After a long time I planned the vacation with few friends. The theme for our holidays was relaxation, and for that we choose our destination as Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka – popularly known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, is a beautiful country. I am not sure if it comes under tropical green forests, but you will find abundance of greenery there, almost every shade of green are here.
Colombo is the only international airport in Sri Lanka; it is small but very well maintained. Indian does not require a visa; it is on the arrival and is usually for the 30 days. There are few well stocked duty free shops on the arrival as well. I was more interested in the liquor, which is 1.5 Liters per person.
As soon as we stepped out of airport, we found ourselves in a fortress as it is heavily guarded by army. We stayed at Hotel Galadhari in Colombo. From airport to hotel, we found that almost every 200 meters were army personnel. The hotel was just few meters away from the sea, and we could see army patrol boats in the sea as well. We spent our evening roaming around the city. Being Sunday market was closed and that resulted in less shopping but my wife still managed to do some.
Sri Lanka as a whole does not have any highways, but traffic still moves fast given the width of roads. I have always considered people following traffic rules are more civilized then people who don’t. If I go by this philosophy, then Lankans are one of the most civilized people in the Indian sub continent. They take traffic rules seriously. Even in remote villages, all bikers and pillion riders wore a helmet. People will stop at zebra crossing, allowing pedestrians to cross the road. Colombo also has good pubs, one of them I saw had a sign board as ‘specially for foreigners’.
Our next destination was Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, which is around 90 km from Colombo. It is one of it’s kind and probably the biggest in Asia. It was the first time I had seen so many elephants at a same place, and it was also the first opportunity to go so close to them. I must tell you, I was quite terrified by the thought of what if the jumbo accidently steps over my foot. :) We spend couple of hours their watching elephants bathing and playing. It was very pleasent. Something unique you will find here is the elephant dung paper.
Our next destination was Sigiriya. It is an interesting place, its like going back in time. Will continue about this in next part…
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