Sri Lanka: The Substitute That Became a Favourite (in Snapshots)

This follows “Born Restless,” the story of my long-held India dream. Sri Lanka began as another possibility and became one of the places I most wanted to return to.

At the time I wrote this, I had visited four times and we were preparing for my fifth trip, Lizz’s second. These snapshots bring together the earlier visits and the plans we were making then.

The first visit mattered especially because it was my first journey outside Europe. I was 22. New surroundings are memorable at any age, but that first step into a much wider travel world stayed with me.

Snapshot 1: Colombo — the first breath of tropical reality

My first memory of Sri Lanka is not a monument or a beach. It’s the air.

The warm, humid air was an immediate change from Europe. Traffic, voices and street activity made Colombo feel busy and unfamiliar. Before I could place every building or understand how the city worked, I knew I was somewhere very different from home.

Small acts of help and conversations made that unfamiliarity easier. I remember the people who were friendly to me, without needing to compare their kindness with some supposedly less genuine kind of welcome.

Snapshot 2: Food that doesn’t need an introduction

Sri Lanka speaks to me through food, as India always has—through spice, comfort, and variety.

• Hoppers with crispy edges and a soft centre, sometimes with an egg.
• Pol sambol—coconut, chilli, lime—simple and addictive.
• String hoppers with curry, perfect for breakfast but honestly good any time.
• Kottu roti at night, chopped fast on a hot plate with that unmistakable clacking sound that becomes part of the street soundtrack.
• Rice and curry, served in several small portions—each different, each telling you: this island has layers.

These are foods I look forward to, rather than evidence that Sri Lanka needs to be compared with India at every meal. Different dishes, cooks and regions give the island more variety than one description of “hotter” or “more coconut” can capture.

Snapshot 3: Bentota and Time by the Sea

Bentota became one of the places I associated with that slower feeling: a broad beach, afternoon light and the steady sound of the waves. Planning very little can be a perfectly respectable beach programme.

Sudden rain was part of those memories too. On one visit, it led to considerably more than a damp walk back to the hotel.

Snapshot 4: Hospitality that turns you from a tourist into a guest

A family offered me shelter near Bentota, then invited me to dinner. Over time I discovered they were considering me as a possible husband for their youngest daughter. The full matchmaking story is here, including the letters, my later visit and the expectations I eventually needed to address.

It was a memorable encounter with one household. It did not explain every Sri Lankan family or marriage custom, but it did teach me that accepting a friendly invitation and understanding what others hope from it are not always the same thing.

Snapshot 5: Kandy — a different rhythm

Kandy always feels like a shift in mood. The green gets deeper—the pace changes. The city carries history more quietly.

Kandy Lake and the Temple of the Tooth gave those visits another focus. UNESCO describes Kandy as the last capital of the Sinhala kings and the site of the Temple of the Tooth Relic, an important place of pilgrimage. Knowing that helps put the visitor’s interest alongside its continuing religious importance.

People are there to worship as well as to visit. The atmosphere asks for attention to the setting, rather than another quick photograph before moving on.

Snapshot 6: Nuwara Eliya — tea, mist, and that feeling of being elsewhere

Tea-covered slopes, cooler air, mist and older buildings are strong parts of my Nuwara Eliya memories. A walk and time for a cup of tea could give a quiet day its own satisfaction.

The next route we were planning included a couple of nights in Kandy and a few more around Nuwara Eliya. Those were the plans at the time, not a live itinerary: familiar places still left us things to look forward to.

Why Sri Lanka keeps calling me back

India remained a separate wish. Sri Lanka no longer needed to be justified as the alternative; it had given me enough reasons of its own.

That was why we were preparing another chapter with Lizz. The earlier stories were already part of our lives, and there was room for new ones.

Happy travels,

Lizz & Andi