Beautiful Sri Lanka

Here are some of the highlights of my first visit to Sri Lanka:

Elephants. More elephants. Elephants everywhere.

Sri Lanka is one of few places in Asia where you can see elephants in the wild, and boy, did Kaudalla National Park deliver. Similar to Addo National Park in South Africa, this is just home to so many elephants.

Sri Lanka is actually a fantastic destination for wildlife — while I didn’t make it there, several of my friends visited Yala National Park in the southeast and saw leopards as well!

Sigiriya is the most-visited attraction in the country — a giant rock in the middle of hill country. It’s home to a World Heritage-listed ancient city, and yes, you can climb to the top! The views up there are sensational.

You know I love my World Heritage Sites — and Sri Lanka’s were really, really good. Usually you get an underwhelming one or two in each country (more like “That’s it?”), but that didn’t happen in Sri Lanka. These sites were some of the best that I’ve seen, anywhere. I visited five of the eight, including the ancient complex of Polonnaruwa.

Beaches? Yeah, they were amazing. This one was near Hikkaduwa.

The waves on most of the beaches I visited were pretty intense. If you like swimming in big waves, it can be a lot of fun. Until you get into a fight with the sea and the sea wins and you lose both your bathing suit top and bottoms and your male friends have no idea what to do as you shriek, “HELP ME! DON’T LOOK! HELP ME! BUT DON’T LOOK!”

Kandy was a place I wish I had more time to explore. I loved the architecture, the hills, and the frenetic energy of the city.

Galle was my favorite place in the country. It’s a fascinating small city with really interesting architecture and a 16th-century Galle Fort. This part of Sri Lanka was hit badly by the 2004 tsunami, but the fort protected much of the city.

Galle was also my 101st UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I couldn’t imagine a better place to celebrate that achievement!

Even Colombo was a lot of fun! Colombo doesn’t get a lot of love, even from seasoned travelers, and plenty of people will tell you to skip it. Well, I had a lot of fun there, especially hanging out on the Galle Face Green along the water, eating delicious street food, taking in the views, and dancing to the occasional musician.

I loved this country so much. And even with three weeks, I know that I barely scraped the surface. There might be more Sri Lanka in my future, and I look forward to delving deeper into this magnificent country.