The Road North of Chilaw – Sri Lanka
At Uddapuwa between Mundal Lagoon and the sea, the terrain changes dramatically as you enter the Dry Zone. The fishing villagers here are descendants of a north Indian warrior caste who settled on this coast over a thousand years ago. They were the first converts to Catholicism when the Portuguese arrived and mass baptisms were […]
CINNAMON IN SRI LANKA
One of Sri Lanka’s most attractive commodities, in the eyes of the Portuguese and Dutch, was the plentiful Cinnamon which grew along the west coast of Sri Lanka. Today Sri Lanka is still producing over 90% of the world’s cinnamon. Cinnamon — “the bride around whom they danced” — grew wild in the jungles and […]
Beruwala, Sri Lanka
About 60 km (36 miles) from Colombo, Beruwala is the heart of Sri Lanka’s package tourist industry. The beach here is wide and beautiful, an alluring swathe of sand backed by a string of densely packed resort hotels which cater mainly to the European package-holiday crowd; particularly popular with German tourists during the northern winter. […]
South to Kalutara – Sri Lanka
The stretch of coastline south from Colombo is the tourist epicenter of the island, with a strip of superb beaches equipped with a sprawl of resort hotels luxury villas and down-at-heel guest houses. Although not the best stretchers of beach front but the region grew in popularity due to the close proximity to Colombo. Today […]
The first site you’ll pass heading towards Dambulla at heart of the Cultural Triangle is the monastery of Aluvihara, occupying a number of caves in a picturesque valley about 8 km (5 miles) north of Matale. It was in these caves that the Buddhist doctrines were first committed to paper— or rather ola leaf — […]
SRI LANKA CULTURAL TRIANGLE
Referring to the area between the former capitals of Kandy, Anuradhapura, and Polonnaruwa, the Cultural Triangle contains some of the island’s, if not the world’s, finest ancient monuments The dry-zone north of Kandy holds the secrets to the story of ancient Sri Lankan civilization. These ruins, even seen today, are simply staggering. At Anuradhapura, the […]
SAMUEL BAKER IN NUWARA ELIYA, Sri Lanka
Nuwara Eliya owes much of its distinctly British flavor to the British explorer Samuel Baker, famous for discovering the source of the Nile. Baker spent some time here in the 1840s and was determined “to make it a regular settlement … a little English village around my residence”. Without further ado, he imported Hereford cows […]
KANDY
Despite now being the island’s second-largest city, Kandy retains a surprisingly small-town experience, its modest grid of low-rise streets are lined with characteristic colonial-era buildings and preserve a certain old-fashioned, countrified charm which even the often dense throngs of traffic and pedestrians can’t entirely obscure. At the west end of the centre Kandy Lake provides […]
TRAVELING FROM COLOMBO TO KANDY
The journey to Kandy is captivating to say the least. Some 11 km (7 miles) out of Colombo is the Kandyan-era Buddhist temple at Sapugaskande, a pleasant ensemble of white-walled and red-tiled buildings sitting on top of a small, but steep hill and offering superb views over the city and palm trees below. Continuing inland, […]
KANDY CITY, SRI LANKA
The historic bastion of the island’s Sinhalese culture, the city of Kandy remains Sri Lanka’s most vibrant centre of traditional arts, crafts and religious pageantry Kandy Perahare Recounting back the steep history of Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Kandy retains an almost legendary air. Established deep in the impenetrable hills at the heart of the […]
