Lovely Sri Lanka

Beautiful Sri Lanka!

I’ve had to write a little something about some of the places that many of us visit when we go to this sizeable island. There’s quite a bit of ground to cover on the average tour but, sitting in a comfortable minibus with nine agreeable people on my tour, I barely noticed the time passing.

There’s so much to look at. The ‘wet’ zone goes into the dry’ zone, the foliage changes, the coconut trees stop and cashews are no longer sold by the roadside. Now it’s pineapple and then spices ….

Drop to the south and you’re in tea plantations and further south-west and you’re back to the coast – and if you’re very lucky a visit to Yala National Park where game drives take you out morning and evening in the hope of catching a glimpse of the elusive leopard.

All the resorts down the west coast, both north and south of Colombo, have different things to offer. Some of the villages, such as Bentota and Negombo, are turning into quite the little resorts – as we know them. Cafes, bars and shops are springing up around the better hotels and you no longer feel cut off – just you, the hotel and the beach. As with everything, one person’s idea of the perfect hotel or resort isn’t another’s so we have to hear what you like before we choose one. However the interior towns offer a more limited selection so I’ll mention some of them here.

Unless you head for the north (requiring more hours on the road) most itineraries take you east from Colombo. En route you can easily make a stop at Pinnawala and visit the elephant orphanage and watch the rescued elephants of all sizes tread carefully between the shops and cafes on their way to the river. A couple of hours further east and you’ll be in Habarana. This is where you rest up for a night or two so that you can visit Sigiriya Rock Fortress, Sri Lanka’s first UNESCO listed World Heritage Site, and Polonnaruwa, the capital of Sri Lanka in the 11^th century.

I stayed in the Chaaya Village, a low rise collection of horseshoe shaped little cul-de-sacs of rooms, set in sweeping gardens adjacent to the lake. You can also contact experts from pest control vancouver to make your garden free from pests and to make it more impressive The poor relation to its sister hotel, the Cinnamon Lodge just next door, it offered me everything I needed and the buffet meals were truly great. The pool’s a tad small and the Cinnamon Lodge is more elegant so if your budget allows go for that; it’s not much more.

Sigiriya, inhabited from 3^rd century BC, and the medieval city of Polonnaruwa are both way more fascinating and rewarding than they seem to be from the literature! The sophistication of these ancient cities is awe-inspiring. Three of the ten people on my tour actually made the climb to the top of Sigiriya but it’s not obligatory and it’s not for the faint-hearted.  The UNESCO site says it better than I can ……

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/201

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/202

From here we drove for about an hour and visited the caves at Dambulla where giant statues of the buddha were discovered centuries ago, and on to the Spice Garden where we walked around the gardens being regaled by Bonny, the most dynamic lecturer I’ve ever known, and where we bought cinnamon oil, sandalwood, lime oil, red oil (arthritis). Then we carried on and within a couple of hours arrived into Kandy, a city built around a large man-made lake and with lush hillsides as a backdrop. I wasn’t expecting anything so stunning. Lovely, lovely Kandy.

We stayed at the Cinnamon Citadel and given that I was on the 3* tour I was pretty impressed with this hotel. It’s a few minutes outside Kandy, overlooking the river. The rooms are luxurious and large.  It did have yet another of those large brightly-lit restaurants with self-service buffet but the choice was staggering. At every meal you have a choice of western or Sri Lankan cuisine, meat, fish or vegetarian, vegetables or salad, and so it goes. In the morning you can sit out on the terrace enjoying the view – and the heat of the sun. Best get up early for that experience.

Here you see the Temple of the Tooth Relic (don’t ask), which is cute enough but you wouldn’t want to drive here just for that. It’s Kandy itself which is worth the journey. Walk around in a small group here, though, as you would in Colombo.

South – and quite a drive – you can stop in at Nuwara Eliya, 6200 feet above sea level and  right in the middle of the tea plantations. If I try to explain how heart achingly beautiful this part of Sri Lanka is you’ll start yawning but it really, really is. The town itself is scruffy but safe to wander about and finally get down there with the people and know that you’re in Asia but please splash out just a bit and stay in the Tea Factory. The place is a legend all on its own.

And on to Yala, a vast area of forest, scrub and grassland and home to wild elephants, monkeys, leopard, boars, crocodiles, mongoose, and my favourite – the sloth bear. Game drive guides know where to head for but seeing these animals in their own habitat isn’t always easy, even though your morning drive starts at 5am. Still it’s hard to miss the constant stream of creatures at the watering hole if you sit quietly by the pool at the central hotel and anyway you’ll hear monkeys run over your chalet roof at night! There are other interesting things to see in Yala; You can save money and stay in Tissa, about 13 miles away, and just come into the park for the daytime but if you can stay close to the park entrance at Chaaya Wild Yala it’s worth it. They have jungle chalets (so don’t snack on the deck) and beach chalets for anyone whose idea of heaven is jungle behind them and the Indian Ocean in front (me).

And back west to the beaches. I can’t go into all of those here. Maybe I’ll add some reviews in later but if you ever want to ask about Sri Lanka I’m always happy to drop whatever I’m doing and chat about it. You’re never going to be under any pressure to book from me.