A lot of very beautiful and memorable places on Sri Lanka. Here and the ancient Buddhist temples, and religious shrines, and the most beautiful waterfalls in the shadow of tropical vegetation. On the island there are several reserves with wild animals and farms for the care of the ocean inhabitants affected by the actions of fishermen. To see all this for one trip is unlikely to succeed. The island is large, the road is narrow and traffic jams are almost constant. So if you plan hikes on the sights of the island, it is worth determining the route plan in advance for themselves and adhere to it. Otherwise, on arrival on the island, the eyes are simply scattering from the variety of tourist booklets, who are called to see everything and immediately.
I will share my list of attractions that I am up to a trip. He turned out quite extensive and, unfortunately, we did not have time to explore and half. And all due to the fact that the rest was misunderstood. In order to inspect everything to the maximum you do not need to stop in the same hotel. You just need to travel from one attraction to the other and look for the night along the way. And we, naive, believed that we could see everything, stopping at the very tip of the island - in the village of Unawatuna. Did not come out. It was very long to get from there.
Maybe those who will go to an independent travel around the country will use my list.
one. Climbing at the peak of Adam. This is one of the most famous sights of the island. Locals and tourists from all over the world come here to climb the mountain on the countless number of degrees and see the mountains from the top, as the sun rises over the ocean. More on top of the mountain there is a temple where the shrine of Buddhists is. According to the legend, Adam stepped on this mountain, descending from the sky to Earth, and left his mark on top. Thousands of pilgrims come here to look at the imprint. In order to get on the mountain to the dawn it is best to schedule a tour for two days. At first, to take one of the hotels at the foot of the Mountain, and the next morning to start climbing. It's better to have warm things and cap. You need to start the lift at 5 am, and at that time in the mountains are very raw and cold. A very strong wind blows on the top of the mountain. This is a difficult pedestrian tour, but from the top view in many respects exceeds the work spent.
2. Sigihiya "This is a huge cliff in the middle of a rainforest, at the top of which the ancient Indian Palace was located. Before this day, the palace itself was not preserved, but you can see the renovated steps leading to the top of the rock. And also the throne of the king, which ruled out of the palace on the top of the rock, and a variety of terraces, preserved to the present day. This excursion is not so complicated, since it is necessary to go up in steps only to the height of the rock - 180 meters. You can get here at any time. But closer to the dinner around the cliff accumulates a lot of tourists, which all once crave to climb along steps. Created a crush. Even around a lot of thieves-monkeys, so hard keep bags, cameras and decorations.
3. Nuwar Elia - This is the alpine resort of the island. Finding here, as if you find yourself in another country. Here is another climate, another color of vegetation. Around such crystal clear air that rice fields and tea plantations seem unreal. Such emerald green color can only be found on Nuwar Elia. By the resort you can travel on the car and order a tour on a special train. His route runs through all the valleys, the gorge and plantation of the area. To comfortably be here you will also need a warm jacket. In the afternoon, the temperature is not higher than 18 degrees, and at night can sometimes go up to 10 degrees.
four. Yalla National Park. An exciting safari in the wild savannah to everyone who comes here is provided. On the island several parks with untouched wildlife. We were able to go only to the Yalla Park. This is a very exciting place. There is an opportunity to see wild elephants, boars, buffaloes and even bears in nature. There are a lot of pheasans, partridges in the park, Tukanov. There are here and deer. The most valuable instance of the park is Jaguar, but it is rarely shown to tourists and see its great luck. No special equipment for visiting the park do not need. The excursion itself takes place on all-time jeeps, and tourists are not even allowed to get out of the car. Take with you only a camera with a large memory card and drinking water.
5. The following item in my list was rain Singharaja Forest. But we did not really like this excursion. In fact, it is a tropical impassable forest, where several paths for tourists are laid. Of particularly beautiful trees or colors, we have not met here. In guidebooks, the three beautiful waterfalls on the territory of the forest are referred to. Go to them quite far. We were able to reach only before the first and he did not impress us. It may be two others and more beautiful, but to see them in the forest you need to come very early to catch everything and return to darkness. And the evening, as you know, the tropics begins very early and rapidly. The forest of Syukharaja will be interesting to those who are engaged in the study of plants or at least in them a bit disassembled. For the average man here make a special nothing. But this, of course, only my purely personal opinion.
6. Farm turtles. Of the most close to our hotel, the sights were the farm of turtles in Bent. It contains a lot of marine turtles from adult gigantic individuals, to very small, just born bugs. On this excursion there is a wonderful opportunity to consider these marine inhabitants near and even stroke them. Just carefully - they sometimes bite. You can observe the birth of small turtles. If you are lucky and you will arrive just at a time when they hatch out eggs. But even if they don't get out of this event, then on the farm there are always several small turtles, which can be held in your hands. We really liked the excursion to the farm. And if you are on the island with children, then I think you can walk here at least every day. Moreover, the ticket costs only 3 dollars.
7. Excursion on the Bent's River. Here, tourists are offered a boat trip along a wide river, where you can see Varanov and Serpent. Visit the island where they grow cinnamon. Call to the island monastery. There are Buddhist monks who are visible to tourists and show them their life. At the very end, the boat approaches the mini farm, where contains small crocodiles. They can be held here in their hands, stroke and even feed. The excursion is quite worth it, but only if there are no young children among you. Sailing on a small boat among the thickets of mangrove trees with crocodiles can be unsafe.
This is not a complete list of all the attractions of Sri Lanka and not even half. I just chose the most, in my opinion, interesting. At some we did not have time to get, somewhere we did not like it frankly. Well, somewhere to visit it is just great. Most importantly, put the route in advance and know what you want to see.