Thoughts of Sri Lanka
These appalling assaults on decency and humanity keep blighting our lives and saddening us all with every new development, and for all travellers loving freedom, there is a particular poignancy. We could write a lot about hatred, about bigotism, about our feelings towards those who commit such atrocities; equally we could write about our love of Sri Lanka as a nation and as a race, but there is enough written elsewhere already.
Instead, we want to remember our wonderful visit to Sri Lanka four years ago, when we enjoyed some of our most wonderful travel experiences to date.
Colombo was our first stop, a city of chaos, noise, humidity and overcrowding, before we moved on to Kandy by train. Our time in Kandy coincided with the Perahera festival, a wonderful event to experience. From Kandy we moved on to the iconic village and sight of Sigiriya, where we had the humbling experience of meeting Mangala and his family.
From Sigiriya we headed out to Trincomalee on the east coast.
Trincomalee was such an experience; one of those where our first impressions of the place simply took us out of our comfort zone and into “not sure about this” territory, yet by the time we left, we absolutely loved the place. We love that feeling: taking on a challenge and becoming part of a new world.
In Trincomalee, there were sights such as abandoned cricket stadia and abandoned hotels, legacies of the catastrophic Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. Now this beautiful country and its beautiful people have some more recent wounds to lick. Our sympathies are with them.
This collection of photographs summarise our wonderful memories.
4 Comments
normareadtalktalknet
What wonderful memories
How shocking that this beautiful country and these gentle and proud people are being so intimidated and there lives endangered
Gilda Baxter
I have never been there, but would love to visit. The recent events are shocking and desperately sad. A country that has been through so much already…It is hard to comprehend that people are capable of committing such atrocities
Phil & Michaela
It’s a beautiful place Gilda. I think we might re-post our story of Mangala and his family, and our coast to coast journey. If we get time, we’ll do it this week.
Joe
I appreciate the positive stories from your visit to Sri Lanka. As you say, enough about the sadness and hatred of the senseless event has been stated by others. It looks like a beautiful and interesting land, and a great destination for intrepid travelers like you.