Sri Lanka Travelogue

Recently, I had been on a 10 day visit to Sri Lanka during Christmas time, with my friend, his family and mine. Here is my attempt to capture my travel journey, which could be of help to other travelers. 

It took us a month to decide on the destination. Several destinations were shot down  - 'Austrian Christmas' was considered too cold for the kids, 'Greece' was tagged as 'a deserted island during Christmas eve', Maldives was labeled as too expensive to travel in December. The research in itself was a fast-track Geography lesson for all of us and in the process, we learnt a few  interesting facts such as 'Growing anti-Indian sentiment in Georgia, where Indians with valid visa are being denied entry'.  We finally picked two destinations - Sri Lanka & NE India. By the time we decided, the flights to NE India became expensive & we had no choice but to book tickets to Sri Lanka🙂.

What to expect? Sri Lanka is a hidden gem. Most of us (Indians) envisage Sri Lanka as an extension of Indian peninsula (in terms of landscape/ culture) and expect it to be a lot similar  - hot & humid, beaches crowded with people and plastics everywhere. If you are one among them - you would be pleasantly surprised - Sri Lanka is a beautiful island with picturesque beaches, great food and polite & friendly people, who make it a pleasant experience for the travelers.  Major part of Sri Lanka is super-clean & serene, except in Negombo/ Colombo area, where you could see garbage in roads/ gutters. But I can't deny the fact that Sri Lanka is indeed 'hot & humid'. So, plan your visit accordingly. Overall, you get a better value for every rupee you spend in Sri Lanka.

Activities to do: Sri Lanka has a wide range of Landscape - it has gorgeous beaches, serene hills, picturesque tea estates, wild nature parks, historical temples, etc., etc., So, you could do a wide range of activities here. My top few picks are below,

• Visit a turtle hatchery: We visited 'Kosgoda Sea Turtle hatchery' and it was a memorable experience to release baby turtles into sea.
  
• Madu river boating into Mangrove forest - It is a 2-3 hour boating ride & you get to see how cinnamon is extracted, ride through mangrove forests and see a few birds & monitor lizards in the water. If you are interested, there is also a spot to experience fish spa.
• Safari in a wildlife park: We picked Udawalawe national park and the kids enjoyed fun ride into the national park to spot elephants, crocodiles, turtle, wild boars, bison, deer, jackals and a wide variety of birds. Be aware that you cannot see big cats - lions & tigers are non-existent in those forests and leopards are few in number & difficult to spot. The park offers a morning and evening Safari - so, you could plan accordingly. 
• Visit to a tea plantation and a tea factory tour at Nuwara Eliya.
• Bathe, feed and ride elephants at Pinnawala.
• Relax in a beach resort and enjoy the nature.

Recently, whale watching at Mirissa is also getting popular, given very good chances of spotting blue whale, sperm whale, dolphins among others. However, we didn't choose to go. If you would like to go, plan to stay close to Mirissa, to avoid waking-up very early, as the boat rides typically start around 6:30 AM in the morning. Also, be aware that a few people could experience sea-sickness.

Things to eat: Sri Lanka is known for sea-food. But, we found a lot of very good vegetarian dishes as well. My family loved string hoppers, apam, Sri Lankan pancakes, garlic chutneys and mango pickles.

Places to stay: Sri Lanka has a wide range of hotels, resorts and home-stay options. The prices are reasonable if you book outside peak holiday season. We stayed in 5 different hotels over the 10 day holiday,

• Cinnamon Bey, Beruwala - it was the best resort we stayed in Sri Lanka. It is a 5 star resort, with a beautiful swimming pool, beach access, huge kids activity center and a breakfast buffet to die for. 
• Green Park Safari Guest house, Udawalawe - They have Safari jeeps and it is a decent place to stay for a night.
• Nature Walk, Ella - it is a beautiful home in the middle of a hill. I wouldn't recommend this one, as it is difficult to access via car.
• Earls Regacy, Kandy - it is a 5 star hotel but a tad old. The service can be better. But, it is beautiful and is in the center of the city.
  
• Olina Airport hotel Negombo - it is super-clean and very near to airport. It has a nice restaurant, bakery and a swimming pool. It's a good value for your money. 

What to buy: Sri Lanka is famous for wooden souvenirs, crockery, sea shell & other jewelry. Ceylon tea is very popular and you could purchase them during the factory tour. We found a hidden spot in Kandy - 'Gamage Stores', which sells souvenirs at wholesale price but the place is hard to find. 

Commute: From Hyderabad, Sri Lankan airlines has a direct flight to Colombo. For commute within Sri Lanka, we rented a 'Toyota KDH high roof' with driver and it was comfortable for 2 families. Be aware that train ride from 'Ella' to 'Nuwara Eliya' or Kandy is picturesque and you may want to include that in your trip. Reservation is recommended. You could also use 'Pick Me' for local transport. Beware it takes more time than what is shown in online maps, as Srilankan roads are narrow and has more traffic.

Best time to visit & Itinerary: Sri Lanka receives a lot of rain and is hot & humid throughout the year. Depending on the time of the year, you may want to visit beaches in the east coast vs west coast. Refer to the blog here that has a lot of useful information on this. Below is the route that we took.

Visa information & other essential information: Sri Lanka has an on-arrival visa. You could apply ETA online to skip the queue for 'on-arrival visa' at the airport. It is free for Indians.

It definitely helps to buy a local SIM - Dialog has the largest network, followed by Mobitel. USD, Euro and SGD have very good exchange rates at local banks. So, better convert INR to USD, before you travel to SL. Also, majority of folks in Southern and Western region of SL don't know Tamil and speak only Sinhalese. 

Overall, we had a great time in Sri Lanka - I hope you also get to travel to Sri Lanka and experience the fun we had.