Tourists taken for a ride

M Nelson Piyaratne Kataragama group

Foreign tourists staying at Kataragama tourist hotels say safari drivers take them for a ride by taking them to Yala passing 56 kilometres via Tissamaharama although it is 18 kms from Kataragama to the Yala National Park according to maps provided for them by the Tourist Board.

Eva Ambos a female student of a German tourist group who was staying at a tourist hotel at Kataragama said: “I stayed with the group at a hotel. When we went to the Yala National Park, we hired a jeep from Kataragama and started about six in the morning. The driver took us in a long way so I was suspicious about it because it was displayed in the hotel that there is only 18 kilometres to Yala. When we inquired about it from the driver he said the short cut to Yala from Kataragama is closed nearly for one year.”

”We had to pay for the additional kilometres and it was after two and half hours when we reached the park. We lost the most suitable time to see wild animals. After watching some animals, we had spent nearly three hours from Yala to come to Kataragama again.