Sri lanka

It wasn’t my idea to travel to Asia this year. We had a few holidays in Europe now. Timo, my husband, said he wanted to travel abroad so I let him choose. He really wanted to go snorkel and see loads of fish so he thought the Maldives would be a great idea.

I looked at the map and saw Sri Lanka is only a short flight away from these bounty islands. And as I'm a big fan of tea, I'd love to see the tea plantations and manufactures. Great combo I would say!

Via Emirates I could book a triangle flight so we could make a stopover in the Maldives. We flew from Dusseldorf, Germany. This would safe us 300 Euro's per person!

Sri lanka has really surprised me! I would say it is the more tranquil version of India. But with the great food, nicely dressed woman and friendly people and an easier country to travel.

There are so many National parks with all kinds of animals which you won’t expect to see. You can go hiking, visiting beautiful temples or just enjoying the great beaches. It just has a lot to offer and you would definitely would see me here again!

Food

A small island, but so many herbs and spices, it must be good! Sri Lanka is most famous for its curries. If you order a curry, is it different everywhere. You'll get a few bowls with some vegetable and sauce. They are all prepared different. I didn't have one which is spicy, so I'm not sure if this is common or just coincident. When you think you get a lot, you pay a lot, but that doesn't count for this dish. The most we payed was 6 euros's for one rice and curry and it was more than enough for 1 person!

Another dish which I really like is the roti. This dish reminds me of India and Malaysia with Indian influences. Roti is some kind of pancake. You get this dish with a sauce on the side where you can dip pieces of roti in it. In India this dish can be really spicy, but here it was just delicious!
We found a really cheap shop in Haputale we only paid 1,20 Euro for the 2 of us, including a good cup of tea. And if you think this wouldn't be enough to fill you stomach for dinner, then you should try it!

Not only curries, but since the island is surrounded by water you can guess it is easy to get fresh grilled fish! We ate a nicely fresh grilled barracuda. Really tasty!

How?

To make the holiday a little relaxed, we choose to stay at the beaches in the South and travel back to Colombo via Haputale, Nuware Eliya and Kitulgala. We made a reservation for Rafters retreat in Kitulgala. Their bungalows looked really nice and we didn't want to miss these surroundings.

We started in Hikkaduwa, Galle, Mirissa and Tissamaharama. The last one is the starting point for Yala national park.

We had about 10 days in Sri Lanka. Just a day or 2 extra would be a little more relaxed. But it was OK to see a lot of different nature and places. Since Sri Lanka isn't a big country, you still have to count some time traveling to other places. If you count 25 km per hour, you can calculate your travel time to the place you want to go. The roads are going trough the mountains and they need this time.