Traveller Megan McCormick heads beyond the southern
tip of India, to two of the most beautiful tropical
locations on earth: Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands.
 Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka,
has been an important trading port and commercial centre
since the 1870s. It here that Megan begins her trip,
travelling around town on a bajajs and sampling some
exotic foods.
From Colombo Megan sets our along the coast for Matara.
On the way she sees toddy-tappers at work high in the
coconut trees and stops off at Weligama, where the local
industry is a peculiar type of fishing: stilt fishing.
Megan wades out to the stilts embedded into the seabed
and tries her hand with little success. Next day she
reaches Matara and just outside the town is the temple
of Wewurukannala, site of Sri Lanka's
largest statue of Buddha.
In Buttula Megan stays at a sanctuary
called Yala Tissa. It's situated in the midst of beautiful
countryside where reforestation programmes are in progress.
She then takes a bus to Arugam Bay,
a fantastic place for hardcore surfers but also an area
which has been caught in the crossfire of the civil
war between the government and Tamil rebels. Megan sees
the evidence of political turmoil first hand when she
takes a tour of the bombed cinema.
From Arugam Bay Megan hitches a ride to Ratnapura,
which means 'City of Gems'. This is the town where miners
come to sell their gems to the dealers the most abundant
being pink and  blue sapphires and the occasional ruby.
Megan goes down the nearby mine accompanied by a guide
- it's a terrifying experience but they do find some
topaz to reward their efforts. Megan then hires a car
to drive up into the hills to visit the tea plantations.
Also in hill country is Pinjnewala,
home of the famous elephant orphanage. The parents of
the orphan elephants have been poached for their ivory
and Megan hears some incredible stories about the backgrounds
of the animals that live here.
A few miles up the road is Sigiriya,
the site of an impressive fortress built in the fifth
century by a king called Kadyapa. Kasyapa has seized
the throne by plastering his own father into the wall
alive, and when his brother fled to raise and army against
him he built this impenetrable fortress on top of a
massive rock. Some beautiful frescos depicting Kasyapa's
favourite concubines remain from that time.
Megan then visits Kandy at the time
of Esala Perahera, the country's biggest
festival where hundreds of elephants are dressed up
in honour of Buddha's 'tooth relic' and paraded around
the city for ten nights. Every night more and more dancers
and elephants join the procession and it's a spectacular
sight as the 'Maligawa Tusker', the chief elephant,
carries a replica of the tooth around the city for three
or four hours.
The final leg of Megan's journey takes her to Male,
the capital of the Maldive Islands. She finds a cheap
package which includes accommodation and a safari boat,
an ideal way to see the islands and do some spectacular
diving. There's many different varieties of fish, including
barracuda, fusiliers groupa and trumpet fish, as well
as soft corals and lagodias. Megan ends her extraordinary
journey on Dhangethi, a perfect island
of tropical beauty. |
