Travel to Kitulgala
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Honeybee Taxi and Tours
The most low cost Taxi service in Negombo
Kitulgala is a small town in the west
of Sri Lanka. It is in the wet zone rain forest, which gets two monsoons
each year, and is one of the wettest places in the country.
Nevertheless, it comes alive in the first three months of the year,
especially in February, the driest month. The Academy Award-winning The
Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed on the Kelani River near Kitulgala,
although nothing remains now except the concrete foundations for the
bridge (and, supposedly, the submerged train cars that plunged into the
river in the climactic scene). Kitulgala is also a base for white-water
rafting, which starts a few kilometres upstream.
Large numbers
of people make the excursion from Colombo at weekends to enjoy the
beautiful scenery, play in the river, and have an excellent rice and
curry lunch at the local restaurants.
The Kelani river is wide
at Kitulgala, but it is shallow apart from a deep channel near the
opposite bank, so in the drier months it provides a safe and attractive
place to swim, wash and play.
The river can be crossed by
walking out across the shallows and crossing the deep channel in a
dugout canoe, which is stabilised with an outrigger.
Sri
Lanka's most recently discovered bird, the Serendib Scops Owl was
originally heard calling by Deepal Warakagoda in these forests.
The hills above the rubber plantations also have Mountain Hawk Eagle, Crested Treeswift and Layard's Parakeet.
The agriculture around Kitulgala is typical of the hilly wet zone. The
Solitary Fishtail Palm, Caryota urens, which is called Kitul in Sri
Lanka, gives rise to the town's name. Its sap is concentrated into a
delicious syrup, not dissimilar to maple syrup, and crystallized as
jaggery. It is also fermented to make palm wine. The pith is used to
make sago, and the fibres to make rope.
Red bananas in Kitulgala forest
Bananas of both red and yellow varieties are grown. The yellow bananas
are only some 8 cm long, but are sweeter and tastier than the commercial
strains available in the West. Rubber trees are also grown on the
higher areas.
Many birders stay at Kitulgala. This area has
most of the rainforest bird species that are found at the World
Biosphere Reserve at Sinharaja, although in lower numbers. However, the
secondary forest and cultivation at Kitulgala is more open than the
pristine woodlands of Sinharaja, and elusive endemic species like Sri
Lanka Spurfowl, Green-billed Coucal and Spot-winged Thrush may be easier
to see.
Scene creation of the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai[edit]
A scene in the film, bridge at Kitulgala in Sri Lanka, before the explosion
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by
David Lean based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French
writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the
construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting.
It stars William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue
Hayakawa. The scene creation of the film was done in Sri Lanka and many
of them were at Kitulgala area including the bridge explosion.
In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United
States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
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