Sri Lanka is an island at the southern tip of Hindustan, large and green, surrounded by the ocean, famous for its historical and natural attractions. Fruits, seafood, tea, surfing, mountains, animals in a slightly wild contrast from the metropolis to the village – this is a great place for lovers of active recreation without unnecessary luxury.
Video about Sri Lanka
We shoot a video with the best route, stories from locals and a short overview of what to expect on the spot. Basically, everything you need to understand whether it’s worth going, and if so, what to be prepared for.
Sri Lanka is the place where black tea comes to us from, an island with domestic elephants, delicious food and a lot of other things. In a week or two, you can see the mountains, tropical forest, national park on the plain, surf, visit Buddhist monasteries and, of course, ride an elephant. Or wash an elephant, which is no less interesting. There is also a Russian village in Sri Lanka where IT specialists live and work: this is a great way to wait out the winter in a warm climate.
Why go?
For a wilder beach holiday than in Thailand or Bali, for more civilized and hygienic travel than in India and Nepal. It is a surfer’s mecca, as well as a favorite place for winterers and fans of easy hiking, elephants and Buddhism. Sri Lanka is good for its sincerity, ubiquitous English, ease of orientation in public transport and a variety of different tourist services. There you can stay in a leaky house, or in a five-star hotel, you can go to the humid jungle and take your camera from macaques, or you can drink piña coladas under a palm tree the whole way. The massage is worse than in Thailand, the food is spicier than in Vietnam, there is less spirituality and yoga than in Bali, and the people are kinder than anywhere else.
The main thing about the country
Sri Lanka is an eternal summer, the ocean temperature is from +26 to +35 °C, humidity is 80-90%, the water in the ocean is often slightly cooler than the air. In the mountains you can take a break from the heat, it gets cold at night and reaches +15, and the water temperature in mountain rivers and waterfalls can drop to +16 even during the day. The rainy season begins at the end of February and continues until the end of summer, but the rains are short-lived.
Time zone UTC +5:30, so the difference with Moscow is +2.5 hours.
The main language of the country is Sinhalese, the second is Tamil, and everyone speaks English quite well, although in the villages you may not be understood, but in the capital, educated people even speak English at home. Why is that: from 1802 to 1972, Ceylon was a British colony, which seriously affected the culture, traditions and education of the locals.
The political capital is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, the actual capital is Colombo.
The main religion is Buddhism, the second largest is Hinduism, about 10% Islam and 6% Christianity. Not so long ago, there were religious wars between the Sinhalese and Tamils, but now everyone lives side by side peacefully. Religions are reflected in the culture of all the island’s inhabitants in a similar way: men treat women with respect, younger people treat older people, women never swim in their underwear, only fully dressed, and it is not customary to expose the body at all. Everyone treats tourists well, because in any case this is a way to replenish the budget, but they do not like it when people in bathing suits go beyond the beach, and also when they drink alcohol noisily.
When to go?
The peak tourist season is from November to February. At this time, the popular southwest coast and the center of the island are warm and dry. From the end of February, rains begin everywhere, and it is recommended to hide from the waves on the southeast coast. You should not be too afraid of rain, most often it rains heavily, but once a day.
Considering the local temperature, you don’t need to take a lot of clothes with you (summer clothes can be bought on site), but you should take glasses, hats, good sun protection, shoes for the beach and mountains.Day and night temperatures+30 +22 Jan+31 +22 Feb+31 +23 Mar+31 +24 Apr+31 +25 May+30 +25 June+30 +25 July+30 +25 Aug+30 +24 Sen+30 +24 Oct+30 +23 Nov+30 +22 Dec
Locals celebrate every full moon by partying late into the night, but shops and restaurants are usually not affected. And on official holidays, many things may be closed:
- January 14 is the Tamil Harvest Festival,
- February 4th is Independence Day,
- March 1st Maha Shivaratri,
- 13-14 and the end of April – local New Year and Catholic Easter,
- May 1st is Labor Day,
- June 1-7 is the main Buddhist holiday of Poson Poya,
- December 25th is Christmas.
Currency
The Sri Lankan rupee is in circulation on the island. Upon arrival, you can exchange a hundred dollars at a not very good official rate (be sure to keep the receipt from the exchange office, it may come in handy), and then it is better to exchange in jewelry stores – this is the black market, but the rate is better (in May 2022, a dollar is 350 rupees in a bank and 380 in a jewelry store). You can also exchange euros, and in the capital even other currencies, even rubles, but it is not worth it. Take new blue dollars with you, the rate is worse with old ones.
Prices
Sri Lanka has always been a fairly cheap country, even during the default in the spring of 2022, it was cheaper for Russians to live there than in Russia. You can rent a place for a month for $300, a hearty meal from $1.5 to $5 (more expensive at resorts, there are many establishments with European and even Russian cuisine, but you can always find local establishments cheaper), a taxi is about $0.4 per kilometer, a tuk-tuk is cheaper, you can rent a bike for a month for $80. A tour of the jungle or the city, rafting or hiking for a day costs about $50 per person, a four-day trip with a guide as part of a group can cost from $150.
In hotels, large supermarkets and decent restaurants you can pay by card, there are also ATMs, but the rate is official everywhere, so it is not at all profitable.
How to get there
There are direct flights from Russia, and flights with transfers via Istanbul or the UAE, if the opportunity arises, you can catch a round-trip flight for as little as 35,000 rubles. All planes fly to Colombo, from there vacationers take transfers straight to the ocean, and independent travelers often go to Colombo and the mountains, and then go down to the ocean. You can order a transfer in advance, some hotels even provide it for free, you can take a taxi at the airport, you can take city bus 187 and go to the station: those who want to go further immediately transfer to trains to Kandy or to the south. Round trip flights to Sri LankaThe prices are for tickets per person departing from Amsterdam.
Hotels
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Beaches
The southern half of the island is used for swimming, in winter rather the western part, in summer the eastern part. The sea and ocean are warm everywhere, the beaches are usually sandy, but the waves and rip currents should be taken into account – this is a country of surfers, not children’s swimming, but there are places for the latter, and most family hotels either make paddling pools or offer spacious pools. It is believed that the beaches of Negombo and Colombo are not very good, and resorts begin from Wadduwa.
Finding a Thai bounty is not so easy, you need to look at photos of resorts: for example, Hikkaduwa with its multi-kilometer beach is more like Anapa, and in Mirissa there is much less space, but palm trees hang over the blue water.
Resorts
Hotels, villas, guest houses of all levels are on the coast from Negombo (the closest resort to the airport) to Hambantota, further the cities become more rare, there is less sand – these are surfer areas, where in summer people escape the rainy season. The most popular resorts among Russians, where you can find permanently living Russian-speaking people doing business, are Unawatuna, Weligama and Mirissa. For the joy of visiting historical sights, they go to Galle on the sea and to Kandy and Ella in the center of the island. For natural beauty and antiquities, they go to Dambulla, Sigiriya, Polonaruwa, Nuwara Eliya, Yala. There, housing is more modest, but there are also fabulous places, it’s just that the infrastructure is more for locals than for tourists.
Attractions
A day or two may be enough for Colombo, depending on your interests: the fort and lighthouses, the National and Maritime Museums, the Gangaramaya Temple Complex, the Sri Keilawasanatham Temple, the Independence Pavilion, the Borella Cemetery, the Dawatagaha and Jami ul Alfar mosques, the floating market, the zoo.
In the center of the island there are the most famous objects and points: Anuradhapura, Pollonaruwa, the Cave and Golden Temples in Dambulla, Mount Sigiriya, Adam’s Peak, the elephant orphanage and Pinnawala Zoo, Kandy with temples and the Botanical Garden, Nuwara Eliya with waterfalls and tea plantations, Ella with Little Adam’s Peak and the Nine-Arch Bridge, train travel.
In the south, there are also places where all tourists go: the Dutch port of Galle, the Yala Nature Reserve, the Japanese Peace Pagoda in Unawatuna, Parrot Rock and Coconut Tree Hill in Mirissa, the turtle beach and Doctor’s House club in Matara, the lighthouse at the end of the world and the Uthpalawarna Sri Vishnu Devalaya temple complex in Dondra, the Sinharaja rainforest.
Entertainment
The main activities that people go for are surfing and trekking (riding a board in the ocean and stomping up a small mountain). In addition, there is rafting, safaris in national parks, various hikes, swimming and snorkeling with turtles, riding in the sea on different boats, beach holidays and clubs (not everything is ideal with this, because there are a lot of waves, it is scary to swim, and there are few normal clubs). But you can spend the winter doing yoga, improve your health in Ayurvedic hotels, go to a Shirodhara oil massage, escape to a retreat in one of the monasteries, cut across the island on a bike with a personal guide.
Kitchen
Sri Lankan food is similar to Indian food in some ways, largely due to the influence of Tamil cuisine, but it is much gentler on the mouths of unaccustomed tourists. Plus, the island is already quite accustomed to visitors, so you can find many cuisines of the world, especially those that use the products available on the island in an original way: fish, vegetables and fruits, seafood, rice, flour, spices and chicken. The locals like to fry everything, so it is better to look for a good beef or tuna steak in European restaurants (although it is generally better to eat meat in another country). What to try:
- Curry. This is the name of the second dish with rice and a bunch of different additives in curry sauce (you can ask for it to be not spicy),
- Roti. This is a flatbread made from flour and coconut, there are small, dense ones, more common in the south, and flat ones like lavash in the north. They are used to wrap meat, fish, vegetables, fruits – try different things,
- Kottu. This is when you take salted roti and cut it many times. If you want to try eating shawarma not with your teeth but with a fork, go for it, it’s very filling,
- Samosas and other street pies. Don’t buy them from old men on the street, but from places that pay rent and change the oil in the fryer. Be sure to try the one with egg, but they are all usually quite spicy,
- Desserts Vatalappa and Dodol. If you don’t like strange things, try Dodol – it’s just palm syrup and rice flour, and Vatalappa also has an egg.
Coffee should be drunk only in Europeanized places, tea can be drunk everywhere, drink strong with milk in the morning and green with pieces of fruit in the evening. Make the most of the heat: it is better to eat simple dishes of fish and seafood with salads, you can safely eat soups, fruit salads and juices.
Souvenirs
They usually bring fresh fruit, and at the markets they help you choose the ones that you can bring with you in your luggage. Spices like turmeric and cinnamon are a very popular souvenir. Coconut oil costs pennies here, and everyone brings it for various needs and as a gift. Ayurveda is well developed in the country, and you can take herbal remedies for everything: you will definitely win with Samahan (a powder-tea for colds), Triphala (for metabolism and weight loss), pain-relieving oils, citronella oil for mosquitoes, and Ayurvedic cosmetics from scrubs to oils for quick sleep.
Among the things they bring are ritual masks, souvenirs made from paper made from elephant poop, ethnic clothing, products made from coconut and stones, and jewelry.
Transport
Public transport in Sri Lanka consists of trains, buses and tuk-tuks, taxis are in fourth place, sea transport is more for fishing and group whale watching with a low probability of meeting. Taxis and tuk-tuks can be called even with Uber, but it is more reliable to do it by hand, and for transfer orders, contacts are passed from hand to hand in local Russian-language chats. The bus network is well developed, they are cheap, they go fast, but if you are going to go down from the mountains to the south, drink Dramamine. Trains are much more comfortable in this sense, but they go from Colombo to the center and to the south and do not connect.
If you want to rent something, you need to understand the following: traffic is left-hand, chaotic, with the rule “whoever is bigger is right.” A bus can start driving on the wrong side of the road towards your bike, and a jeep will overtake it, so you will have to maneuver constantly. On highways, this happens at the maximum permitted speed of 100 km / h, but few people achieve it, in cities, success is to move at 50 km / h. To rent any transport, you need a local license, which is issued on the basis of yours in the Colombo offices, but many drive with their international ones, paying small fines when meeting with the police.
Safety
On the road: you have to be very careful when crossing a roadway or a controlled intersection; there is not much of a culture of stopping and letting a pedestrian cross in the country.
The locals are quite peaceful, although with the increase in the flow of tourists, cases of theft have become more frequent, but usually in large hotels and it is not entirely clear by whom, since cleaners usually value their jobs.
In general, moving around the island as a single girl late at night is not a problem.
Medicine
Travel insurance generally covers all the problems that may happen to a visitor, but in an Asian style. It is better to go healthy and take care of yourself, because there may not be a specific doctor in the city.
Ayurveda is another matter. By going to a special treatment center, you can improve your health in different directions with the help of one or another program.
Traditions
Sri Lankans are smiling and friendly, and if you greet them with a smile (ayubowan) and thank them at the end of the conversation (estuti), they are always happy to help. Bargaining is possible, but do not necessarily ask your compatriots for standard prices and simply do not change the market, generously throwing money around.
Everyone dresses modestly and decently, it is highly inadvisable to walk beyond the beach in a bathing suit, toplessness and nudism are prohibited. To go to the temple, you definitely need to dress long, take off your shoes where everyone else does, and just watch how people behave – repeat after the locals. Always face the Buddha, but you can turn your feet towards him, unlike in Thai temples. In Hindu temples, unlike Buddhist ones, you usually do not need to take off your shoes.
Tipping is often included in the bill, but if not, the standard 10% is always appropriate.
Many interesting places can often be reached with the help of a kind guard or monk, thank him at the end of the tour with 100-200 rupees.
Internet
Most hotels promise Wi-Fi, but most often it is mobile Internet via a router, so there is a risk of quickly pumping out the entire limit (or your neighbors can do it). Large and expensive hotels will provide you with normal Internet, some villas even have fiber optics, and for living in guest houses it is better to play it safe by getting a local SIM card.
You can buy a SIM card right at the airport for about $9, there are two main operators: Dialog and Mobitel, coverage in hard-to-reach places is better with Mobitel, and the Internet with Dialog. You can buy more gigs at any grocery store, they sell funny cards with codes for replenishment.
If you want to watch a movie, it’s better to download it with you from home.
Useful facts
- The sockets in Sri Lanka are of the English type, so to charge you will need to either buy an adapter on site or in advance,
- It is better to bring good sunscreens from home, they will be stronger and cheaper,
- You should definitely take feminine hygiene products with you,
- Alcohol and cigarettes are scarce and expensive goods. If you smoke and drink, take them with you, and when you get there, be prepared to look for a drink in a wine shop – special alcohol stores that most often look like tents behind bars, but you have to push through further, they have interior halls,
- The chocolate, coffee and sausages on the island are bad, don’t bet on them,
- Coconut milk is most often sold in concentrated form, please note,
- Many of the usual services are implemented by Russians, so it is useful to enter different chats in Telegram to look for barbers, manicurists, sports massage and nannies there.
To visit Sri Lanka, you need to apply for a paid electronic visa . The cost of the visa is $35. You can also get a visa at the airport upon arrival for $40.
Local laws
Foreigners in Sri Lanka must maintain public order, obey laws, regulations and visa requirements. Otherwise, they may be fined, deported and denied re-entry.
In Sri Lanka, disrespecting statues or images of Buddha is a serious offense. There have been cases of deportation and entry bans for citizens of other countries with Buddha tattoos.
It is forbidden to take photographs of military bases, government buildings, or government vehicles. Nude sunbathing is not permitted. It is forbidden to drink alcohol in public places.
In Sri Lanka you must always have your passport with you.