In February this year I spent three and a half weeks exploring Sri Lanka and had a truly wonderful time. For the first two weeks I joined a small group tour with G Adventures (a company I’d highly recommend) hitting all the main sights, and the final week I spent solo beach hopping along the south coast – dreamy! Sri Lanka has a great mix of nature, culture and food, from the central highlands dotted with tea plantations to the white sand beaches along the coastline.

As for what led me to visit Sri Lanka, we need to rewind to the previous autumn. In October I completed my first ever start-to-finish solo trip in Porto (read my Porto blog here), and it felt really freeing to be able to fill my time exactly how I chose. This gave me the final push to book 3 months off work to go travel – something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time! I knew I wanted some winter sunshine and to experience a new culture, and Sri Lanka ticked these boxes.

Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, Colombo

I flew direct from London Heathrow to Colombo with Sri Lankan Airlines. While it’s not the most premium of airlines, it’s the only direct route from London (taking between 10 and 11 hours) and I wanted to keep my journey as short and simple as possible. My experience onboard was absolutely fine, the only downside being the glitchy films on the inflight entertainment service. A green, lush landscape eventually appeared from the windows as we approached the runway for landing. I spent my first night in Negombo to acclimatise, as it’s quite close to the airport, and the next day the tour began with an exploration of Colombo, visiting a fruit and vegetable market (featuring lots of spices and cucumbers that looked like something from a Roald Dahl novel) and seeing the striking Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque (painted the colour of pomegranates). Like other major Asian cities, Colombo was very hectic and noisy, so if you’re visiting Sri Lanka and short on time then don’t feel bad about skipping it out. After Colombo we enjoyed a lovely boat tour of Negombo lagoon, spotting monkeys, birds and fishermen, and even paddling in shallow water by the mangroves!

Negombo lagoon

The following day we headed inland, passing pineapple fields and rice fields, and visited the Dambulla Cave Temples, nestled into rock and beautifully decorated with numerous buddha statues and ornate paintings on the undulating rocky ceilings. There were also monkeys about who fortunately kept to themselves! In the afternoon we went on an Elephant Safari in Habarana. It was wonderful to see the elephants up close and in the wild, we marvelled at their dextrous trunks and watched a baby elephant struggle to stay upright! The guides in different jeeps would communicate with each other about sighting locations, however this meant lots of jeeps would end up crowding around the elephants which was a shame. When we did another safari later in the trip, we specifically asked to not follow the crowds which I found to be a more enjoyable experience.

Dambulla Cave Temples

Elephant Safari, Habarana

Our next stop was Sigiriya, and after a very early start we climbed up the famous Lion’s Rock, avoiding the hottest part of the day. There are a lot of steps and some narrow staircases, so it’s not ideal if you’re afraid of heights, but the views of the lush green tree canopy extending for miles were spectacular. In the afternoon we explored Polonnaruwa Ancient City which had plenty of impressive ancient ruins and my favourite buddhas of the trip, which were carved out of solid rock with beautiful veins running through. Then some of us opted to go for traditional Ayurvedic massages, which was a unique and memorable experience! After the massage we laid in individual saunas resting on leaves and sat in a steam room. There wasn’t much ambience but my skin and hair was lovely and soft afterwards! We stayed at the lovely IORA resort which put on a great buffet for our group.

Lion’s Rock, Sigiriya

Lion’s Rock, Sigiriya

Polonnaruwa Ancient City

Following an al-fresco breakfast we set off for Kandy, taking part in a fascinating tour of the Ranweli spice garden on the way – a little touristy but I really enjoyed seeing what the plants for the different spices look like such as turmeric, nutmeg, cacao, ginger and cinnamon. We had a lovely lunch at the Sthree Women’s Initiative, a café and shop that G Adventures helped to build and continue to support. It was lovely to make some purchases (earrings and a scrunchie for me) knowing the proceeds were going directly to the makers. In the afternoon we visited the Temple of the Tooth, which was a beautiful building situated by the river (you don’t actually see the famous tooth in the flesh – it emerges very rarely on important occasions). When we arrived at our hotel for the evening, there was a nationwide power cut due to a monkey coming into contact with the grid transformer at a substation – I couldn’t believe it affected the whole country! Fortunately, after sitting outside the hotel with candles for a little while, the power came back on.

Sthree Women’s Initiative

Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

As we left Kandy we visited the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya which I really enjoyed, so many bright colours and striking plants. Our next accommodation, Oruthota Chalets in Digana, was one of my favourites of the trip. It felt like a real haven with gardens, a swimming pool and views of the lake, and it was lovely to fit in a quick swim before a local village walking tour and an evening cooking demonstration.

Royal Botanic Gardens

Oruthota Chalets in Digana

Our next excursion on the itinerary was a tea plantation tour of Damro Tea Factory, which I found really insightful. We had a go at picking some leaves ourselves, and learnt that the leaves can then be processed (dried, chopped, fermented, dried again) and packed within just one day. The factory was still using the machines brought over from England 70 years ago. These signs of the colonial influence on Sri Lanka felt uncomfortable at times, especially at our next stop at Nuwara Eliya, which is also known as Little England. It was strange seeing a lot of colonial architecture along with a post office, golf course, racecourse and the manicured Victoria gardens. Being set at a high elevation, the cloudy cooler weather added to the peculiar British feeling.

Damro Tea Factory plantation

The next day, after a lovely walk around the lake, we headed to the train station in order to ride the local scenic train to Haputale near Ella (this 2 hour section is the most scenic part). Up to this point we’d been travelling around in an airconditioned minibus just for our tour group which was a lovely comfortable way to get around. However it was fun to have a more authentic local experience! The train was over an hour late and quite busy, but before long a young girl kindly offered me her seat and sat on her mum’s lap instead, and I found myself sitting amongst four generations of Sri Lankan women! There were wonderful views of the endless tea plantations set amongst the steep hills and lush forests. We returned to our bus to travel from Haputale to Ella, which felt quite touristy, being heavily developed for backpackers with lots of shops and restaurants catering to Western tastes. We stayed at the 3 Arch Resort located outside of town with beautiful views of the hills, and enjoyed taking tuk-tuks to and from dinner!

Local train views between Nuwara Eliya and Haputale

This concludes Part 1 of my Sri Lankan adventure. You can now read Part 2, where I explore Ella, go on safari at Yala National Park, and venture along the south coast visiting Mirissa, Galle, and the beautiful beaches of Tangalle and Ahanghama.

Alexa

P.S. Have you read 30 Countries Before 30 and Tips for Solo Travel?

Header photo: Negombo Lagoon