soft cloak. Peace falls over the lawns like a blessing.
Peace is everywhere. For this place is a Paradise, made by the sensibility of one
man, created by his patience and his love.
Geoffrey Bawa himself appear in avatars: here in the form no other than God Bacchus
himself, holding a birdbath shaped as a giant clam-shell, there in the shape of
water-spouting gargoyle with wild hair & blue marble eyes. Bawa, himself was an
imposing character, intellectually, socially as well as physically. He was 6 feet
7 inches tall. That is as tall as South African born former captain of England,
fabulous Tony Greg, the most colourful commentator in Cricket today. And impartial
too, as is the champion of champions, Illustrious Ravi Shastri of India.
Key
Sport ,Adventure & fee
- Swimming
- Diving
- Snorkelling trips
- Waterskiing
- Jetskiing
- Tube-riding
- Windsurfing
- Deep sea fishing
- Canoeing
- River cruises
Beach Map
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