Tony & Juliet
England, March 2018
1. Overview
These notes summarise the highlights of our recent trip to Sri Lanka. As such it is as much a record of our experiences for our own reference as it is feedback on the trip.
We had a great time in Sri Lanka (and afterwards in Nepal, despite a stressful set of flights from Colombo to Kathmandu). We found the country to be varied and welcoming, the people quiet calm and helpful. Our guide-driver, Ravi, proved to be a great person to introduce us to the country.
2. Highlights
Some of the things we particularly enjoyed were:
1. The puja at Kataragama, with Ravi, to be able to share this with him was a real privilege, the sense of serenity and devotion was remarkable. There were no other tourists there and yet it was one of our best experiences of the trip.
2. Adams Peak: we set off at 1.30am and reached the summit at 5am. The descent took as long in part because everyone set off at the same time. Walking with the pilgrims was wonderful, but it should be noted that around 60% of the people were tourists. That said we got the timing right – not a weekend and no full moon.
3. Dhilip at The Other Corner [Habarana] proved to be a perfect naturalist and took us out to the lake for an intense 90min bird watching session (34 species).
4. Varied accommodation; was exactly what we wanted and was all well chosen.
5. The turtle watch was an emotional 3 hours watching a single green turtle lay her eggs and then fight her way out of the sand and down to the sea.
6. The itinerary met our requirements almost perfectly. Ravi told us every couple of days how good our itinerary was – and he was right.
7. Our local guides at the major sights proved to be knowledgeable and able to convey that knowledge to us.
8. The food proved to be very good – we especially remember the 28-curry community run restaurant that Ravi took us to near Polonnaruwa. The buffet of 28 different curries over 5m of wood fire was remarkable in quality and cost – and there was no one else there!
9. Sinharaja was amazing. Brought to life by our guide Pali, who managed to find something to look at and talk about every few metres - this was a remarkable insight from a man passionate about his environment.
10. The cave temples at Mulkirigala [near Tangalle] were perhaps the best we saw and certainly more rewarding than Dambulla.
11. We were memorably held up for 50 minutes by a wild elephant blocking the road.
12. We enjoyed meeting Pathi in Kandy and staying with him [at Hanthana House].
3. Other Notes
1. We didn’t need 2 nights in Palm Paradise [Cabanas & Villas], Tangalle. We could have seen the turtle on the first night and visited the cave temple at Mulkirigala either on the way to Tangalle or the next day on route to Sinharaja. I think we spent a total of 10mins on the beach (walking to restaurant) – beaches are not for us.
2. In Galle one night (rather than 2 as initially planned) was enough for us to see everything we wanted to – though we were there at Easter and many of the museums were closed.
3. The [Colombo] Airport Homestay said we should have booked a meal before arriving; it would be worth warning others of this. But we were well fed.
4. Clove Tree House [Ella] and Peaceful Chalet [Sinharaja Rest] were our kind of place. Great hosts, location, food and much to do.
5. The Horton Plains walk was a bit disappointing. It was very busy so the chances of seeing any wildlife were minimal. If going again we would probably sacrifice the Worlds End views for a quieter less popular route.
6. Yala: proved to be very busy – being one of 30 jeeps jostling to see a sleeping leopard was not a great experience – for the leopard or us. But the other wildlife was rewarding.
7. The city tour in Nuwara Eliya was perhaps only 20 mins rather than the 2 hours in the itinerary. But we couldn’t see that there was that much to see in the town. And since we had been up very early that day (Adams Peak) and were very tired, that was all we needed anyway.
8. It would be worth advising people to take a White shirt for the pujas.
4. Next Time
Sri Lanka impressed us. It would be good to go back and see more. Now we have seen the ‘big sights’ it would be good to focus on other things like
- village life (the cycle ride was good but a bit short),
- less visited temples (interestingly we found the smaller quieter temples more rewarding then the big important temples (it would of course be wrong not to visit these),
- the north of the island,
- more time on the wildlife in other parks,
- more time walking or cycling
- during a different season.
