Marco Polo dubbed Sri Lanka the finest island in the world, and visitors continue to be seduced by the heavy warm air, the endless rich green foliage, the luxuriant swirls of the Sinhalese alphabet, the multicoloured Buddhit flags, and the variety of saris, fruit, jewellery and spices on sale in the markets. Sri Lankan festivals announce themselves with sparkling lights strung over town clock towers and bazaar alleys.
December to March (the driest time of the year)- or around the 7th century, to flog your wares to the Arab traders.
Sharing the first rays of the morning sun with pilgrims at the summit of Adam’s Peak Lazing the away on the beach in sleepy Mirissa Wandering through tea plantations in the hills around Nuwara Eliya Getting up cloes to the young elephants at Pinnewala Elephhant Orphanage Climbing the spectacular rock fortress of Sigiriya Experiencing a puja (offering of prayer) at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy Attempting to spot an elusive leopard in Yala West National Park
Read Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, a humorous account of returning to Sri Lanka after growing up there in the 1940s and’ 50s
Listen to www. Labaila.com, web-streamed Sri Lankan radio from Los Angeles
Watch Prasanna Vithanage’s Death on a Full Moon Day, a film about a father who refuses to accept the death of his soldier son
Eat coconut sambol, a hot accompaniment to curry made of grated coconut, chilli and spices
Drink arrack, the local spirit, which is usually fermented from coconuts or palm trees
Ayubowan (may you live long)
Beautiful beaches lined with palm trees’ tea plantations; coconuts; friendly, smilingb faces; elephants; rice and curry; batik; three-wheelers winding in and out of traffic; good cricketers and enthusiastic supporters; Kandyan dancers
Buddhist temples that depict images of Hindu gods; serious traffic accidents are rare despite the apparent lack of road rules
The nation stops when Sri Lanka’s First Eleven play cricket. Workers take leave from their workplaces for the day or afternoon, transistor radios reveal the score in the corner of the office, crowds television television screens in the Singer stores, radios blare on buses with coverage in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Almost everyone follows the game, men and women> And if Sri Lanka wins, fire crackers sound around the neighbourhood.