Sri Lanka

The "Island of Gems", and indeed a true gem for tourism too. Sometimes described as India in miniature – and without the faults. That's not quite true, of course, as Sri Lanka has its faults too, but a certain affinity with India is obvious, in culture, cuisine and colonial history.

In addition, the country was plagued by an ongoing internal conflict, the decades-long war between the northern liberation army of the Tamil Tigers and the government forces. This used to make travel to certain parts of the country too risky for tourists. But that has changed meanwhile. The government side won the decisive battles in 2008-2009 and the defeated Tamil Tigers now seem to be history – whether for good or not, remains to be seen, but the situation does appear quite stable now.

In fact, the end of the civil war and the opening up of the areas formerly closed-off to tourism, namely northern and eastern parts of the country, have also given intrepid dark tourists a fascinating new territory to explore. This is hence given its own new separate entry here:

- civil war sites in the north

I haven't been able to check out these sites myself yet. I will have to return to the country before long to do so (meanwhile I'm relying on reports by others and on photos I've seen). When I travelled to the country for the first time in December/January 2006/2007, the conflict was still an uneasy defining characteristic of the country, even though the southern half, where I went, was mostly quite safe. However, there were also Tamil Tiger terrorist attacks in those parts of the country. In fact at that time terrorism entered a new phase in that the strategy of targeting mainly the military and/or politicians was changed to what sadly is the prevailing tendency in terrorism worldwide these days: targeting innocent civilians. In early January 2007 two regional buses were bombed and dozens killed. It was a depressing development – and a depressing sight: on our way back to the airport in Colombo we passed the charred wreck of one of those buses. But as I said - these threats now seem to be over and even the north has opened up for travellers and has remained peaceful since the end of the civil war.

A few years earlier, Sri Lanka was also in the headlines for a very different kind of tragedy, a natural one – indeed the worst natural disaster in living history: the tsunami of Christmas 2004, which hit the entire Indian Ocean region. In Sri Lanka, damage was naturally worst along the eastern and southern coast. A couple of memorial sites have sprung up, including the two picked out below, but there are more, including various monuments and a couple of museum exhibitions (photos mostly).

- wreck of the "Queen of the Sea" train

- the tsunami memorial in Yala National Park

These dark sites will for most tourists remain mere side trips or short stopovers, though. Most visitors are here to savour the natural, culinary and cultural delights of this marvellous country.

The colonial legacy is still particularly palpable in the highlands where tea plantations dominate the scenery. Culturally, Sri Lanka has a wealth of ancient sights to offer that is breathtaking. The "8th wonder of the world", the temple rock of Sigiriya is just the most famous highlight.

And the cuisine – well, for those who, like me, like it spicy, fresh and vegetarian, Sri Lanka is paradise and easily trumps any other cuisine in the world (cf. food & drink). That alone is reason to travel to this lovely country. It's also an opportunity to pick up some of the famed spices – cinnamon in particular. The Sri Lankan variety is the real thing – and far superior to that cassia crap from Indonesia or China that is mostly sold as 'cinnamon' in the West and that too many people erroneously believe is what cinnamon is like …

To get to Sri Lanka as a tourist there really isn't an alternative to flying. There's only one international airport, north of Colombo, infamously known as the worst part of the entire Sri Lanka tourist experience – although it's not quite as bad as it sounds … Many flights go via the Maldives or Dubai.

Travelling as a tourist within Sri Lanka is easiest, safest and least time-consuming by car – not self-driven, as navigating would be near impossible for foreigners. But together with a driver/guide. It's not as expensive as it sounds. For me it also had the added bonus that at the various places we stayed at our driver/guide successfully convinced the cooks that my wife and I really wanted the genuine Sri Lankan cuisine at the full original spice-level ... as in Thailand, they otherwise naturally assume that all Westerners need it watered down and bland; it takes some persuading to get them to believe otherwise …

You can of course save money by using public transport (mainly buses and tuc-tucs, also a few train lines) but that can be time-consuming and uncomfortable.

For accommodation, you can again get away cheaply in basic guest houses, but there's also a wonderful range of extremely cool places at comparatively affordable rates.

The experts I can recommend are the UK-based specialist operator Experience Travel Group (sponsored page). They can tailor any kind of trip for you – and they know the best places to stay in, some of which you wouldn't come across on your own. Some of the places organized by them ended up in my all-time favourite hotels/accommodations list!