இலங்கை / Sri Lanka

Just back from Sri Lanka and suffering of insomnia. I skipped the last two nights, slept a bit in the morning, a bit in the afternoon in different time zones.. i arrived home in the morning, closed the window shades, had a shower, put on pj's.. doesn't help to fall asleep.

It was an unexpected trip, nice surprise. Anyway my suitcase is always ready to leave anywhere (bikinis, a pair of flip-flops, towel, set of summer + winter clothes).

I'll try to describe my impression of Sri Lanka (old Ceylon), i think the photos will illustrate much better.
I had a short stay, though i tried to make the best of it. I never leave a city without having a short look at least. Of course you can't see everything in a day but i like to have a general picture of it once i'm there.
My favourite part is always the way from the airport to the hotel. The first look. This time it was quite long, 1,5 hrs but i guess we were accomodated in one of the nicest hotels of the island.

Sri Lanka itself is a teardrop shaped island located in the Indian - Ocean approximately 800km from the equator under India. Due to its geographic location it has a tropical climate - heavy rain showers this time of year, we managed to catch a thunderstorm in the evening.

I tuck-tuck driver took me and another girl for a couple of hours sightseeing roundrip around Colombo and told us some information about the places we were visiting. It was quite heard to understand his accent, like everyone's there. But he was very helpful and patient - waited for us everywhere we wanted to go inside and asked for a very small amount of money. (I have his phone number in case anybody is going there, a friend gave me his contact as well.)

When you give tips they are grateful for every penny. And thinking of the fact that i couldn't even have a dinner in Madrid for the money i spent during the whole stay including the fancy dinner in the hotel' restaurant is funny.

I was spellbound by the island's natural beauty, tropical flora, beaches and landscapes. It's not a developed country but they are very rich regarding its culture from ancient times, religions, believes and the kindness of people. It's the centre of Buddhism, and the second most popular religion is Hinduism. There are several Buddhist and Hindu temples, Christian churches, Islamic mosques around the island. I managed to visit one each of them. (And now i'm blessed by God of all religions, in the Buddha tample i got a bracelet which will bring me luck, in the Hindu temple i got a third eye on my forehead..)

The Buddhist temple was the most impressive for me. First because it's so different to my culture and the view was spectecular (full of golden statues - illustrates mainly Buddha - and cluttered by colourful symbols and holy items, messages of Buddha...) and secondly because i like their main philosophy. They highly respect nature, there was a huge thousand years old tropical tree in the garden, decorated by colourful items - i guess all had a meaning - and women in white dress poured water on it, i asked Jana our tourguide why, he said "for hope".
Also there was a huge elephant in the garden (picture attached).

The island was colonised by Portugal, Netherlands and later by England therefore impacts and remainings from these periods can be still found eg. they are driving on the left, churches built by Dutch..


Besides the temples Jana took us to the centre, huge streetmarkets everywhere, the traffic is a complete chaos, it was very interesting to see how ppl live there.
We have seen the "white house" and the monument of freedom built when Sri Lanka gained its independence (1972).


Later we had dinner in our hotel's garden. I had salmon in coconut and lemongrass with spicy cous-cous, the atmosphere and decoration was amazing, there was a lake around our table full of pink and white fish with size of my arm, surrounded by tropical flowers, million of tiny lights on the trees and candles.. i have to say i had a nice dinner :)




Well, i could continue the story of Sri Lanka for hours, but i recommend everybody to visit it and experience it themselves, unfortunately i didn't have the chance to see the countryside and the fascinating holiday resorts along the seaside.
As for me Sri Lanka is definitely one of my favourite destination i visited so far.