Sri Lanka July/August 2019

[Longdistance]

Hey. We are thinking about booking for Sri Lanka.

Any hints and tips?

We would like to help the elephants, go to a temple, and help a school as we’d only normally need 3 bags, but 1 extra bag we can fill with stuff for charities.

How long do you want to go for and what do you want to do?

Temples - well, there are lots of them!
Sigiriya is a must see. You’ve also got the caves in Dambulla nearby. Polonnaruwa has lots of amazing ancient temples - mostly part ruined - and you can hire a bike and cycle between them. In Colombo, there are lots of Hindu and Buddhist temples. There’s also Anaradhapura but we didn’t make it there so can’t comment.

As for helping elephants - be careful. We’d heard not great things about one of the big elephant ‘charities’ that allows tourists to ride them to bring in revenue... that’s not ok. Please don’t support elephant riding. We saw huge herds of elephants doing a safari in Minneriya national park, all wild. Much better.

If you want to help animals look up WECare - they’re a vet charity that run neutering programs and treat / rehome injured stray cats and dogs.

It’s an easy country to travel around - either on public transport or by hiring a driver. Some trains are worth taking for the views. I wouldn’t take too much luggage though, unless you’re hiring a driver for your whole trip.

Thanks for all that advice.

We are having over 2 weeks there.

WRT to the elephants I am wholly against riding them, as I refused this in Thailand, and the same with swimming with dolphins. It doesn’t sit right with me. Will do some digging about the elephants. I worked for a company that helped elephant charities in Africa by supplying blankets for the babies, so wasn’t sure if this was the sort of thing to take. Our baggage allowance is 30kg each, which is far more than we need, hence why I’d like to take useful things over for the charities.

I did see it as an easy place to travel around with great transport links. A train trip with scenic views sounds fab.

We've booked for April (Colombo/Tangalle/Kandy) - if you find any reputable sanctuaries in those areas when you're researching, do let me know! My OH works in animal welfare for a global charity - leaves all holiday planning to me & I have to extensively vet everything in advance. The orphanage in Pinnawala is out (elephant chaining) & the turtle sanctuaries I've found in Tangalle (over crowding of female turtles giving birth) so I've been thinking we'll have to stick to the national parks. So again, if you come across anything that looks genuinely worthwhile, I'd be interested!

We are tempted by Sri Lanka in July but not sure what the weather will be like?

@Mammyofonlyone Could be a bit risky in terms of rain over the summer. Best time to go is when it's cold here