Sri Lanka Holiday

Alpharius

My girlfriend and I will be spending christmas and new years in Sri Lanka. We'll be there for two weeks, and we've booked ourselves into a surfing and yoga retreat for the first week.

We're looking for suggestions on what we could do with the second week - so if anyone has had experiences there (good or bad) I'd really appreciate hearing about them.

Also I haven't been able to find any comprehensive websites, any suggestions there would also be appreciated.

EDIT: some info
we're in our late twenties, flying via Colombo, but staying for the first week in the Tangalle area.

Thanatos

I'm assuming you're already familiar with the conflict, there, and have looked into what you need to do to stay safe while you're there? If not, there should be plenty of information available on your native country's Ministry/Department of State website.

corcorigan

Food will be hot. But I think it's probably the best time of year, climate-wise.

Alpharius

yep, well aware of military/political issues

LewieP

I lived there for 3 months in my gap year, although I wasn't a tourist.

My mum has actually been there as a tourist too, so she might have more useful advice.

Three of the top moments from my time in Sri Lanka:

3. Being in Comolmbo.
Just being in Colombo was fantastic. I had a friend from Colombo, show me around, it probably could have been quite intimidating. The three wheel rides are a lot of fun, you really get to see a lot of the city.

2. Elephant Orphanage.
I'm sorry, I can't remember where it was in the country (it's 3 years ago now), but I went to an Elephant Orphanage, and got right up close with the elephants. I'm not a big animal lover, but I really enjoyed the elephants.

1. Climbing Sri Pada (Aka Adam's Peak)
Very hard work physically, but incredible. We went up in the night time, and it was dawn by the time we hit the top, and it was just stunning.

Probably one of the best things I have ever done.

It's a mountain that is revered as holy by most of the major religions, and it has a wonderful temple at the top.


If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them, and I will let my mum know about this thread.

Alpharius

Thanks - any inspiration from your mum?

LewieP's Mummy

Found the thread myself!

So, we went as tourists, stayed for 3 days on the way back from the Maldives. We hired a private driver for 2 days - $100 per day - as I couldn't cope with the constant begging, the "let me be your guide" and "our school/hospital/whatever will pray for you...give me money" that happened the second we stepped out of our hotel. In comparison to most people in Sri Lanka, we are rich, very rich, (we're not really, we'd saved up for this holiday for quite a while) and were constantly hassled, and rather than let it spoil our time there, we opted for the driver option.

He took us to Kandy (old capital, in the mountains) where we had lunch; to the Elephant Orphanage; to a tea factory; to a silk shop to an Ayurvedic spa; to a herbalist/botanist's garden; to the Botanical Gardens. He was well worth the cost - also, our money going to local enterprises rather than tour companies. We bought stuff everywhere he took us - we had been to Hong Kong and Singapore on the same trip (for our 25th wedding anniversary), and hadn't spent much, so decided to spend all our money in the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Kandy is beautiful, well worth the trip, and the Elephant orphanage is amazing.

Don't hire a car, Sri Lankans drive crazily, we also didn't go on the tuc-tucs, far too scary!

The ayurvedic spa was great as well, we had very relaxing massages.

We were there in November 2006, it was very, very humid, and one evening there was a torrential downpour, like I've never seen before. We had asked our driver to take us to Adam's Peak, but he said it wasn't safe, because of the weather - gorgeous, sunny day, which then turned into the downpour, with floods of water coming down the mountainsides!

They like $$s, take lots of small bills for tips. Take water with you, wherever you go, you'll need it, and lots and lots of mosquito protection, they're vicious and malarial.

We watched an amazing sunset one night, took lots of photos.

Our experience was very different to Lewie's, very touristy.