Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. We hired a driver for the week who drove us around to several cities so we saw the mountains and the beaches. It's crazy how little we see other tourists, even in the 'touristy' areas. If you've ever thought about going, now's the time before it blows up with tourism and becomes another Thailand. After the tsunami hit in 2004, there's been a sharp decrease in tourism which has kept the country poor. The people are incredibly friendly and are not short of using the Indian head bob. Sri Lanka reminds me a lot like Indian but much less intense. It's like a more relaxed version of India with far less people.
We went to this fire walking 'show'. You know where they walk across hot coals and everything. That wasn't that amazing because you see everyone walking around without shoes on the hot pavement. They also took the fire and held it on their skin. This was mental. They performed all of these 'tricks' after a short ceremony praying to whatever god will help them not burn their skin.
A walk through the tea fields.Sri Lanka is known for it's tea plantations. Very beautiful scenery. We also went to the tea factory to see how the tea is made.
Elephant Sanctuary.
Elephant Sanctuary. We followed these guys to the river where they went for a swim. Very entertaining. Baby elephants are cute.
This is Unawatuna- known as the 'busy, crowded' beach. As you can see, there's hardly anyone here. This is the view from our balcony. Not bad for $22/night. We also stayed on a deserted beach where our bungalows were the only thing for miles. Very remote, very quiet, very relaxing.
traditional Sri lankan dancing.
Like all of southern Asia, monkeys are everywhere!
Whale wataching was the most unexpected event of the trip. We just happened to read something about it in The Book (reference to our lonely planet sri lanka book) and asked our driver who set the thing up for us. You have to take a tiny boat to the middle of the ocean- it takes about 2 hours to get out there. Unbelievable how close we got to them. We even saw the top of a blue whale. These animals move so beautifully in the water and it's hard to believe something so big exists.
This is Unawatuna- known as the 'busy, crowded' beach. As you can see, there's hardly anyone here. This is the view from our balcony. Not bad for $22/night. We also stayed on a deserted beach where our bungalows were the only thing for miles. Very remote, very quiet, very relaxing.
traditional Sri lankan dancing.
Like all of southern Asia, monkeys are everywhere!
Whale wataching was the most unexpected event of the trip. We just happened to read something about it in The Book (reference to our lonely planet sri lanka book) and asked our driver who set the thing up for us. You have to take a tiny boat to the middle of the ocean- it takes about 2 hours to get out there. Unbelievable how close we got to them. We even saw the top of a blue whale. These animals move so beautifully in the water and it's hard to believe something so big exists. 
