Best Train Journeys
The very first steam trains were running in Sri Lanka to bring Tea, the greatest commercial export of the colonial Ceylon, to Colombo. Major Thomas Skinner was instrumental in setting trains up and he describes in his book “Fifty years in Ceylon” how he had to convince the British colonial government to spend approximately GBP 800,000/- to set up the network of railway lines, bridges/aqueducts, for Trains, today it stands as one of the most scenic journeys to be done on rail in the world. Board the intercity Train from Colombo to Badulla (10 ho...
Tea Estate Trails
The story of tea in Sri Lanka starts with the Scotish planter James Taylor in 1866 in “Loolecondara” estate in Galaha. The remnants of his cottage and tea bushes are still preserved as a permanent memento to the man credited for introducing tea to Sri Lanka, he died aged 57 and was buried in Kandy cemetery, in the country he came to love as a planter. Today, almost one hundred and fifty years after James Taylor, Sri Lanka’s central hills from Hatton, Dickoya, Bogawanthalawa, to Nuwara Eliya and every small town in higher elevations have their g...
Whale and Dolphin Watching
Mirissa: One of the best places in the world to see one of the only recorded resident blue whale colonies in their natural habitat. Dolphins are regularly spotted on whale watching trips organized from Mirissa and Dondra head on the south coast. The BBC documentary titled “Ocean Giants” featuring the mesmeric world of Whales and Dolphins, and the scientist’s effort to shed light on their habits and why they grow so large were filmed around Sri Lanka and according to them 30 Blue Whales were sighted in a single day! There is a 95% chance of spot...
Under water Exploration
Sri Lanka being an island nation, and the fact that it lies in a central location as far as the ancient trade routes were concerned, is littered so to speak of wrecks from many different era’s. The tireless wonderers of lands of the ancient, Ibn Battuta and Fa-Hsien have recorded their arrivals to the island via ship. The oldest of such known wreck is from “Godawaya” (close to current sea port Hambantota), a wooden ship dated to be over 2,000 years old by way of potsherds and intact pots found on site, an important transit trading port in the a...
