Chilaw with a private driver

Chilaw is a predominantly Catholic and Tamil fishing town on the northwest coast, about 80 kilometres north of Colombo on the coastal highway to Puttalam. The Munneswaram temple complex just outside town is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka — a cluster of five shrines that has drawn devotees for centuries and is believed to be among the oldest Shaivite temples on the island. The annual Munneswaram festival in August draws tens of thousands of pilgrims and features firewalking ceremonies. The town itself sits beside the Chilaw Lagoon, which supports one of the largest prawn-farming industries in Sri Lanka and supplies the fresh prawn that makes roadside restaurants here a local institution. Chilaw is the last significant town before the road north becomes more rural on the approach to Kalpitiya.