There is a version of Sri Lanka that most travel guides actively discourage you from seeing. They call it the low season, the wrong time, the period to avoid. The months between May and September appear on travel calendars in cautionary red. The advice is consistent:...
There is a moment, somewhere near the escarpment at World's End, when the cloud forest simply stops. One step you are walking through a cathedral of ancient, moss-draped trees, the ground soft and perpetually damp beneath your boots, the light arriving in grey...
Most travellers coming to Sri Lanka’s "Cultural Triangle" follow a very predictable path. They climb Sigiriya, take a photo of the monkeys at Dambulla, and then head back to their hotel for a dip in the pool. It’s a fine way to spend a weekend, but it misses the point...
Kalpitiya has found its way onto the map. The dolphins are known, the sand dunes are photographed, the kitesurfing camps have their regulars. But the broader world that surrounds the peninsula, the vast Puttalam Lagoon system stretching inland, the old Dutch trading...
Everyone who visits Sri Lanka's hill country passes through tea. It lines the roads, covers the hillsides, fills the air with a particular clean green smell that you remember long after you have left. But most travellers experience it as scenery rather than as a...
The south coast of Sri Lanka has, in the past decade, become one of the most visited stretches of coastline in Asia. Galle draws the boutique travellers. Mirissa draws the whale watchers. Hiriketiya draws the surfers. Each of these places is genuinely good, and each...
The south coast of Sri Lanka has, in the past decade, become one of the most visited stretches of coastline in Asia. Galle draws the boutique travellers. Mirissa draws the whale watchers. Hiriketiya draws the surfers. Each of these places is genuinely good, and each...
The rock appears before the road is ready for it. You're moving through flat scrubland, teak forests and small villages selling king coconuts by the roadside, and then, without much warning, Yapahuwa simply rises out of the earth. A great slab of granite, almost...
If Sri Lanka were a necklace, Mannar Island would be the strange, beautiful pendant hanging quietly at the edge—unexpected, enchanting, and shimmering with stories that few travelers know. While most visitors circle around the island's more familiar south and central...
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