Sri Lanka has a special place in my heart. Not only is it a beautiful country that everyone should try and visit at least once in their life, but it's where half of my family reside. I'm very fortunate to have a more intimate experience of the country rather than just as a tourist so I'd like to share my journeys with you in the hopes that it will give you some insight (or reminiscence) into travelling to this beautiful country.
My last trip to Sri Lanka was in September 2014 when I travelled with my cousin from Australia. Our goal was to spend time with family and explore as much as we could in a 2-week span, however, I definitely recommend going for at least 3 weeks if you plan on seeing most of the place and relaxing too. We flew with Emirates which was a great flight - as expected - and decent food. In previous trips, I had flown with SriLankan Airlines but I would not recommend it over other providers. It gets you there fine but probably not the most comfortable. Granted it's been many years since I've flown with them (when they were called Air Lanka) so who knows, they may have updated a little!
Our base was Colombo - the bustling commercial capital city - which is constantly developing with new builds or turning old, Colonial buildings into swanky restaurant areas. In the past, Sri Lanka was taken over by the Portuguese, Dutch and lastly, the British when it became part of the British Empire in the 1800s to 1975. With this, you'll come across a lot of colonial buildings including the beautiful National Museum of Colombo (British) and Dutch Hospital, which has been made into a great Friday/Saturday night spot with restaurants and bars, but also shopping.
Colombo is great for shopping, especially for fabrics such as table cloths, curtains and material for clothes. A popular tourist (and local) spot for this is Barefoot. I make sure to pop in every time I visit Sri Lanka so I can stock up on all the brightly coloured goods. The shop in Colombo (there are a couple of others dotted around the country - one of the next biggest is probably in Galle) is also known for its Garden Café, which serves delicious curries, among other things.
On our next adventure, my cousin and I travelled up to Dambulla. It probably wasn't the best idea to get up at 5am that morning after nearly 15 hours of travelling the day before and staying up throughout that day after landing, but it was on the itinerary so... We had a driver throughout the trip and some words of warning about the roads in Sri Lanka - be prepared. Expect to hear a lot of horns and buses and tuk tuks trying to risk it through small gaps in the road towards oncoming traffic. Also, if you're heading upcountry (mountain areas such as Kandy), be cautious of the turns and motion sickness - it can make the most unaffected, sensitive to throwing up.
The Golden Temple of Dambulla (before climbing up to the caves)
So, back to Dambulla. On the way to the place we were staying, we stopped off at the Golden Temple of Dambulla. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site (one of many you will tick off on the island) and the largest and best preserved cave temples in the country. It's bit of a walk to get up to it but it's certainly worth it. As with most of Sri Lanka, the temple is ancient, dating back to the first century BC. There are numerous Buddha statues and cave paintings in each of the sanctuaries. It's simply beautiful and spiritual.
Inside the one of the caves of Golden Temple
You will also find a lot of macaque monkeys that hang around outside the temple. They're great to watch and don't worry, they don't bother too many people at all. They may take the odd flip flop lying around but otherwise, they keep to themselves. Just enjoy the view while you're up there.
Along with great food and local stream baths, we had to make a trip to Sigiriya - or Lion Rock (another UNESCO site). This giant rock can be seen for miles and is a magnificent site to see up-close and after you've trekked up it to see the beautiful green, plush land for miles around. Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress with the ruins of an ancient palace placed right at the very top, dating back to the 5th century BC. Before this, the rock served as a Buddhist monastery from the 3rd century BC and continued to do so after the King had died. Surrounding the rock you'll find some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world and various water features; many designed to irrigate the area during rainy season.
Sigiriya
Climbing Sigiriya
As you make your way up the rock, you will find the famous frescoes, created during the time of the King's occupancy. They are very well preserved to this day and beautiful imagery.
When climbing the rock, I strongly recommend starting early morning (between 8-9am) so you reach the top before 12pm. Any time after this would be blisteringly hot and not very safe, especially when hiking up from the lion's gate (halfway up the rock to get to the palace). Also be mindful of the steps from the lion's feet, onwards. This staircase is not the widest, nor is it the most even, but it is sturdy (even if you're doubting it whilst on it!) - just be careful.
Lion's gate - note the very narrow stairs!
Palace ruins
View from the top of Sigiriya
If you're wanting to see wild elephants in Sri Lanka, then one of the nearby national parks is a great safari trip to make. Minneriya Wildlife National Park is just outside the Dambulla area but not too far of a drive and the closest city is Polonnaruwa. We went a couple of hours before sunset and had an open-top jeep to see all the wildlife this small island has to offer. Mammal-wise, Sri Lanka is particularly known for its leopards and elephants and this park is known to have the largest gathering of Asian elephants in the world. It's a large park so our drive went well past sunset. We saw a lot of elephants very close to the jeeps, and a large gathering of water buffalo. Part of the adventure involved us gunning it out of the park because a heavy storm was looming over us!
Wild elephants at the park
Water buffalo
Storm chasing (us)!
When visiting Polonnaruwa, it chucked it down (slight downside of travelling in September - monsoon season! - watch out for two in a year), so we tried to drive around it but couldn't really see much of the ancient city. Because of the weather, we did walk around the archaeological museum. Polonnaruwa is a definite destination to plan for. It is stunning. Another ancient royal city we didn't make it to this time is Anuradhapura, but both will maximise anyone's archaeological and historical fascinations.
As a side note, around Sri Lanka you will always find locals willing to give tours to tourists at big tourist attractions (or anywhere else for that matter). This, of course, involves money and don't get me wrong, most are great and well-informed but you have to be sensible in who you choose, if you decide to get one. Luckily, we had members of our family with us everywhere we went so we could haggle better. This leads me to mention about the tourist rates. Locals will always have a much cheaper rate to pay - or even free - to get into things. Tourists will have to pay a lot more, which I completely agree with (bearing in mind, nothing in Sri Lanka is that expensive for a Westerner). The country needs to make money to protect these sites and luckily, Sri Lanka in itself does not need to try that hard to lure tourists in, despite its hard times in the past, but they need to support themselves either way.
Continue on to the second part to this trip, including Kandy, Trincomalee and Galle, here.