Kandy is Sri Lanka's second largest city. Set around a beautiful lake, it is famed for The Temple of The Tooth, which claims to hold the buddha's actual tooth and hundreds of buddhists visit it daily. Kandy is the most picturesque city we have visted so far. Set in the hills, it is still moderately cooler than the coast and the hills surroundind the lake offer some incredible scenery. We arrived in Kandy fairly late in the afternoon and struggled to get a room....

It took two local busses to reach Ella from Tangalla. Each blared local sri lankan tunes from the bus radio as it dangerously swerved up the winding roads to reach the village of Ella, situated in the centre of Sri Lanka in the Hill Country. We found a place to stay at a friend of the people we stayed with in Tangalla and managed to get a fairly cheap and nice room as Ella is notoriously expensive. The climate is much cooler in Ella and we immediately appreciate...

Mirissa is a small bay, only 40mins east along the coast from Unawatuna. It is famed for its whale watching trips and chilled out, quiet atmosphere. When we arrived, we struggled to find cheap accommodation and ended up paying more than we wanted to for a fairly decent room in a very ugly hotel. We quickly began to dislike Mirissa - it was over-priced, the Sri Lankan locals were rude, lazy and unwelcoming, and the food was appalling. There was also a rediculousl...

After a 45 minute flight from Trivandrum, India, we arrived in Sri Lanka with a driver waiting to collect us. He drove us in an aircondition minibus for about 3 and a half hours to Mango House - my sister Bex's beautiful Sri Lankan home. It was a real treat to have such a comfortable ride. We commenced our week in Unawatuna with the hope that we would do our PADI course - to enable us to become qualified open water scuba divers! After a day of relaxing and catch...