5 reasons to visit Sri Lanka
- For cricket in Galle
Sleepy Galle is a haven for grown-up backpackers, with Dutch colonial architecture, jewellery shops, ice cream parlours and an almost complete dearth of nightlife. It is also where to catch an international cricket match or have a knock about near an old fort.
- The trains are impossibly scenic
A newly reopened train route from Colombo to Jaffna promises an eye-opening journey through Sri Lanka
The recent reopening of the Yal Devi (Queen of Jaffna) Express provides visitors to Sri Lanka with an opportunity they have not had since 1990: to travel by train from Colombo to Jaffna.
The railway journey between Kandy and Ella is also one to remember.
3.Sri Lanka is famous for its Ceylon tea. Walk past lush green tea plantations on a four-hour trek up to Ella Rock for amazing views.
4.It’s just so much easier to travel here than in India. Transactions go more smoothly, things work and best of all, trains and planes leave near enough on time. And there’s a fantastic network of hotels, all of which you can book on the web.
- For a vision of hell
Inside Wewurukannala Vihara temple are models of humans being boiled alive and sawn in half - eek! Visitors must first walk past these horrors before reaching a giant Buddha.