Now that we are widely practising self isolation, I find myself with some more time and urge to relive some of the best travel experiences of the year. While I will not be travelling anytime soon (nor anyone should!), it is refreshing to look back and remember some amazing places.
I have been to Sri Lanka twice now and I will definitely be going back. It is a fascinating place, you can truly reconnect with nature and the island has a lot to offer.
I will list the things which made the biggest impression to me.
Go whale watching
Whale watching has been on my life bucket list for quite some time, and Mirissa offers a number of eco friendly whale watching tours. I chose whale watching Mirissa with Geeth. They were pretty good, distributed sea sickness pills prior to departure (it gets wavy) and instructed one side of the boat to stand up while the other side is seated and vice versa, so that everyone gets to see the whales. It is not guaranteed that you will see whales and boats cannot come close to them. Yet, we were very lucky and saw some dolphins and whales after a few hours. It was phenomenal !
Go to national parks
When I was in Sri Lanka for the first time, I went to Yala National Park. The park is famous for leopards, however we did not manage to see any. Yet, we did see other animals, such as elephants, buffaloes and loads of birds including peacocks. Nevertheless, the whole experience was great – we left when it was still dark and saw sunrise at the national park.
During my second visit to Sri Lanka, I again opted for a national park. This one however was solely focused on elephants and it was close to Sigiriya. My goodness it was amazing! They have 2 time slots per day when jeeps can visit the elephants, and we got really close to them and juts observed. There were around 8 elephants just walking around us and minding their own business.
Visit Nuwara Eliya
Nuwara Eliya left me speechless. The waterfalls, the greenery – it was spectacular. I did go to one tea plantation there, but the main thing for me was just randomly getting lost in nature and discovering waterfalls, hidden deep in nature. I could have spent days there, below pictures don’t even do justice.
Visit Sigiriya
One or two days in Sigiriya are enough. The main thing you need to do there is to climb the Lion Rock. Do it early in the morning as it gets hot and make sure you have cash for the ticket – the ticket office was not accepting card payments when I was there. The scenery makes you think you are in Lion King movie set! Also, make sure to have dinner at a restaurant near nature. I saw a wild elephant roaming outside freely just as I was enjoying my last dinner there and it was unreal.
Take the train ride
You cannot write a blog post about travelling in Sri Lanka and not mention the scenic train journeys. I took three, one from Colombo to Kandy, where I stayed for a few days, then another from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya and finally the last one from Nuwara Eliya to Ella. The last route has more scenic views, however it was raining most of the journey. Nevertheless, the train takes you high into the mountains and you can see stunning Sri Lanka greenery and local villages. Make sure to book tickets in advance to get better seats as they do tend to sell out quickly and sit on the left side of the train for Nuwara Eliya – Ella route.
Ride a tuk-tuk
While on the train, I met a group of tourists who have rented 5 tuk-tuks (rickshaws) and were travelling around Sri Lanka. The idea sounded absolutely amazing! There are places in Colombo that offer such rentals, and they can arrange entire trip for you and even deliver tuk-tuk (if needed) to another city. I had a chance to briefly ride a tuk-tuk in Kandy and it is super fun! The next time I visit Sri Lanka I will definitely aim to do this. Also, there is a huge rickshaw run happening in Sri Lanka later in the year (hopefully), the rickshaw run is now on my bucket list too.
All in all, Sri Lanka is amazing. I didn’t even mention all the delicious food and all kind local people, and oh Mirissa beach… <3 It is also very cultural, it has a number of temples and historical sites, you will not run out of things to do for a month at least.