| "WALGAMA HALL" I am returning home after 40 years of absence from my native village of Walgama. My aim is to enhance my fathers legacy as a famous planter and to restore to its former glory the Walgama Estate once a spectacular but long neglected and is in a poor state and now in my ownership under the family inheritance policy. The village of Walgama is some six Kilometres inland from the famous town of Panadura on the South Western coast of SriLanka. My grand mother from my fathers side (Pieris Family)came from this town where the dress code was unique and the ladies wore beautiful white brocade blouses and were well known for their hardcore Sinhala patriotism. Walgama lake is the largest of a series of five lakes built in 600BC by the Sinhalese kings for irrigating the local agriculture. This area of SriLanka has a wealth of evidence of early settlements and was described in the high court in Mundi Vs. Highway authority of Srilanka as the most uncorrupt Sinhala village in the whole of SriLanka. Cyril Mundy an Englishman who lost his dwelling due to compulsory purchase order to allow for the Southern Highway, sued The Highway Authority of SriLanka successfully. Walgama Estate is only a kilometre from the first junction of the highway and therefor can be very easily accessed from all parts of the island. We are just over an hour from the Colombo International Airport, and six miles from the coastal town of Panadura in south western SriLanka. Lakeside will be a different kind of residence set deep in to the rural SriLanka. We are six miles inland and well clear of the tsunami plain and the commercial tourism. Turning off the main Horana/Panadura road you will cross the rice fields and enter this unexpected world of tranquility which is unmatched any where else on earth. The Walgama Forest division of the estate has a beautiful landscape of rolling terraces reaching the rice fields at the bottom of the valley where there is a natural spring gashing water in to the air ! The main estate is in three divisions and mainly Rubber and is complimented by Rice, Pineapple, Tea, Coffee,Coconut, Kasawa,Cinnamon,Teak and Mahogany. The Famagusta is built south facing, overlooking the lake and miles of rice fields and has five acres of tropical orchard to encourage wildlife. The name given to this house is a tribute to a large number of my Greek Friends who lost their homes in the 1974 invasion of the island of Cyprus by Turkey. Famagusta was the famous Golden Mile resort in the Eastern Cyprus popular with the British but sadly up to date under the occupation of the Turkish army! Last of all , this is not a hotel open to the public ! This is my retirement home and Those who come here from all four corners of the globe will be my friends & invitees where I have enjoyed their generous hospitality specially when the times were lean!No hunting, shooting, or fishing is allowed here as I do not approve cruelty to any living creature. The teachings of the Buddha will always remain the rules of the estate ! So all my friends from Europe,the far east, the middle east, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, please come and join me and let me pay back what you have given me in the past ! Thank You Don Hapuarachchi For Hapuarachchi Family |
| Lakeview Srilanka |
| A beauty spot on a historic lake ! This is real Rural SriLanka RuraSriLanka! |
| Hapuarachchi Estates |
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| LAKESIDE VIDEO |
