I recently spent a very brief amount of time in Sri Lanka, a country I have never visited before, and where I am helping to set up a conference with the Professional Travel Bloggers Association.
In between zipping from location to location, peering at hotel rooms, inspecting conference venues and bravely trying at least nineteen varieties of curry, I managed to get a few photos.
Suffice to say, I didn’t have quite enough time to get a tremendous handle on the country, other than the fact that the people we met all seemed terribly nice, and curry is the meal you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Both of which were big plusses in my book.
Here are some photos to give you an idea of my experience – I can’t wait to head back out here in November and spend a bit more time behind the lens!
An elephant wanders in Minneriya National Park. Sri Lanka is home to thousands of wild elephants, and it was a privilege to spend the day watching these chaps going about their business.
A man paddles Madugna Lake, near the south of the island. A good place for bird spotting too:
Yep, it’s definitely a bird. If I had to guess, some sort of Kingfisher. If you know, do enlighten me in the comments.
Masks form a big part of Sri Lankan culture. These particular examples are various masks representing disease, with the green fellow in the middle being the vomit mask. I’ll let you guess what the others represent!
Buddhism is the primary faith in Sri Lanka, accounting for 70% of the population. So you see a number of monks wandering around.
The coastal city of Galle is home to a magnificent walled fortress town – the largest of it’s kind surviving in Asia. It’s world heritage listed, and spectacular for a wander. Although, as you can see, the weather wasn’t ideal when we dropped in, so I’m looking forward to spending a bit more quality time here with my camera in November!
This is Pramukshi, who was responsible for showing us around Sri Lanka as part of our tour.
And this is a monkey. Because monkeys are always cool.
The lion is the symbol of Sri Lanka. I found this chap hiding in the ruins of Polonnaruwa, formerly capital of the Polonnaruwa kingdom. This is also a world heritage site, and one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the country
Finally, it wasn’t all hard work. Downtime involved stops at locations like this, the Cinnamon Citadel Hotel in Kandy. I have to admit, it was tough to pull ourselves away!
A big thanks to SriLankan Airlines for kindly providing my return tickets to Sri Lanka from Europe, and to Cinnamon Hotels for hosting me during my time in Asia, carting me around the country, and giving me the odd opportunity to point my camera at things. I can’t wait to come back!
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