Heading to SL for the cricket?

My wife and I went to Sri Lanka on honeymoon last year and can't recommend it highly enough. As we only had a couple of weeks we opted for hiring a driver and car for much of it, and although it sounds odd considering we were on honeymoon it really wouldn’t have been the same without Asitha Karadawala (safejourneyasitha@yahoo.com) .

I think unless you have plenty of time and endless patience travelling by bus or train in Sri Lanka isn’t ideal, while unless you have nerves of steel I really don’t recommend driving yourself – you’ll be a nervous wreck and miss out on seeing so much. Asitha was a very safe driver and also was great in pointing out things we would have missed otherwise. He was also great at making suggestions for things to visit, but we were never under any pressure to go if we didn’t fancy seeing them. We hadn’t booked our transfer back to the airport and we were absolutely delighted that Asitha rearranged his schedule to be able to drive us back as we really had missed him for the 5 days we were in a South Coast villa. Anyway, we really can’t recommend him highly enough and feel very lucky to have made such a good friend.

Other tips? Well, we had a very brief, humid and noisy visit to Colombo on our way from the airport to the station and can’t honestly recommend what we saw, but we weren’t there long enough to give a fair report really. We did most of the obvious sights (Sigiriya, Ella, Pollunaruwa, Dambulla), and apart from being a bit underwhelmed by the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy can recommend everything. If you’re looking for accommodation near Yala Wildlife Park we had an amazing time at Aranya Eco Lodge, 5km from Kataragama. Only 4 separate rooms (if the tree house counts as a room), solar power, so things were enjoyably dim in the evenings, wonderfully warm outdoor showers and fantastic food beautifully served.

The ground at Galle was still being reconstructed when we were there, but an absolutely stunning setting. Wherever you go, hope you enjoy it as much as we did (though for possibly different reasons!) and here's hoping for some great matches!

Enjoy!