Sri Lanka 7- Unawatuna and Galle

We spent six nights at a great guest house called Kahuna Club in Unawatuna. It's quiet- and this is the buzziest of any place on the whole West or South coast! Most of the coast is not very beachy and a lot of the shore is not that great for swimming. The beaches that are sandy are often very small. There are hundreds of resort hotels ranging from cheap to ultra luxurious along the coast. It's worth popping in at one of the Geoffry Bawa creations. ( Sri Lanka's most famous architect ) Unawatuna was once rated in the Top Ten Beaches in the World, but some of the sand has been eroded away during monsoon season over the last few years, leaving the beach quite narrow in places. It's still a great place for swimming with beautiful, warm, turquoise ocean and still far better than anything on the Med I've ever seen. Every evening all the bars and restaurants put tables on the sand, a very chilled way to while away the evening .We went diving on two days. We did a day trip to Galle and I would recommend staying a night. The whole Galle Fort area is enclosed in ramparts built by the Portugese and the Dutch, which has prevented urban sprawl from encroaching and also saved the town from the Tsunami in 2004. There are loads of renovated colonial buildings and plenty of hotels, restaurants and shops. The Fort Printers Hotel and the Galle Fort Hotel are wonderful places to stay and eat, but if you want a cheaper guesthouse try the Frangipani. We spent two weeks in Sri Lanka; a good length of time for a first visit. My advice would be not to linger too long in any one spot and don't plan on a whole week at the beach- unless you really need to chill.

Sri Lanka 6 - Tea drinking and Bird watching

One surprise for us was the wonderful birdwatching in Sri lanka, so we decided to extend our car and driver option for a few days to go to the Hill Country and Uda Walawe National Park. Nuwara Eliya is an old colonial town high up in the mountains where the tea grows. The old Brits went to town creating England in the only place in Sri lanka with cold, drizzly weather. There are still some old buildings around and a good golf club. We stayed at the Grosvenor Hotel- nice old place but lousy food and went for drinks at the Grand Hotel. Of course the surrounding tea plantations make for very pleasant scenery and a tea factory visit is basically compulsory. Many tourists stay at the town of Ella; especially good for hikers and climbers; but just like all over Sri Lanka rather dull in the evenings. Despite a few cloud bursts, Uda Walawe did not dissappoint. We saw 45 different species of birds on one game drive and didn't have to work too hard on  identifying them because our guide was excellent. We also saw loads of elephants and water buffalo who lie around in the water all day like hippos. We spotted two jackals as well. In all we saw about 80 different bird species in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka 5 - Polonna Uwe, Sigiriya and the monk with the i-Phone 5

Don't be looking for any nightlife in any of these towns around the cultural triangle - you'll be disappointed. The guest houses are outside town in the suburbs or the jungle with nowhere to go. There are upmarket eco- lodge type places too. You sit on the verandah drinking beer and a few more car loads of tourists turn up for the night. By 7 pm dinner is served and by 9 you are heading for bed. We ate omelettes for breakfast and the staple rice and curry for lunch and dinner every day. Rice is served with 3 or 4 vegetable side dishes and accompanied by a small portion of curried fish, chicken or beef. Veggies vary but some of our favourites include dhal, beans, okra, breadfruit and a sambal of shredded spinach, coconut and lime. Polonna Uwe is the third ancient city of the cultural triangle,with plenty of ruins, temples and history to explore. The next day we climbed Sigiriya Rock, a very sacred site in Sri lanka. It's thousands of steps up to the top, at times by way of rickety metal staircases attached to the side of a cliff, but with great views once you make it up to the top. More than 1000 years ago the monks managed to build temples and dwellings up on top. A group of visiting monks in saffron robes took photos of each other at the top using their i-phone 5s!

Sri Lanka 4 - Hot-Footing it around Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura is an ancient sacred city in northern Sri Lanka, founded a few hundred years BC, with most of the current stupas and ruins dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries. It is surrounded by three man-made lakes called Tanks that are 2000 years old. Ruvanvalisaya is a fully restored Stupa, painted white, 55m high and encircled with a 300m long orange ribbon. Being a Sunday hundreds of worshippers were visiting; chanting, saying prayers and making offerings. My new word for the day was "quincunx" - a formation of stupas like the five dots on a dice. The tallest stupa is Jetawana, 120 m high and made of 90 million bricks. That's the largest brick-only structure in the world! Abhayagiri is under restoration and we watched guys clambering all over rickety scaffolding. The whole site is extensive, with so many ruins, many of which are overgrown by jungle. Because it's a holy site you cannot wear shoes and as the day wore on the sand and paving got hotter and hotter, until we were literally hot footing it around Anduradhapura.