Tres Bon Ceylon

(apologies in advance for the poor photo quality in this post - I didn't own a digital camera when I went to Sri Lanka, just a disposable one, so these photos are all scanned in.)

The WTI competition has gotten my friend's tongues wagging recently, and travel seems to be first thing that comes up in all my conversations since I entered the competition. One of the main things people seem to ask me is "what is your favourite country?" My answer is, and probably always will be the same: Sri Lanka.

So why Sri Lanka? Well, firstly I'd say that the people in Sri Lanka are probably the nicest people I've ever met. I spent just over two months working in Sri Lanka, first as a school teacher, and on an elephant conservation project, and I received nothing but kindness from the people I met there. On a crowded bus ride from Bentota to Colombo, a friend of mine said to me "Sri Lanka is just the most peaceful country I've ever been to...apart from the war of course." This made us both laugh, because the war seemed so detached from our lives out there.  It wasn't something that the average Sri Lankan seemed to concern themselves with, they just took it as a given and got on with their lives. There has been a lot of controversy in this country over the incidents that lead to the war finishing, and I've heard people say that they wouldn't like to visit Sri Lanka after what has happened, but it is very difficult to judge a country from the outside, and Sri Lankan people are not to blame for the governments mistakes. Sri Lanka is an amazing country, with lots to offer, and now that the war is over, there has never been a better time to visit.

So what else makes Sri Lanka special?

The history: Sri Lanka has an amazing history, and some beautiful historical sites. If you visit, you absolutely must visit the cultural triangle - an area which includes a world heritage site and ancient cities more than 2,500 years old! I visited three of the places in the cultural triangle: Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Anuradhapura.

Dambulla has a golden temple and caves covered in religious paintings and statues of buddha.

Sigiriya has the remains of a 5th century palace, cut out of a huge rock. The climb to the top takes a few hours, but it is worth it for the stunning views of Sri Lanka. This was my favourite of the places in the cultutral triangle as I loved these lions feet cut into the rock half-way up:

Anuradhapura is an ancient city that spans a huge area of land and is a UNESCO world heritage sight.

The food: As an island, Sri Lanka has a lot to offer in terms of seafood. I ate spicy prawns almost every day that I was there. The food seemed like a blend of Chinese and Indian cuisine. One particular Sri Lankan specialty that everyone should try is roti. Roti is a kind of coconut pancake often eaten for breakfast. My Sri Lankan friends ate theirs with an extremely spicy lime-pickle sauce, but I preferred mine with apricot jam.

The breathtaking sights: In my two months in Sri Lanka I tried to see as much as I could, but I could literally spend a year travelling around Sri Lanka. It's beautiful dense rainforests, picturesque beaches, and tea fields in the mountains were a real treat on the eyes.

I took this photo on a lagoon trip, just outside Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo.

This is a statue of Buddha on the top of a hill in Kandy, which can be seen from miles away.

This is one of the beaches on the West of Sri Lanka. The beaches in the North are supposed to be more beautiful, but I visited in 2006, when the war was still in full swing.

This photo was taken from the top of a mountain called Adam's Peak, the highest mountain in Sri Lanka, and also a pilgrimage site. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the views are stunning. It took us almost 6 hours to climb to the top, but we got there just in time for sunrise, which was amazing to watch from the top of a mountain!

The beach parties: There aint no party like a Sri Lankan beach party! I've done a fair bit of travelling around Asia, and one of the most disappointing things I find is that every party I ever go to on the beach is just full of tourists. This was something I didn't find in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan people seem to know how to party, and the beach parties often included barbeques, bongo drum playing, dancing, playing carrom (a Sri Lankan board game, sort of like a small version of billiards) and drinking a lot of Arak (coconut rum).

The amazing wildlife: Sri Lanka really has it all in terms of wildlife - stunningly beautiful birds and butterflies, leopards, elephants, wild monkeys, crocodiles etc. I saw a lot of amazing animals on my visit. Sri Lanka has some great spots to see all the different wildlife. On my visit, I went to a safari park, and did a trek through the rainforrest where I saw wild monkeys and some weird snakes and insects. I  worked in an elephant sanctuary, and even saw a crocodile reclining on a rock on a lagoon trip, at which point my tour guide said "shall I poke it with stick?"

 This was one of the baby elephants at the elephant orphanage I worked at (pinnewala)

And here is a monkey I befriended on the beach.

This was a surprisingly heavy tortoise I met in a turtle sanctuary. The day I went there it was turtle hatching season, and the man running the place had thousands of tiny newborn turtles that he had taken from the beach and hatched in the sanctuary so they would not get taken by poachers. That night we went with him and released them all into the sea. It was an amazing experience.

And here is a snake charmer!