Gampaha overview

Situated on the Colombo-Kandy Road, Gampaha is the primary town outside of the capital, lying on the opposite bank of Kelani River. Home of Sri Lanka’s first rubber plantation, which can still be seen at Henarthgoda Botanical Gardens, Gampaha is also connected to the tenuous Sri Lankan rail network. The town’s biggest modern claim to fame, second hand car imports, is unlikely to attract many tourists who tend to visit more for the historic links to the famous Ayurveda physician Pandit G.P.Wickramarchchi and the Bandaranayake family, who produced the world’s first female prime minister. A traditionally sleepy town, whose name literally means Five Villages, Gampaha has so far avoided becoming an over-exposed transit hub for domestic and international tourists, despite the efforts of local administrators to widen roads for easy access to Colombo.