Sri Lankan Landscapes

Sri Lanka, the tiny island that is largely overshadowed by it’s bigger and louder sister to the left. While Sri Lanka may not have India’s diversity or global attention, it makes up for it with it’s insanely nice people, beautiful landscapes, and delicious food. Actually, if you’re interested in going to India for your first time, and only have a couple weeks, I would HIGHLY recommend you skip it, and head on over to Sri Lanka. And that’s coming from someone who really loves India. Sri Lanka is simply an easier, cleaner, smaller country with an equally interesting history and culture. It’s been involved in a civil war in the north for 25+ years but in the last 5 years that has subsided – leaving the country safe and relatively not crowded with tourists. The country is majority Buddhist (which probably explains the overwhelmingly nice people) and we were able to visit many interesting cultural sites, including the Temple of the Tooth, which is one of the most holy temples in Buddhism and is said to hold the tooth of  Buddha. Other major highlights included: climbing a 750 foot rock to see the ruins of an old palace, watching elephants bath themselves, eating traditional food with a family (and having them so horrified with how “little” we ate that they wouldn’t let us pay), spending a 7 hour train ride in standing room only winding through tea country (made enjoyable by all the kind people who offered food, their seats, and their stories), going on multiple hikes in the beautiful mountain town of Ella,  and finally spending 3 days at the beach, spoiling ourselves and unwinding from many months of India stress.

As for the photos, I took relatively few (3 days at the beach and not one photo was taken) and most of them were on my phone, which is sadly now long lost. Normally, I am completely drawn to people when taking photos. But when looking through my photos, I had barely any. Not sure why this is, probably mostly because I couldn’t look away from the scenery. Anyways, enjoy the the few shots I did get!