Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka becаme in the last years more and more popular. For me, it’s a great alternative to Thailand. It’s cheaper, not that much touristic, and the locals don’t try to sell to you all the time. We flew in Colombo, the capital, but decided to spend our first nights in the more chilled city Negombo. There is not too much to do but a good start to get an impression how Sri Lanka is like.
From there we made our way to Mirissa. I really loved that place. You can sunbath all day on the free sun beds at the beach, have dinner at the beach, and as well party at the beach. You can also spend your day joining at yoga sessions or going to other nearby beaches by Tuk Tuk. After а few days we took the local buses to Tissamaharama. The buses are not very comfortable but super
cheap. At Tissamaharama you can do a safari trip. It was an exciting experience to see wild animals, but unfortunately as the most visitors, we didn’t get to see the lions. I recommend booking the shortest safari trip they offer, because sitting in a jeep for hours gets quite exhausting.
With a private driver (it is not too expensive) we headed to Ella. It’s a gorgeous small town in the mountains. It’s 1000m above sea level, so you will need warmer cloths. You can do a short hike to the little Adam’s Peak and enjoy the view on the Ella Rock and the city. One of the highlights of the whole trip was to catch the train from Ella to Nuwara Eliya (make sure you buy
the ticket 1-2days in advance). The blue train runs through a breathtaking landscape. I liked the fact, that you can sit at the entries and smoke while enjoying trip. Nuwara Eliya is located in the mountains and hence cold as well. We organized a Tuk Tuk for a whole day and visited a tea factory. It was really interesting to get an insight how tea is being produced.
Our next stop was Kandy. I normally don’t like cities too much, but that was one worth visiting. There is a nice rooftop bar called Bamboo Garden. You can also have dinner there. At night it gets quite busy there and you can meet a lot of other backpackers. It is also worth visiting the Temple of the Tooth in the center. The main attraction you can do around Kandy is to visit an
elephant orphanage. Don’t forget to make sure you visit a responsible one, because most do not treat the elephant’s animal-friendly. One thing you can’t miss when travelling Sri Lanka is to visit Sigiriya. It’s a rock in the middle of nowhere. The hike up there is very unique and fascinating. We booked our stay in Dambulla. It’s also the starting point to visit the cave temple of Dambulla.
As our last stop we chose Unawatuna. It’s similar to Mirissa. Great parties (especially the one in the forest is amazing) and the most things are located at the beach. It’s like a little village, everyone knows each other, and you meet the people all the time. There is also a spot nearby where you can “see” the famous fishermen of Sri Lanka. Actually, I discourage going there,
because you will have to pay them to sit on the sticks and take a picture. I highly recommend going to Closenberg Hotel, it’s in Galle and not far from Unawatuna. It has a stunning infinity pool and you can chill there while watching the surfers. I’m not 100% sure, but I reckon we paid an entry fee as we weren’t guests of the hotel. The very last night we spent in Colombo.
If you want to go to clubs and shopping, that’s the place in Sri Lanka. Besides that, it’s just another big dirty city. We didn’t visit the east coast of Sri Lanka at all. The infrastructure is not well developed and there is not too much going on.
Article by Nelli
