Sri Lanka tour

Ten days in the monsoon season

Tour ratings
Recommended days	10
Budget	££
Difficulty	Medium

Background

This was a family Sri Lanka tour with a couple of overnight stops – one of the south of the island and one into the centre. None of us had been here before but the island has a huge amount of history, most of which I was completely ignorant of. There is also plenty of exotic wildlife to see and it is a lovely place for a guided road trip.

The trip was so long ago that I have no notes at all and the photos are abysmal compared to modern digital devices but you have to work with the tools you have.

Accommodation

We stayed in a sea view villa at Club Hotel Dolphin. This was a fantastic location, right next to the sea and the service and food were superb. There was an excellent spa and choice of activities and we were able to leave part of the group sunbathing by the pool while we did a day trip and then all meet up for dinner in the evening.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

Our first trip was to this elephant orphanage. I know there are people that will complain about the animals being exploited for tourists pleasure and photos. My personal experience was that I actually got to see the magnificent creatures in a semblance of their natural habitats and assist in funding to keep the orphanage running.

I felt it was a good compromise between a true safari experience and a zoo. We spent a lot of time here in between rainstorms and had an elephant ride as well as helping to wash them in the river.

Polonnaruwa

In the afternoon we continued in glorious sunshine to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. This is a huge and rambling site and we probably didn’t get to see much of the twelfth century ruins but what we saw was certainly impressive.

I was surprised to see so many brick structures in the city and there was plenty of beautifully carved stonework too. We saw our first of many Buddhas here too, massive rocks carved with the likeness of the prophet? saint? preacher? It was also our first introduction to monkeys on the island.

Sigiriya

The next morning, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, our group headed north again, this time to visit the rock fortress at Sigiriya. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is genuinely awesome. The site has been a fortress, a palace and a monastery over its two thousand year history and has some incredible engineering works as well as views! There were also some beautiful cave frescoes of dancers and court life.

Sigiriya’s entrance is framed by two huge brick lion claws and we were told that originally you entered through the lion’s mouth. This was followed by a nerve wracking climb up walkways casually bolted to the rock face. At one point we had to move right away from the wall as there was a hornets nest there!

Once at the top the views were everything we expected. The remains of the gardens were incredible and the design skill that had gone in to ensuring a water supply was very impressive. Especially relative to the European level of civilisation at the time.

Dambulla

Our trip continued on to visit Dambulla, site of another UNESCO World Heritage listing, this time a cave temple. There are over a hundred statues and carvings of Buddha in the five cave temples, which have been in use for over two thousand years.

Kandy

The following day was our first overnight trip, to Kandy in the central highlands and the tea plantations there. It is the previous capital of the island and home to the Sacred Tooth Temple. The city itself is pretty crowded and noisy but the temple was pretty, although also crowded and noisy!

Nuwara Eliya

The one place on the island that Mum wanted to see was Nuwara Eliya. This is the area that was used for tea growing and is full of English style gardens and old colonial bungalows. The weather here was, as expected, low cloud interspersed with heavy rain. It was quite disappointing for Mum as we couldn’t see as much as we hoped.

This day was also the day where we agreed that Mother and I would go off and do our own trips and the rest of them could relax by the pool. We hadn’t seen much sunshine in the centre of the island and the others wanted a bit more of a sea and sun break than we did. The roads didn’t really help, lots of the smaller ones were just mud slides.

Yala Park Safari

After a day together relaxing in the hotel, Mother and I booked an overnight tour of the south of the island as the next stage of our Sri Lanka tour. After a long drive we reached the Yala National Park and although I am not overly interested in wildlife I have to say it was a fantastic experience.

Galle

Our tour continued the next morning, following the coast road towards Galle. This is yet another UNESCO World Heritage site and is an old Dutch town in the south of the island. Before we reached it we stopped at a turtle sanctuary which was another fascinating place to see.

A second stop was the obligatory photo stop for the famous pole fishermen of this area. Quite amazing to see and realise what people have to go through to get food.

Galle itself was another run down town and we probably didn’t see it at its best, with rain lashing down a lot of the time. We walked along the prom and visited a small folk museum before continuing our trip back at the hotel.

We had a couple of relaxing days at the resort before heading home. I even did some (very careful) horse riding along the beach! Sri Lanka is a fantastic island to visit – it has beaches, history, wildlife and sometimes sunshine!