The lagoon looks serene. The evening light gives the gentle waves caressing the shore an amber hue. Egrets stand still in the tall grass and pipits and larks take off and land incessantly. A lonely Brahminy Kite circles lazily overhead and lapwings break the intense silence with their high pitched ‘did he do its.’ Two…
The Kotte Marsh at the edge of Diyawanna River, just outside Colombo, is firmly etched in my memory. My grandfather’s old house was up the hill, beyond the rice fields. As a child, the Marsh was my favourite playground. I walked, fished, hunted and watched birds there. Today it is unrecognisable. The river now is…
Yesterday I went to high tea at Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. Some say this venerable Sri Lankan hotel, opened in 1864, is the oldest this side of the Suez, standing as it does at the edge of the Galle Face Green, overlooking the Indian Ocean. The Verandah was already filling up, mostly with Sri…
Few travellers linger in the southern Sri Lankan coastal town of Matara, one hundred miles from Colombo. Those who find the time to do so will be surprised to find many beautiful relics of another age. In the time of Sri Lankan kings, Matara was a centre for trading in elephants and spices. Portuguese invaders…
The crescent shaped beach at Mirissa with fine, golden sand is just off the main road from Galle to Matara in the deep south of Sri Lanka. I first visited it in 2012 and spent a day there again this February. The sea is as appealing as ever and there is a handful of cheap…
Adams Bridge or Rama‘s Bridge is a series of small islands, sand banks and corals, 18 miles long, connecting the southern tip of India at Danushkodi to Talaimannar in north-western Sri Lanka. Based on satellite studies, some believe that it is the bridge that Hanuman built for Rama to cross to Sri Lanka with his…
Gothami – a little Buddhist temple in a quiet corner of Colombo, came in to existence in 1900. It would have remained a simple place of worship if not for the fact that George Keyt, a talented Sri Lankan Cubist was commissioned to paint the inner walls of the temple’s little image house in 1941.…
Rumassala Hill near the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle is well known for exotic plant life and the Japanese Peace Pagoda. It also has a splendid, isolated beach the locals call the Jungle Beach. A foot path from the Peace Pagoda takes you down through dense vegetation to the small, sheltered sandy beach facing…
Kala Pola, a street art market, is held on Green Path in Colombo every Sunday. The street is packed with stalls selling works of unknown or little known Sri Lankan artists. Some are remarkably good. Paintings cost between Rs.4000 and Rs.30,000. There is a little stall at the Kala Pola where two women make Kavum…
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