MORE TO SEE

Ancient wonders

There’s no shortage of ancient ruins in Sri Lanka, but the most astounding is Sigiriya. Legend purports King Kashyapa built this sky-high safehouse on top of a 370-metre-high rock after murdering his father. Halfway up, the hall of frescoes features portraits of busty, flower-bearing maidens, while the mirror wall, so-called because of its highly polished sheen, has graffiti, some of which dates back to the 6th century AD. A pair of enormous stone paws, all that’s left of a lion statue, mark the path to the summit level, offering excavated sites and stupendous views of the gardens below.

Tea plantations

Sri Lanka is the second-biggest exporter of tea in the world, and a drive through the tea plantations near Nuwara Eliya will have you eyeing your cuppa with a new regard. The winding narrow roads climb ever higher until you are surrounded by a sea of green leaves dotted with the scarved heads of the mostly female tea pickers. It’s an old school operation, with the pickers hauling sacks of leaves to be weighed on spring-loaded scales at the side of the road. Some tea factories (Mackwoods Labookellie, Blue Field Tea Factory) offer tours of their facilities showing the different stages of the fermentation process. Many have outlets and cafes that sell their wares.

Wildlife

Many nature parks offer safari tours promising glimpses of leopards, sloth bears and peacocks, but your most reliable means of ensuring an encounter with one of Sri Lanka’s most majestic animals, the elephant, is a trip to a refuge like the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage near Kandy. Despite the name, its 84 elephants are not typically babies, however. They’re mostly rescues from the wild, but some have been born there. Established by the government in 1975, some of the practices, such as the pay-to-pet, add a carnivalesque quality. Your best bet is to arrive for one of the twice-daily elephant processions through a city street to the nearby Maha Oya river for bath time at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.