Sri Lanka is so peaceful and relaxing. We spent our week up in Polonnaruwa (4+ hour drive from Colombo). The country is lush and green. The people are relaxed, open, friendly and quick to smile. It is like laying in a grassy area with the sun caressing you, a line of fresh sheets flapping nearby and you can smell the clean crisp scent. One morning I thought there was a thunderstorm but it was only monkeys on the roof of the hotel. We stayed in Polonnaruwa, along the lake. Almost every day we could see elephants come out of the jungle and down to the lake.
Polonnaruwa is both the name of the city there and the name of the ancient ruins. The ruins were the main factor in choosing this area. We were able to ride into town and to the old city by bike. It's a pretty incredible place, the best part (for me) of the ruins was to see the giant Buddha statues. We had a very kind and informative guide. It rained A LOT, we sat out for a long bit of it, then just rode back to the hotel in the rain anyway. It was warm enough air temperature and warm rain- not like Oregon!
A day trip took us to the Sigiriya rock fortress. Wicki, our Polonnaruwa guide, hooked us up with a friend of his, Shunil, to drive us for the day. Shunil was a long-time guide and former history teacher and was FULL of fascinating information. Pretty much the whole day, we felt like we hit the jackpot. Not only did our visit to Sigiriya pass our expectations but we also saw Asian elephants, birds, more monkeys and peacocks (native to Sri Lanka).
The food situation in Sri Lanka is fantastic. Personally, I ate the local rice and curry for pretty much every meal. Though, for breakfast, instead of rice, you eat string hoppers. These are little white noodles that are steamed in little individual discs, then served room temperature all stacked up, you peel off what you want. When I say curry, do not think of the Indian yellow curry flavor/mix or the Thai green or red curry dishes. Think of being served a variety (4 to 6) little dishes ranging from the green leaves from the outside of the banana flower (not the leaves of the plant), eggplant, okra, bitter melon, fresh tomato and onion, sambar (fresh grated coconut, salt, onion, lime, salt, pepper and 3 types of chilies) and papadams. You can have just vegetable, or fish, or meat but it's not typical to have meat and fish together. We hired Shunil to drive us back to Colombo when we left and he guided us to a local restaurant and ordered a selection of things for us to try. Sri Lankans eat these things with their hands and he gave us a lesson on that as well. They do not drink while eating, you may drink tea in the morning and around 3 pm they have tea, unless it's cold then you might drink coffee.
The hotel staff where we stayed was really attentive, as well. Seems there aren't too many Americans coming to Sri Lanka. Most people in the area where we were didn't know "America," "The United States (of America)" or "The U.S." In some ways, it's refreshing. It also seemed uncommon for tourists to stay in the area for an extended period of time. The management arranged us an extremely lovely, beautiful four-course meal outside by the pool, and all of the staff wore traditional clothing.They served us these big freshwater prawns, which were amazing, and I don't like shrimp, prawns or lobster!
I would not only go back to Sri Lanka in a heartbeat, but also recommend it to anyone. They do seem to have some strict rules, though. For example, the penalty for possession of illegal drugs is death.
