The Island of Serendipity

What’s the food like in Sri Lanka? In the UK in particular, Indian food is very well-known and restaurants serving Indian food ubiquitous, (even if chefs and owners are often of Bangladeshi or Pakistani origin). However, prospective visitors to Sri Lanka are often less familiar with the island’s cuisine, so, in reply to some of the FAQs; what’s the food…

Horton Plains National Park Horton Plains National Park is situated on the southern edge of Sri Lanka’s central highlands region and forms part of the eponymous UNESCO World Heritage-listing Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. The Park’s altitude is between 2,100 and 2,300 metres with vegetation consisting of a mixture of montane forest, gallery forests and heath/grassland. Flora is correspondingly varied…

Dambulla The Rangri Dambulla Cave Temple – to give it the full name – is located in the area of north-central Sri Lanka known as the ‘Cultural Triangle’ due to its proliferation of spectacular ancient sites such as the nearby, UNESCO-listed rock fortress of Sigiriya, and also World Heritage-listed ancient cities of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. The series of 5 shallow,…

Sri Lanka UNESCO Cultural Sites Sri Lanka UNESCO Sites list currently stands at 6 cultural and 2 natural sites. The 6 cultural entries are predictable and logical and include the ancient city sites of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura, the cave temples at Dambulla and the rock fortress of Sigiriya with the historic towns of Galle and Kandy completing the compliment. Anuradhapura…

National Parks of Sri Lanka Some time ago, we swapped our safari and camping activities on our Sri Lanka tour from Yala National Park to the lesser-known Udawalawe. Both are fantastic Sri Lanka National Parks, with Yala being the country’s best-known protected area but with the slightly smaller Udawalawe lying a short distance to the west still offering great wildlife…

Sri Lanka tour photos A random selection of Sri Lanka tour photos from our recent, ‘Island of Serendipity’ tour. These are kind of ‘people doing things’ photos rather than postcard-style, pretty pics (which we’ll save for a later post) so apologies for the fuzzy quality of some of the hurriedly taken smartphone shots. Somewhere between visiting the admittedly touristy, but…

Sri Lanka – recommended reading. Published in 2015 Elephant Complex by English author John Gimlette is not only the best book we’ve read on Sri Lanka but simply one of the best travel books we’ve come across on any destination, anywhere! This compact yet insightful account covers over 2,000 years of the Island’s complex history, culture and society as well as…

The Maidens of the Clouds   Since our recent Facebook photo proved popular, we thought we’d post a few more of these wonderful images – the Maidens of the Clouds from Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. So-called because these wonderful frescoes are found halfway up a sheer cliff at the ancient site and UNESCO World Heritage-listed Sigiriya rock fortress in Sri…

These famous gardens, or to give them their full name, the Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens, Kandy, date all the way back to 1843 when they were established on the site of a former Royal Temple that the British had seen fit to demolish upon assuming control of the Kingdom of Kandy. (Well, shame about the historic temple, but they did…