Sri Lanka People & Culture

Sinhalese... lovely people.

The Queen's Hotel has a great pool, but if you're looking for a more budget option there's a really relaxed place abut 2 mins walk from it called The Old Empire (can you spot the colonial influence here!?)  It's right by the Dhalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth) and you're guaranteed to meet some cool people. fun times!

An event outside of the known tourist track you might want to visit is the free stage every sunday in the NCC (national cricket club). Nothing posh or fancy, only nice cold beer with local music, local people and a few expats. You will see the very big fruit bats flying over the pitch from 17.00h onwards. When you haven't seen one before, an impressive sight.

DON'T GO THERE ANY MORE. YOU RISK TO BE MURDERED BY BUSDRIVERS WHO RUN BY 80KM/H (50 IS POSSIBLE) THROUGH THE VILLAGE ON THE HIGHWAY FROM GALLE TO COLOMBO. AND SIMPLE CARDRIVERS DO THE SAME, BY DAY AND NIGHT - IT IS LOUD AND NOISY. AS A PEDESTRIAN YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WALK ON A SMALL PIECE OF THE HIGHWAY, WHERE CARS AND TUCTUCS PARK. THERE SEEM TO BE ACCIDENTS WITH HEAVILY INJURED PEOPLE AND DEATH PEOPLE. THIS LITTLE CITY SEEMS NOT TO BE ABLE NOR WILLING TO STOP THIS, ALTHOUGH IT IS DEPENDING ON TOURISM. THE HIGWAY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE SHALL BE OPENEND NOT BEFORE 2010.

Women's shoulders should be covered when exploring Buddhist sites, and respectful clothing should be worn. One is also not supposed to turn their back towards a representation of the Buddha. It is generally fine to take pictures, but be careful not to take any pictures of people in front of images of the Buddha.

Kalutara is the home of the Kalutara Bo Tree and the Kalutara Chaitiya, a massive dome shaped stupa. The Bo Tree's branches almost span across the road to touch the stupa on the other side. It is a place of worship for all Buddhists in Sri Lanka, but also offers a peaceful place of meditation and reflection for anyone seeking place of serenity close to Colombo. Sit under the Bo Tree in the evening, or sit inside the stupa, and meditate. All travellers going to the South of the country, regardless of religion, place coins in the donation boxes, for a safe journey.

Its well worth a visit to the Culture and Heritage Museum in Polonnaruwa.

GO and see the cultural dance show - it's worth it for the fire dancing at the end, as well as what they can do with a simple little theatre and about 4 overhead lights...

An event outside of the known tourist track you might want to visit is the free stage every sunday in the NCC (national cricket club). Nothing posh or fancy, only nice cold beer with local music, local people and a few expats. You will see the very big fruit bats flying over the pitch from 17.00h onwards. When you haven't seen one before, an impressive sight.

Good plce to go diving cheap. However the diving isn't great. Rent a bike and pedal yourself everywhere. A place on the beach in a cheap/nice hotel was $5.00 per night. - off season. In the high season - Europe winter, there are lots of Europeans so the prices go up, but the diving is better. I would ride into the main part of town and have a roti for supper with really great tea. You can also ride into the country side and get really great tea at local platations. Ask anyone for directions. There are also cinnamon farms in the country and you can watch them make cinnamon oil and sticks on your bike trips.

Hire a glass bottom boat and travel over the coral reef during the day. There are a gorgeous aray of tropical fish here.
Go and play the Sri Lankan drums and dine out. Eating the local foods is very affordable and worthwhile.

Many big Western companies like Gap and Helly Hansen have factories in this area, so you can pick up cheap authentic branded gear in the local markets. Many of the items even have all the tags on that you'd expect to see at home.

Kalutara is the home of the Kalutara Bo Tree and the Kalutara Chaitiya, a massive dome shaped stupa. The Bo Tree's branches almost span across the road to touch the stupa on the other side. It is a place of worship for all Buddhists in Sri Lanka, but also offers a peaceful place of meditation and reflection for anyone seeking place of serenity close to Colombo. Sit under the Bo Tree in the evening, or sit inside the stupa, and meditate. All travellers going to the South of the country, regardless of religion, place coins in the donation boxes, for a safe journey.

Take a boat to the temple island just off the coast, half an hour before sunset. Thuschara from Gulliver's Travel offers a fantastic boat ride through the mangroves half an hour South of Beruwala during which you can see fantastic wildlife. He also offers tours of several days to for example Sigiriya, Dambulla and Kandy. He's a reliable driver and knows a lot about the places. In Beruwala, Sudan is a good guy for a boat ride of about 2 hours. If you want to have clothes made, Pali Mode Shop on the beach is a good place to go to. They have very good material and a good taylor.

Ride an Elephant in the park!

The Imperial botanical Gardens here are a must wander-through..

Pottuvil or rather Arugam bay is not the easiest place to get to, this is because the jungles around it frequently change hands between the tamil tigers and sinhalese government soldiers. By far the safest way is get there is hitching from Dambulla on a friday after Mosque. A few minivans shuttle muslim boys back and forth and rarely get in trouble (being neutral from all the strife). Its well worth the effort and highly recommended for surfers. You can find a few huts at the end of the beach that seem to have a few long term surfers but hopefully the Tsunami might have washed them away.
Ps. Be careful there's an evil rip tide.

I found Colombo terrifying when I arrived there on the bus from Negombo. Every street corner had two soldiers armed with automatic rifles behind a sandbag bunker and there were massive anti-aircraft guns stationed along some streets. I skipped Colombo completely and headed straight down to Hikkaduwa on the south coast. I was in Colombo in March 2008 so the security situation may have changed since then. I'd highly recommend checking out your government's travel warnings though as there were bombs going off left, right, and centre while I was there!

It is definitely a must that you go into the main part of the city, while it is still shell worn from the local civil war, you can see that this ancient city still has a lot to see including it's university and government buildings. Definetly a must to have a family to stay with, so that you can experiance life amongst the locals.