Big gift in a small package

Sri Lanka packs a lot of experiences in a relatively small country.  About the size of the state of Georgia, Sri Lanka can be driven from top to bottom in 6-7 hours (assuming use of the new highways).  In just ten days, my friend Phyllis and I were able to dabble in 2 religions (Buddhism and Hinduism), history, epic hiking, elephants, tea picking, safari, colonialism, cooking and beaches. If you can make it through a 20-hour set of flights through Doha or Dubai, it is a wonderful, self-contained two-week destination with extremely kind, welcoming people.  Our highlights:

• Colombo wants to be a hip, Asian city.  There are parks where families congregate on Sundays, promenades next to the Ocean, trendy boutiques with affordable Sri Lankan fashions and tasty restaurants like the Ministry of Crab, to which we arrived in an Uber tuk-tuk!  All of that co-exists alongside a Buddhist temple with adjoining riverside meditation center, a Hindu temple with shrines to Shiva and Ganesh, a colorful red-and-white mosque and several churches remaining from the colonial period.  The diversity of the city and the openness and acceptance of its people makes it hard to believe that the country was still in the grips of a civil war until 2009.  There is absolutely no evidence of the past strife. 
• A frenetic, long and traffic-filled drive from Colombo to Dambulla took us past stands selling pineapple, king coconuts, rambudan, durian and cashews.  We stopped to sample almost everything…except the durian.  The traffic was incredible with colorful busses, tourist vehicles, trucks and tuk-tuks all sharing one-and-a-half lanes in either direction.  Think a Grand Prix taking place during Boston rush hour.  Late afternoon, we finally arrived in Dambulla, at the center of the Cultural Triangle.  Dripping with sweat, we climbed the stairs along with hundreds of school children on an afternoon field trip to the Dambulla cave complex, a series of five caves with ancient frescoes and Buddha sculptures including huge reclining Buddhas.  
• Sigiriya, or Lion’s Rock, is one of Sri Lanka’s most iconic destinations.  One of the eight UNESCO sights in the country, it is a massive rock formation over 60 stories high on top of which sits a small city fortress built by Sri Lanka’s King during the fifth century AD.  The waterworks – including intricate irrigation, moats and multiple swimming pools –is a marvel of ancient Singhalese technology.  The day we climbed was a “poya” or full-moon day, so we were joined by thousands of Sri Lankans making the pilgrimage to the top of the Rock.  Once again sweat-stained, we successfully climbed all 1200 stairs (hard to believe its such a round number) plus the final 2 atop the fortress.  The view was vast, lush and green, and the climb down much quicker.  The afternoon we explored Polonnaruwa, the country’s second capital around 1070. Well-preserved ruins, more Buddha statues and a museum with recreations of the ruins.
• A stop at the Spice Gardens taught us a lot about Ayurveda, or literally “health of life.”  We learned about spices that can be used both to make delicious curry dal andsoothe bug bites.  It may have been the surprise shoulder/head massage that convinced us, but we brought home a supply of many items!  Later, we stopped by a batik workshop to learn about how the ladies use wax and dye to create the multi-colored patterns. 
• Usually when traveling, the best experiences can be something unexpected and not in the itinerary.  Today happened to be a festival day at the Sri Muthu Mariamman Hindu temple in Matale. Hundreds of devotees in their vibrantly colored saris bustled down the street stopping to buy flowers or other offerings, streamed into and out of the temple and stood in line for the free curries and rice offered as part of the festival.  We couldn’t have stood out more, but everyone smiled and made us feel less awkward.  
• We managed to squeeze in a visit to an elephant sanctuary where we got to walk with and then help bathe the grand dame of the group – Lakshmi, the 53-year old matriarch. While I am not a fan of constrained elephants, the foundation we visited does its best to help the elephants who were domesticated decades ago. The bath was certainly a unique experience!
• The Buddhist capital of Sri Lanka is wherever the Temple of the Tooth is located, and for the past 400 years, it has been in Kandy.  A genuine tooth of the Buddha that survived his funeral pyre, the relic is cased in a gold stupa and sits behind a golden door, which opens on occasion during the day.  It is one of the holiest sites in the country and the temple built around it reflects its importance. 
• The train ride from Kandy to Hatton is beautiful, winding upward through the tea trails.  Locals sit in the open doorways to cool off.  Wanna-be NatGeo photographers hang out the doors to get the iconic photo of the train as it winds through the hills. 
• Thousands of acres of tea plants are laid out in rows from valley to peak.  Ladies, primarily Tamil, pick the tea leaf-by-leaf, knowing exactly which leaves are ready to be picked.  They spread out across the hillside, picking and placing the leaves in bags hanging down their backs until it’s time to weigh several times per day.  Amazingly, they cover all their territory so that each plant is picked every 5-7 days.  We tried our hand under the tutelage of one smiling woman.  I don’t think that Phyllis or I would make our quota!
• Sinhalese Buddhists believe that the indentation on the top of Sri Pada or Adam’s Peak is the footprint of Buddha.  Hindus believe it was the god Shiva’s.  And to some Christians and Muslims, Adam created it when he first set foot on earth after being cast out from Eden.  What I know is that it is 7359-foot high mountain that can be climbed via thousands of steps. Similar to our experience at Sigiriya, one of the best things about our climb to the top of Sri Pada was that the majority of those climbing were Sri Lankans on pilgrimage to a holy site. It wasn’t just tourists clutching Lonely Planet.  We were passed equally by groups of schoolboys singing, parents carrying young children and barefoot grannies all dressed in white.  The goal is to reach the top for sunrise, so we started walking at 2am.  The crowds slowed us to a crawl so that we were stopped about 50 yards from the top when the sun rose.  What a vantage point!
• A scenic seaplane took us down to Yala National Park for 2 days of safari.  In Yala, the leopard is the apex (#1) predator, so that is the main draw.  We were fortunate to spot 4 different leopards to complement the 50+ different birds, elephants, mongooses (mongeese?), and other mammals.  It’s always fun to be on safari, although 2 of our leopard sightings were jeep traffic jams where we had 30 seconds to take our photos before being moved along.   It was the plethora of jeeps that made our time with one leopard and only one other jeep that much more magical.  
• Galle is a walled town from the days of the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British. We could have spent hours in the winding streets full of restaurants, guest houses and shops, but had to settle for a quick walk between our colonial history tour and our Sri Lankan cooking class!  After tasting so many wonderful curries, we had the opportunity to select unique vegetables and create 8 different curried dishes, which we then ate with rice with our hands in the true Sinhalese tradition!
• Welligama is a town on the coast just outside of Galle known for it’s surfing. We opted for some relaxing time in the Indian Ocean where we admired the surfers congregating in the gentle breaks.  We also stopped by a turtle sanctuary where dedicated locals save the eggs of turtles laid on the beach as well as sea turtles injured by mankind.  

Yes, all of that in just 11 days.   Variety of experience, great food, lovely people.  Thanks to Remote Lands for planning it! Sri Lanka deserves to be on many people’s travel lists!