The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

Description

Discover Sri Lanka with the most incisive and entertaining guidebook on the market. Whether you plan to explore the ancient ruins of Sigiriya, wander amid Ella's verdant tea plantations or explore the cave temples of Dambulla, The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka will show you the ideal places to sleep, eat, drink, shop and visit along the way.
- Independent, trusted reviews - written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and insight, to help you get the most out of your visit, with options to suit every budget.
- Full-colour chapter maps throughout - to find your way amid Colombo's bustling bazaars or the museums and temples in Kandy without needing to get online.
- Stunning images - a rich collection of inspiring colour photography.
Things not to miss - Rough Guides' rundown of the best sights and experiences in Sri Lanka.
- Itineraries - carefully planned routes to help you organize your trip.
- Detailed coverage - this travel guide has in-depth practical advice for every step of the way.
Areas covered include: Colombo, Kandy, Ella, Galle, Sigiriya, Mirissa, Arugam Bay, Kataragama, Weligama, Horton Plains, Jaffna, Dambulla. Attractions include: Adam's Peak, Temple of the Tooth, Yala National Park, World's End, Anuradhapura, The Pettah.
- Basics - essential pre-departure practical information including getting there, local transport, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, outdoor activities, national parks, culture, shopping, travelling with children and more.
- Background information - a Contexts chapter devoted to history, Sri Lankan Buddhism, Buddhist art and architecture, wildlife, tea and books, as well as a helpful language section and glossary.
About Rough Guides : Escape the everyday with Rough Guides. We are a leading travel publisher known for our "tell it like it is" attitude, up-to-date content and great writing. Since 1982, we've published books covering more than 120 destinations around the globe, with an ever-growing series of ebooks, a range of beautiful, inspirational reference titles, and an award-winning website. We pride ourselves on our accurate, honest and informed travel guides.

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789195170
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 34 Mo

Extrait

Tuul & Bruno Morandi/SIME/4Corners Images
WELIGAMA BEACH
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO
Where to go
When to go
Author picks
Things not to miss
Itineraries
BASICS
Getting there
Visas and entry requirements
Getting around
Accommodation
Eating and drinking
Health
The media
Festivals and public holidays
Sport and outdoor activities
National parks, reserves and eco-tourism
Cultural values and etiquette
Shopping
Travelling with children
Costs
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 Colombo and the west coast
2 The south
3 Kandy and the hill country
4 The Cultural Triangle
5 The east
6 Jaffna and the north
CONTEXTS
History
Sri Lankan Buddhism
Sri Lankan Buddhist art and architecture
Sri Lankan wildlife
Ceylon tea
Books
Language
SMALL PRINT
Michele Falzone/AWL Images
Introduction to
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has seduced travellers for centuries. Marco Polo called it the finest island of its size in the world, while successive waves of Indian, Arab and European traders and adventurers flocked to its palm-fringed shores, attracted by reports of rare spices, precious stones and magnificent elephants. Poised just above the Equator amid the balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, the island has inspired a sense of romance even in those who have never visited the place. Fancifully minded geographers, poring over maps of the island, likened its outline to a teardrop falling from the tip of India or to the shape of a pearl (the more practical Dutch compared it to a leg of ham), while even the name given to the island by early Arab traders, Serendib, gave rise to the English word “serendipity” – an unexpected discovery leading to a happy end.
Marco Polo’s bold claim still holds true. Sri Lanka packs an extraordinary variety of attractions into its modest physical dimensions. Idyllic beaches fringe the coast, while the interior boasts a compelling variety of landscapes ranging from wildlife-rich lowland jungles , home to extensive populations of elephants, leopards and rare endemic bird species, to the misty heights of the hill country , swathed in immaculately manicured tea plantations. There are plenty of man-made attractions too. Sri Lanka boasts more than two thousand years of recorded history, and the remarkable achievements of the early Sinhalese civilization can still be seen in the sequence of ruined cities and great religious monuments that litter the northern plains.
The glories of this early Buddhist civilization continue to provide a symbol of national pride, while Sri Lanka’s historic role as the world’s oldest stronghold of Theravada Buddhism lends it a unique cultural identity which permeates life at every level. There’s more to Sri Lanka than just Buddhists, however. The island’s geographical position at one of the most important staging posts of Indian Ocean trade laid it open to a uniquely wide range of influences, as generations of Arab, Malay, Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers subtly transformed its culture, architecture and cuisine, while the long-established Tamil population in the north have established a vibrant Hindu culture that owes more to India than to the Sinhalese south.

It was, for a while, this very diversity that threatened to tear the country apart. For almost three decades Sri Lanka was the site of one of Asia’s most pernicious civil wars , as the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE, or Tamil Tigers, battled it out in the island’s north and east, until the final victory of government forces in 2009. The decade of postwar peace since then hasn’t always been easy, but the island is now looking once again to the future with a fresh sense of optimism and energy.
Where to go
All visits to Sri Lanka currently begin at the international airport just outside Colombo , the island’s capital and far and away its largest city – a sprawling metropolis whose contrasting districts offer an absorbing introduction to Sri Lanka’s myriad cultures and multilayered history. Many visitors head straight for one of the west coast ’s beaches, whose innumerable resort hotels still power the country’s tourist industry. Destinations include the package-holiday resorts of Negombo and Beruwala , the more stylish Bentota , and the old hippy hangout of Hikkaduwa . More unspoilt countryside can be found north of Colombo at the Kalpitiya peninsula and in the vast Wilpattu National Park nearby, home to leopards, elephants and sloth bears.
Beyond Hikkaduwa, the south coast is significantly less developed. Gateway to the region is the marvellous old Dutch city of Galle , Sri Lanka’s finest colonial town, beyond which lies a string of fine beaches including the ever-expanding villages of Unawatuna and Mirissa along with quieter stretches of coast at Weligama and Tangalla , as well as the lively provincial capital of Matara , boasting further Dutch remains. East of here, Tissamaharama serves as a convenient base for the outstanding Yala and Bundala national parks, and for the fascinating temple town of Kataragama .

Fact file
• Lying a few degrees north of the Equator, Sri Lanka is slightly smaller than Ireland and a little larger than the US state of West Virginia .
• Sri Lanka achieved independence from Britain in 1948, and did away with its colonial name, Ceylon, in 1972. The country has had a functioning democracy since independence, and in 1960 elected the world’s first female prime minister.
• Sri Lanka’s population of 22.5 million is a mosaic of different ethnic and religious groups, the two largest being the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese (75 percent), and the predominantly Hindu Tamils (15 percent); there are also considerable numbers of Christians and Muslims. Sinhala, Tamil and English are all officially recognized languages .
• Sri Lankans enjoy a healthy life expectancy of 77 years and a literacy rate of almost 93 percent, but also have one of the world’s highest suicide rates.
• Cricket is a countrywide obsession, although the official national sport is actually volleyball .
• The country’s main export is clothing, followed by tea; coconuts, cinnamon and precious gems are also important. Revenues from tourism are vital to the national economy, while remittances from the hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans working overseas (mainly in the Gulf) are also significant.

Alamy
ASIAN ELEPHANT, MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK

Sri Lankan Buddhism
Buddhism runs deep in Sri Lanka. The island was one of the first places to convert to the religion, in 247 BC, and has remained unswervingly faithful in the two thousand years since. As such, Sri Lanka is often claimed to be the world’s oldest Buddhist country, and Buddhism continues to permeate the practical life and spiritual beliefs of the majority of the island’s Sinhalese population. Buddhist temples can be found everywhere, often decorated with superb shrines, statues and murals, while the sight of Sri Lanka’s orange-robed monks is one of the island’s enduring visual images. Buddhist places of pilgrimage – the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy, the revered “footprint” of the Buddha at Adam’s Peak, and the Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura – also play a vital role in sustaining the faith, while the national calendar is punctuated with religious holidays and festivals ranging from the monthly full-moon poya days through to more elaborate annual celebrations, often taking the form of enormous processions (peraheras), during which locals parade through the streets, often accompanied by elaborately costumed elephants. For more on Buddhism , turn to our Contexts chapter .
Inland from Colombo rise the verdant highlands of the hill country , enveloped in the tea plantations (first introduced by the British) which still play a vital role in the island’s economy. The symbolic heart of the region is Kandy , Sri Lanka’s second city and the cultural capital of the Sinhalese, its colourful traditions embodied by the famous Temple of the Tooth and the magnificent Esala Perahera, Sri Lanka’s most colourful festival. South of here, close to the highest point of the island, lies the old British town of Nuwara Eliya , centre of the country’s tea industry and a convenient base for visits to the spectacular Horton Plains National Park. A string of towns and villages – including Ella and Haputale – along the southern edge of the hill country offer an appealing mixture of magnificent views, wonderful walks and olde-worlde British colonial charm. Close to the hill country’s southwestern edge, the soaring summit of Adam’s Peak is another of the island’s major pilgrimage sites, while the gem-mining centre of Ratnapura to the south serves as a starting point for visits to the elephant-rich Uda Walawe National Park and the rare tropical rainforest of Sinharaja .
North of Kandy, the hill country tumbles down into the arid plains of the northern dry zone. This area, known as the Cultural Triangle , was the location of Sri Lanka’s first great civilization, and its extraordinary scatter of ruined palaces, temples and dagobas still gives a compelling sense of this glorious past. Foremost among these are the fascinating ruined cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa , the marvellous cave temples of Dambulla , the hilltop shrines and dagobas of Mihintale and the extraordinary rock citadel of Sigiriya .
The two main gateways to the east are the cities of Tr