Travel Insurance For Sri Lanka You’ll want to get an early start when you visit the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, for a few reasons. Mornings are cooler. Tourists arrive in more concentration, the later the day gets. And the archaeological site is so large that, even with a bike, you’ll need an entire day to see everything. But the chief ...
Polonnaruwa Hotels For nine centuries, Anuradhapura was the capital and most important city of the Sri Lankan Kingdom, filled with glorious stupas, irrigation tanks and an incomparable religious life. Unfortunately, it was easily accessible and made a tempting target for armies from India. The city often fell into enemy hands and in 1056, King Vijayabahu decided to move to a ...
Hotels in Trincomalee After a few days spent recharging our batteries on Uppuveli Beach, we were ready for some sight-seeing. Luckily, we didn’t have to go far. A tuk-tuk driver agreed to take us on a 500 rupee round-trip tour of two great spots near Trincomalee: the Kanniyai Hot Wells and the Velgam Vihara, which is an ancient monastery set ...
Cheap Places To Stay in Trincomalee Nilaveli Beach, about fifteen kilometers north of Trinco, was once one of eastern Sri Lanka’s favorite destinations. But then the twin catastrophes of Civil War and tsunami came along. The devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami left 35,000 Sri Lankans dead and displaced a further half million, mostly along the eastern coast. Nilaveli ...
Twelve times a year, and occasionally thirteen, life in Sri Lanka grinds to a halt for the observance of a Poya Day. Sri Lanka’s brand of Buddhism follows a lunar cycle, and full moon days are especially meaningful. These poya days are public holidays, allowing the faithful to visit their favorite temple and take a break from work. It’s forbidden ...
Reading Suggestion: Moby Dick Going out on a whale watch is like visiting a casino. You hope to hit the jackpot, but you’re prepared for the likelihood of ending up empty-handed. Along with Mirissa on the southern coast, Trinco offers the best odds on actually spotting whales, so we put our chips on “blue” and “sperm” (and, just for fun, ...
Buy Sun Lotion Online A gorgeous stretch of beach just a few kilometers north of the city, Uppaveli was our home during the week we spent in Trincomalee. A chain of hotels stretches up the coast, but we had the beach almost entirely to ourselves. After trips to action-packed cities like Kandy and Jaffna, a little sun, sand and solitude ...
Learn About Hinduism A mighty promontory jutting out into the Indian Ocean, Swami Rock divides Trincomalee’s Back Bay (to the north) from the Dutch Bay (to the south). It’s an impressive natural landmark in the otherwise low-lying city, and has always played an important role in the city’s affairs. Before the arrival of the Europeans, Swami Rock was home to ...
Watch Bambi Our first day in Trinco, while we were walking up Fort Frederick Road, we spotted a small deer in a park. Of course, deer are skittish, but we were unusually nearby and no “danger alarm” seemed to be going off in his head. Then we noticed another deer, walking alongside dogs, and another approaching a group of people. ...
The large island of Delft sits twenty miles off the mainland; about as far away as you can get in densely-packed Sri Lanka. After an 80-minute bus ride to Kurikadduwan, we hopped on the hour-long ferry to the island. Almost immediately, beautiful scenes presented themselves, ripe for photo-taking! And seconds later, Jürgen realized that his camera battery was out of ...
Hotels in Trincomalee After our time in Jaffna, we headed southeast to the capital of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province: Trincomalee. We’d spend six nights in Trinco (as it’s almost always referred to), enjoying its beautiful beaches and fascinating city life. Trinco is more of an ethnic melting pot than any other city in Sri Lanka, except perhaps Colombo. Its population ...
Learn About Buddhism A collection of small stupas found a mile east of Chunnakam, Kadurugoda is a rare island of Buddhism in the Hindu-dominated peninsula of Jaffna. We hired a tuk-tuk to the site, shortly after visiting the Keerimalai water temple. Around twenty mini-stupas made of coral are scattered about the site. They’re thought to have been built around 2000 ...
Cheap Flights To Sri Lanka Want to quickly gather together a massive group of Sri Lankans? Get into a car wreck. Want to play Twenty Questions with a Sri Lankan? Walk down the street. There isn’t a culture on Earth more nosy or curious than Sri Lanka’s. At least, I hope not! This really only applies to Sri Lankan men. ...
Hotels in Jaffna Set on the northern coast of the Jaffna Peninsula is one of the more entertaining places of worship we’ve ever visited. The Keerimalai Kovil, which overlooks the Palk Strait separating Sri Lanka from India, doubles as a popular pool and hang-out zone for people taking a break from their regular lives. My church’s attempts to combine fun ...
Hotels in Jaffna You’d think that, for a long, narrow strip of land which juts out into the Indian Ocean, finding a beach on the Jaffna Peninsula wouldn’t be a big hassle. But reaching the two beaches we visited during our time in the north required a degree of planning and force of will normally required for tasks like composing ...
Coconut Products In every city, town or village of Sri Lanka, and alongside country roads, you’ll find stands hawking golden coconuts. These are thambili, or King Coconuts, and we’ve made it a habit to grab one every day. The seller takes a machete and starts hacking away at the coconut, until a small opening can be carved from the top. ...
Travel Insurance For Sri Lanka An enormous, 100-foot golden tower grandly announces the presence of the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, on the northern end of Jaffna. This is the largest and most important place of worship on the peninsula, and holds multiple daily ceremonies. Jürgen and I removed our shoes and shirts (oh quiet down, all you squealing tweens!), and stepped ...
Places To stay in Jaffna A string of small islands stretch out to the west of Jaffna, pointing the way to India, mostly connected to the mainland by roads built up out of the shallow water. One day, we rented rickety old bikes and rode out on the causeway which begins near the fort to the first of the islands. ...
Hotels In Jaffna In 1618, the Portuguese built an enormous fort in Jaffna, to help protect their hard-won new property. Colonial-era forts are fairly common across the world, but Jaffna’s must be one of the very few which continued to see action until the late 20th century. Recently re-opened to visitors, it was one of the first things we checked ...
We’ve never visited a city with a vibe like Jaffna’s. The only town of any appreciable size in the whole of northern Sri Lanka, Jaffna is the vibrant de facto capital of the country’s Tamil population. But it’s also a tragic showpiece for the horrors of modern war. A walk through the streets of modern Jaffna offers both a heartbreaking ...
