Must visit: Sri Lanka

We're in the bleak midwinter (ha ha, see what I did there?) now, and although I love the cold, a little bit of me occasionally misses things like warmth and beaches. I am a tropical girl after all - it's in my blood! My Pinterest board is full of beaches, and warm waters, and corals, living by the beach and sundresses... You get the idea.

In November, Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2013 guide named Sri Lanka as the top destination to visit. Having been to Sri Lanka (or Ceylon, as it was previously known), I completely agree.

Mention Sri Lanka and most people are likely to still conjure images of the LTTE army fighting in the war. Today, though, Sri Lanka is an idyllic haven of white sandy beaches and roaring waves, bliss for whale researchers and surfers.

Although I've travelled around quite a fair bit by now, Sri Lanka remains my absolute favourite holiday of all time. Sri Lanka for me means three things - elephants, the ocean, and tea.

It's a developing country, so for the most part things there are untouched and pristine. Cows cross the road at random places, and Yala National Park is pretty much a safari park with only dirt paths and absolutely no light after dark.





In 2004, Sri Lanka was badly hit by the Aceh tsunami that affected many parts of Asia. Much of Yala National Park was wiped out, being a coastal area near the ocean, although the wildlife that lived there managed to escape the disaster by evacuating early (animal sense anyone?).

The southern coast of Sri Lanka too has been forced to rebuild itself after the devastating losses that it experienced - today if you visit, you can still see straight paths up to higher ground and signboards that say to follow these paths up in case of tsunami.



Even if wildlife isn't necessarily your thing, it's absolutely impossible to say no to Sri Lankan beaches. The Tangalle Bay area has some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen, where waves on the Indian Ocean crash up on a rocky seashore.



Looking at the white and blue of this hotel's white walls and the beautiful clear ocean, it's hard to know if I'm in Sri Lanka or Santorini!

I went at the full moon, so I was also able to catch turtles coming to shore to lay eggs at night. Turtle conservation is a big deal in Sri Lanka - or any sort of animal conservation, really. The Tamil Tigers war, although detrimental for the country as a whole, had the flip side of also keeping other people out - which means that wildlife had the chance to grow and flourish because no one was going there to destroy it.

Today, Sri Lanka is one of the top spots in the world to go whale-spotting, looking for sperm whales and blue whales. The blue whale, the largest cetacean, and indeed animal in the world, gathers in one of the world's largest colonies off the Sri Lankan coast.

Guess there are good and bad sides to everything!





If you're a big tea drinker, then you'll be familiar with the opinion that Ceylon tea is the best in the world. And boy oh boy do the Sri Lankas love their tea, grown in the Nurawa Eliya hills - huge planatations of tea on rolling hills that seem to go on forever!

Nurawa Eliya is an entirely different climate altogether - where lowland Lanka is warm and pleasantly tropical, 16 degrees Celsius would not be unusual for Nurawa Eliya, which sits nearly 2000 metres above sea level.

Sri Lanka is also home to the world's largest gathering of Asian elephants, which happens once a year. This place is filled with elephants - they're all over the place! There are elephant orphanages which are a huge hit. After all, who could possibly say no to this adorable tiny face?



Alright, I kid. Maybe not so tiny. Still though, it's not quite every day that you see elephants casually walking down a street like they're having a nice Sunday afternoon walk, even if they are being controlled by a mahout.

These elephants are on their way to a nice midday water bath.





So there you have it - Ceylon in a nutshell. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world and absolutely gorgeous, and I'm dying to go back at some point in the future.