Kandy was the old royal capital of Sri Lanka and the grand and palacious buildings offered a glimpse of what the town must once of been like. Situated high up in the hills and surrounded by a large lake the place has it's own unique charm. Think typical bustling Asian town mixed with a high altitude alpine village. We'd come to see the famous 'Buddha's Tooth Relic' at the main temple but came away disappointed. Not only was there no tooth to speak of but also...

As we set off with our new shiny India Visa's in hand we felt ready to attack Sri Lanka properly. With Cam an Alex our new New Zealand chums in tow we travelled back through the middle of the country to Kitulgala. Since we only had two weeks left we'd planned out pretty much every stop, this was incredibly organised for us and would be a real challenge, but it was the only way we were going to be able to see all the things we wanted. The beauty of travelling i...

We left the north coast from Trinconmalee by bus, our first of what was to be many local buses in Sri Lanka (we had heard of rumours of small A/C minibuses, but we never managed find these fabled luxuries!). The journey started well as we got seats and even got to put our backpacks in the trunk of the bus, though the seats were barely wide enough for the skinniest of snake hipped locals. Then the onboard entertainment started, blaring Sinhala pop music at loud,...

Although it was on the other side of the island Nilaveli and Pigeon island was high on our list of places to visit. Numerous people had recommended it for it's laid back atmosphere and excellent diving opportunities. It also meant we got to sample our first Sri Lankan train. An early start of 5am and we were on the train, slightly less rickety than Burma and still super cheap. Sri Lanka may be a small island but it still took us most of the day to get across ...

This had been long awaited, we nearly went to Sri Lanka back in 2006, but ended up buying Rose Cottage instead and travel plans were shelved.Even being on the plane felt like we had entered a new world, with the stunning women cabin crew with their peacock patterned saris, bare midriffs and sparkly eye shadow. The drive from the airport to our homestay was a quick introduction to being on the road Sri Lankan style, witnessing no less than two crash sites, bus ver...