Sri Lanka is slated to become THE big destination of 2019. It is not difficult to imagine why. Throngs of tourists flock to see her pristine beaches, tea plantations, diverse wildlife and awe-inspiring ruins. Without a doubt, the little island packs a big punch and can hold its own as a tourism heavy-weight contender. However, up until the past decade Sri Lanka was hardly on the tourist map. Decades of civil war had torn large parts of the country up and the Tamil Tigers were frequently on the prowl. The 2004 tsunami devastated the coastal infrastructure and caused as many as 30,000 deaths.
I first visited Sri Lanka in 2012 and thought I had found paradise. She had everything that I was looking for in destination. Plenty of attractions to see, activities to do and beaches to lounge around on. As one of the few people I know who had been there, I smugly bragged about how “Sri Lanka has the best of India without having the worst of India.” Due to limited time, I hired a driver who whisked me from place to place where I was often the only tourist. I climbed the steep steps of Adam’s Peak; I walked the cobbled streets of Galle; I marveled at Sigiriya. I left with a promise to myself that I would get back to this lovely island someday.
Flash forward to 2019. A good friend was heading to Sri Lanka with her boyfriend. Since Colombo is just a hop, skip and a jump from Delhi, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. See a wonderful friend and scratch Sri Lanka back off of my must re-visit bucket list. Only this time, everything felt different. Gone were the smiling faces and the laid-back attitudes. Instead, they were replaced by the relentless shouts of tuk tuk drivers and the constant stress of continuously being cheated and tricked.
I landed in Colombo airport as excited as a kid on Christmas Day (or Diwali). I was thrilled to be back and looked forward to spending a week exploring as much as possible. Unfortunately, instead I experienced something that can only be compared to the disappointment of seeing a childhood crush again. Sri Lanka had “grown-up” and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
Day 1: The Elephant Orphanage
Although my friend and I had read that there has been some scrutiny over the real value of the elephant orphanage, we decided to take a trip to visit some of my favorite animals. The bus ride there from Negombo was a hot, sweaty, stomach-churning affair as we discovered that Sri Lankan buses can move at such a slow speed that walking seems like a better option. After two and half incredibly long hours, we finally arrived at our stop. SCAM ALERT – My friend noticed that everyone else who got on the bus paid a significantly lower amount for their tickets than we did. It turned out that the ticket charged us the full fare of the entire bus route rather than the distance that we were going. Always ask for a print out of your bus ticket to make sure that you are being charged the correct amount.
A short tuk tuk ride later, we were at the elephant orphanage. Although I had been there in 2012, as soon as we arrived, something seemed different. It was much more heavily commercialized than I remember and the ticket price was a steep $15. I decided to sit it out while my friend and her boyfriend coughed up the money and went to go see the elephants having their daily bath. About 10 minutes later, they returned to our meeting point and sadly explained how the workers were beating the elephants and how the elephants were obviously scared of their handlers. So much for conservation value.
Day 2 & 3: A Trip to Galle
SCAM ALERT – The next day, I was checking out of my hotel and hurriedly trying to pay my bill. Although Booking.com listed the hotel prices in USD, the hotel wanted to collect it in Sri Lankan rupees. No big deal…..until I discovered that they were using a bogus exchange rate that was actually made the total cost per night 5% higher than it should have been. I pointed this out and was told that they used that particular exchange rate since it was the sell-rate. They were literally trying to charge me extra to give them their own currency. We agreed to an exchange rate that was slightly closer to the actual exchange rate but still not ideal.
Through my friends’ hotel, we hired a car that drove us the 3 hours down to Galle. Galle is a gorgeous little colonial town. The tourist center is confined within the imposing walls of the old Dutch fort and cafes and restaurants overflow onto the cobblestone streets. The fort area feels like a walk into a different era (and a different continent). It is a wonderful place to stroll around for a few hours if you need a bit of a break from the beach scene.
Overlooking Marissa 
The tea plantations of Ella 
The colonial buildings of Colombo
Day 4 & 5: A Mini-Vacation in Mirissa, Sri Lanka’s backpacker beach.
Mirissa is a gorgeous little beach town on Sri Lanka’s south coast. A wide-stretch of sand with crystal clear waters is a safe haven from the constant touts and tourist scams. By night, the beach turns into a heaving party scene with beach bars and dance clubs. Being way too old to party with 20 year olds, I decided to pass on the party scene and instead was forced to listen to it all from my beachfront hotel room. It was a small price to pay to be able to spend time soaking up the rays and throwing back some cheap beers.
Day 6, 7 & 8: A Not so Hella Trip to Ella & Sri Lanka’s tea region.
After our traumatizing bus ride, I was very nervous about making my way to Ella, one of Sri Lanka’s tourist towns in the hills. As I hugged my friends goodbye in Mirissa and planned my strategy for heading north, I found myself longing to just stay with them on the coast. However, my sense of adventure called and off I went. A 4-hour bus ride brought me to the rinky-dink city of Wellawaya, where I needed to change buses to reach Ella. SCAM ALERT – As I got off the bus, a man asked me where I was going. I said Ella and he told me I had just missed the bus and the next one wouldn’t be for another hour. Anxious to finally get the trip over with, I hurriedly began looking at Uber and Pick Me (the Sri Lankan Uber) to try and see how much it would cost to get to Ella by taxi. Men surrounded me as I was sitting at the bus station offering outrageous prices to go the short one-hour drive. Only after I had refused many, many times did they finally point out where the bus to Ella was. It was getting ready to leave and I asked the men why they had lied to me and they honestly responded that they were just trying to get me to take a tuk tuk instead. Bastards…….
I finally arrived to Ella and checked in to my hostel. Ella is a cute little town that basically consists of one road full of hostels, restaurants and bars, a train station and a few nice walks you can do. The hike up to Little Adam’s Peak is a must-do and offers an amazing viewpoint over the surrounding hills and tea plantations. The just as popular walk to Nine Arches Bridge leads you through some beautiful forests before finally reaching some the iconic rail bridge. Both walks took me approximately 3 hours altogether but can easily be stretched into a full-day affair.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much time to explore as I needed to grab the famous Ella – Kandy train to my next destination, Nuwara Eliya. Nuwara Eliya is a laid-back little town that evokes a by-gone era of colonialism. Huge Victorian hotels provide visitors with the opportunity to catch a blast from the past and it is easy to imagine how this little town would have looked when it was a hub of British-ness. Green hills surround the town and parks surround all sides. This being Sri Lanka, the parks all come with an admission fee but if you want to get more value for money, you can easily visit one of the nearby tea plantations and have a cuppa while you are at it. There is also a lovely little waterfall depressingly called “Lovers Leap”. You can imagine what is said to have happened in this spot.
I spent a lovely few days relaxing in my charming little guest houses, wandering through the quiet streets and pretending I was a guest at the big fancy hotels. After recharging my batteries a bit, it was time to head to my final stop – Colombo.
Day 9 & 10: Colombo
On my first trip to Sri Lanka, I only saved a measly few hours to check out the nation’s capital. This time around, I wanted to give the city a chance to show me what it had to offer. Turns out, it is quite a lot! The area around the fort oozes with colonial charm and grandiose commercial buildings and hotels stand proudly. The area around the Old Dutch Hospital offers lively bars, restaurants and cafes with prices that will make you feel faint. Further north of fort, you can view Colombo’s coastline and get a glimpse at how much money there is in this city. Cinnamon Gardens features mansions and leafy streets where embassies rub shoulders with one another. The central city is walkable and surprisingly enjoyable. The stress of dealing with touts and horny Sri Lankan men melted away as it was replaced with the normal hustle and bustle of any big city.
