Sri Lanka

[romily]

Anybody been?

Never even considered it until I saw some pictures, did some reading...looking for a destination for next year, for 2-3 weeks, with a bit of everything - beach, nature, culture - and not too long distances. seems to fit the bill...

But I know nothing about the place (yet). Any input/impressions appreciated!

[viv]

Yep, spent about 6 weeks there. Beautiful country. What time of year would you want to travel? There are two monsoons - one in the east, one in the west, at different times of year. Also depends on whether you'd want to do things liks diving or not.

I'd go again tomorrow!

I can recommend a fantastic guide who is a bird expert - he has been used by my family several times as well as lots of friends. He has excellent English, a good van with aircon and most importantly; doesn't drive like a loon. Lucky Bolonghe - he comes up on Google searches etc as well. I would recommend doing the cultural sites with someone like him, as he will keep the touts away and it does make doing the Cultural Triangle much easier.

I loved Kandy - it's a beautiful train journey through the hills as well. You could get Lucky (or another driver) to pick you up, say, in Negombo (nearest place to get by a beach from the airport - about 20mins), take you through the Elephant Orphanage, the Cultural Triangle, Ella / Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, and finish there. You could then get the train from Kandy down to Colombo and down the coast to Hikkaduwa, Galle etc. That could take 5 days or 2 weeks, depending on how much you want to do.

[Deleted]

Rom, I believe cybergal/Lime_Pickle (on Stew) is in Sri Lanka at the moment, too.

[SoulCurry]

I'm going there in June. will let you know how it turned out

[romily]

I'm thinking of April next year - 2.5 weeks over easter. So still far in the future...and the next step would be to get a guidebook to do some research.

I was looking for somewhere that isn't SEA, but didn't want to go back to India, wanted a budget travel destination (and I think you can still do Sri Lanka cheaply), was thinking about nepal but the timing didn't work. And I like the mix of culture, national parks, and some beach time! Also flights are not too expensive...

[tucano]

I really liked it. Only place I’ve been so far in Asia though.

The train ride Viv mentions is stunning, especially the bit from Ella to Kandy. When I was there two years ago you could only book from a ticket office in Colombo, not online, but that might have changed. It also wasn’t advised to take train journeys alone as a women at the time, I would say use your common sense and don’t sit in a carriage on your own.

Loved the cave temples at Dambulla and Polonnuruwa is also a must visit (although if you’ve been to similar places before maybe not).

Food is amazing. Would definitely go back.

[Raised_By_Wolves]

it's been on my priority list for a while now, even got the RG book! i used to say 'when the war is over'... teas and food alone are enough to convince me!

watching this thread!

[romily]

I just had a look at the TT to see what goes on on the Sri Lanka board - it seems to be utterly dead. Either posts with no replies, posts that scare the crap out of everybody (do not travel alone, do not travel ever with public transport, do only use three star accommodation) or very thinly disguised threads recommending services / companies / tour guides. The place is utterly dead - one the one side I want to say "told you so", on the other side it's a shame to loose such a great travel knowledge place!

[leela]

I loved Ella. We stayed in a very basic guesthouse high up on the hill, and the view was quite simply the best I've woken up to in 35 years of travel. Mirissa is a lovely little beach 'resort' that we ended up at after we'd toured the island for eight days.

[viv]

The SL board was never fast moving, but deteriorated rapidly with all the spamming. The internet is becoming more widely used over there amongst ordinary people, if you like, and computer skills are now commonly being taught in schools. Sadly many touts have discovered TT and similar places to hit with advertising.

It's a beautiful country with a sad history. The war is technically over, but considering the government threw the Red Cross (caveat - I remember the story, but can't find it so may be wrong about which organisation it was - maybe it was the British!) out of the country last year, the corruption and political problems are far from over.

Amnesty International published a damning report just a few days ago - www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22349706
The UN passed a resolution in March - www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21873551 - these are all linked to the corruption and war crimes which undoubtedly happened. Charles Haviland is the BBC correspondent out in Colombo, and he writes rather mildly because of the government censors. My Dad keeps up with the politics out there far more than I do, and he says that Haviland has been threatened numerous times because of his criticisms of the government, so his reports tend not to be heavily critical. Those sorts of reports will not have his name attached.

Anyway, politics aside, the country can be visited reasonably inexpensively, I LOVE SL curries (and miss them hugely) and as long as you keep your wits about you for the usual scams, you're unlikely to have major issues. It's the normal rules - negotiate your fare before you get into the tuk tuk, haggle prices, be aware of the baby milk / jewel / I work in your hotel scams, don't be too generous to beggars as they'll follow you for hours for more money so keep small notes available for them, and don't drink the water. Nothing dramatic.

[canayangel]

ceylon1 (i think that was her name) is from there, and now lives in Canada. She didn't migrate over here, i dont think,but someone may have some contact with her... possibley Pyrrha, who has also been there and loved it.

[Sticktoria]

We went last year and had a wonderful time. Wish we'd had longer than ten days. We stayed in the Jetwing Lighthouse in Galle and had a three day trip to Ude Walawe. Sort of wished we'd gone to the other park, the name of which escapes me right now, as a wider variety if wildlife, though we were lucky enough to be the only people staying in the camp we were in and were therefore looked after immaculately.