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You never have to go far in Sri Lanka to encounter some of the island’s exotic wildlife. Even in the bustling city of Colombo, you’ll see huge pelicans perched in trees by the Beira Lake.
In rural Sri Lanka, of course, wildlife is even more obvious, often intrusive. Just this week at my home in the countryside overlooking the Indian Ocean, I've found baby frogs in the shower, a grasshopper on my pillow, a dragonfly in the bathroom, snails on the veranda furniture, colourful butterflies and warbling kingfishers in the garden, a mongoose foraging, fruit bats squawking in the palm trees, and geckos (lizards) croaking in the beams.
My favourite visitors from the wild are the Purple Faced Leaf Monkeys, aka
the purple-faced langur (Trachypithecus vetulus). Older ones have a bushy white beard (just like me) and they love to frolic in my garden. They leap from tree to tree, attracted by the plentiful leaves and the fruit of the pandanus (walking) tree.
Experts tell me that this is an Old World monkey endemic to Sri Lanka. The animal is a long-tailed arboreal species, identified by a mostly black appearance, dark face (with paler lower face). The species was once highly prevalent in suburban Colombo and in areas with high temperatures and high humidity. Inevitably, as trees are cut down in rapacious urbanisation, there has been a significant decrease in the population level of the monkeys, making these leaping leaf-eaters an endangered species.
Equally fascinating are the local iguanas or land monitors that occasionally trundle across the lawn. The land monitor is found mainly in the lowland dry zone and is most common in farmlands (particularly coconut plantations) and dry, open forests. Land monitors spend the nights in burrows, where their body temperature decreases. In the morning they raise their body temperature by basking in the sun before commencing any activity. Hence they are rarely active early in the morning.
This fellow heading for my wall of (empty) wine bottles has lost part of his tail. The land monitor is an excellent climber. Even large adults can go up vertical tree trunks with ease, where they stalk and capture roosting fruit bats.
The land monitor’s cousin, the water monitor, is often seen lurking in the shallows by the banks of rivers, and locals delight in teasing tourists by saying they are crocodiles.
Next week it will be Christmas. What are you doing? Coming to Sri Lanka?
In Sri Lanka, Christmas Day is a national holiday although the number of Christians in Sri Lanka who celebrate the occasion is about seven per cent of the population. The majority are Buddhist and there are minority Hindus and Muslims. However, everyone in Sri Lanka seems to enjoy the Christmas holiday.
It is a day for fun making, although officially it is treated like a Poya Day with the sale of alcohol banned on Christmas day. So those who like a tipple to help them celebrate have to stock up in advance. That makes Christmas Day a bit quiet for foreign guests in hotels, so hotel managements compensate by arranging a lavish spread on Christmas Eve.
When I was a teenager in Brighton, England, I commemorated one Christmas day by plunging into the freezing sea off the town’s pebble beach. It makes me shiver just thinking about it now. I commemorate that foolhardy endeavour by going to the sandy beach across the road from my cottage in Sri Lanka, for a swim in the hot sun on Christmas Day, followed by a glass of champagne and a beach picnic.
If you are from the northern hemisphere and accustomed to a cold Christmas (even a snowy one) a Christmas Day in the sun seems a most unusual experience, perhaps not quite Christmas. But it is. In Sri Lanka hotels serve all the traditional Christmas dishes, usually as a buffet, and the supermarkets stock imported Christmas puddings. I’ve bought a duck this year to have instead of turkey, and have ordered a Christmas Ham from the local supermarket.
Christmas is a shopping festival, especially in Colombo with special deals. Supermarkets are jolly (or nauseating depending on your grouchiness) with commercial Christmas songs and staff wearing Santa Claus hats.
The influence of Dutch colonial days lingers at Christmas in the food, even centuries after they were replaced by the British. Popular at this time of the year favoured by the island’s Burgher population (who are the mixed-race descendants of the Dutch) is Love Cake. Baked as a slab this is a gooey confection of butter, lots of eggs, semolina, chopped cashew nuts, ground cinnamon and honey, with lashings of alcohol. You won’t miss Christmas pudding if you try it.
So actually, Christmas in Sri Lanka is both traditional and tropical, with churches open, beach and riverside picnics and, in the hill country, even a little chill.
We wish all our readers a jolly, merry Christmas next week. If you won’t be in Sri Lanka then, we hope to see you soon in the New Year.
Merry Christmas and a super 2020.
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru.
(Please note my next newsletter should reach you on Tuesday 7 January 2020. I’m having a holiday too.)
No, this is not a plug for a huge travel agency, or one promoting tours by elephant, but a comment on what I saw from my garden a few mornings ago: a travelling elephant.
This particular beast was in an open-topped cage onboard a truck. The truck was parked just across the road from my cottage, by the vegetation that borders the beach. The elephant seemed quite happy, reaching out with his trunk for a bunch of leaves for breakfast. The truck’s driver, meanwhile, was asleep over his steering wheel.
The elephant was probably bound for a village Perehera, or pageant, held by various temples on a commemorative occasion every year. He would parade as part of a troop of elephants along a route in the late evening, accompanied by dancers and drummers, and watched by villagers and tourists. There are several mini-versions a year of the famous Kandy Perehera, held in July/August, and jumbo loads of elephants are trucked around the country to take part.
There are estimated to be over 5,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka and about 300 domesticated ones. Why would anyone want to have an elephant as a pet? It’s too big to keep in the house, so an owner not only needs plenty of land as the elephant’s paddock but also easy access to the type of food elephants eat.
An expert has written that the food of the tame elephant eats is entirely different from that of the wild ones, so the lack of jungles is not a problem for elephant owners when looking for food for their elephants. However, jak (Artocarpus integer), kitul (Caryota urens) and coconut (Cocos nucifera), which constitute a large part of a tame elephant's food, are becoming scarce everywhere and owners find it difficult to obtain this food.
Elephants that are kept in captivity are mainly fed on kitul, coconut, and jak. Banana (Musa spp.) is also consumed when available.
In spite of the difficulties involved in owning and caring for an elephant, it is reported that there are very few owners who wish to dispose of their elephants. Government restrictions have resulted in there being no increase in the number of domesticated elephants originally captured from the wild. There are no captive births.
Both these factors restrict the number of elephants available and therefore the few for sale fetch a high price. There are a few illicit captures from the wild, but these are never brought to the open, let alone put up for public sale. The younger animals, both male and female, command better prices than elephants that are over 45 years old. The tuskers, on the other hand, whatever their age, command a very high price.
Some domesticated elephants are used for labour but most are kept in temple premises, tamed and trained to take part in pageants. They are also used for giving rides to tourists, although that practice is not so frequent now as enlightened tourists are sensitive to the idea of an elephant being deprived of its freedom for tourist pleasure.
Royston Ellis Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru.
If you need to see a doctor as an out-patient while you’re on holiday in Sri Lanka, don’t worry. The procedure is very simple.
Throughout Sri Lanka, there are doctor’s surgeries. You’ll need to find out first when a doctor will be there (usually before the working day begins or after it finishes) as doctors often work in government hospitals as well as running a neighbourhood private practice.
I once went to a doctor in the Red Light district of Bombay ( I only had a cough!). He put his stethoscope on my shirt pocket, where I had my credit card wallet, and said my chest sounded OK. Then he sold me some pills.
Sri Lankan doctors are more thorough. If you have a health problem, just turn up at the local, privately run Health Centre and await your turn with the other patients.
The doctor will examine you, take your blood pressure, scribble on a piece of paper and hand it to you. You’re supposed to give the chit to the receptionist in the pharmacy that forms part of the doctor’s clinic, collect pills, and pay for them and the consultation fee.
If you need a blood test (to check cholesterol or blood sugar levels perhaps), that’s a simple process too. There are village Health Centres where you can get a blood test without an appointment, and collect the result the next day. (The blood is sent to a central laboratory so you don’t have to go there yourself.)
The Health Centre in Induruwa where I went recently, opens at 07.00 at which time there is no waiting in a queue. A young girl there inserted a needle (a new one for every client) in my arm so expertly, there was no pain. The fee for the blood test was Rs500 (about £2.11, US$2.75).
The report on the test states whether the result is Normal, High, Desirable, Good or Optimal and gives the range of units that indicate the levels. This means you can decide whether to go to a doctor for prescribed medicine.
Of course, before coming here on holiday, it is prudent to have insurance that covers any emergency treatment you might need. For simple maladies, like mosquito bites or a cold, the local pharmacist will recommend a remedy so you don’t even have to get up early to see the neighbourhood doctor.
Happy holiday. Royston Ellis, Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru
In Colombo gibt es ein Krankenhaus/Zahnarzt mit online Terminvergabe.
Finde es jetzt gerade nicht mehr und muss Sheepy fragen.
Das fand ich wirklich bemerkenswert.
[QUOTEn Colombo gibt es ein Krankenhaus/Zahnarzt mit online Terminvergabe.][/QUOTE] das gibt es inzwischen haeufig fuer alle moegichen Aerzte. Und wer kein Internet hat, kann es ueber bestimmte Apotheken buchen. Im Lanka Hospital(fruehre Apollo) geht es auf jeden Fall
As well as the world’s best tea, Sri Lanka also produces the best and only authentic cinnamon in the world.
Cinnamon was valued as a precious spice in the west from the 14th century when it was found to be effective in preserving meat and in retarding the growth of bacteria.
It was discovered that real cinnamon grew in only one country, the island in the Indian Ocean now known as Sri Lanka. The trade was controlled by Arab merchants until the Portuguese wrested control of the island, only to be ousted by the Dutch.
The Dutch boosted the production by the domestication of the crop and growing it in the areas under their control. This resulted in cinnamon being transplanted (as seedlings) from its natural habitat of the mid-hill country to the western and southern coastal belts of the island, where it is to be found today.
A Cinnamon plantation
While there are other types of cinnamon, they do not have the effects of the one specific species -- Cinnamomum verum -- which even today is only found in Sri Lanka.
Cinnamon is obtained from the dried bark of the perennial tree, C.zeylanicum. The bark is peeled from the tree and hand-rolled into quills. The peeled quills are joined and rolled together to get a pipe-like structure to the required length. These quills are air-dried naturally for about seven days.
Cinnamon is traditionally used in cooking (with a piece of a quill added to curries and stews as seasoning) and, as a powder, for adding flavour to baked items. Cinnamon flavoured tea is becoming popular, thus combining Sri Lanka’s top two natural products.
Ground cinnamon
At home in Sri Lanka, I grind cinnamon quills in a kitchen blender to produce powder and I add that to my morning cup of tea. It smells divine, reminding me of the smell of chewing gum of my youth.
Cinnamon quills
Cinnamon is a proven asset for healthy living. It is a powerful anti-oxidant. In fact, it contains more antioxidants than garlic and oregano. It shields the body from free radicals that cause oxidative stress, which occurs when the body cannot detoxify all the damaging free radicals building up. Anti-oxidants can help prevent the negative impact that excess free radicals can have on the immune system.
Cinnamon also helps your body fight infections and repair tissue damage. Cinnamon has been shown to reduce high cholesterol and blood pressure.
Cinnamon can dramatically reduce insulin resistance, helping this important hormone do its job and it can lower blood sugar. It can fight tooth decay and bad breath and help patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. It sounds like a miracle cure for everything and clinical tests have proven its efficacy. So when you come to Sri Lanka, make sure you hunt down real cinnamon to take home. It could be your best souvenir of Sri Lanka.
Happy holiday. Royston Ellis Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru
Land being reclaimed for a commercial city on the sunset side of Colombo; new buildings with lots of glass; towering apartment blocks: Colombo is moving up in the world. This is nowhere more evident than at One Galle Face Mall, the symbol of upmarket shopping in Colombo.
In the sprawling building housing the new Shangri-La Hotel, billed as Colombo’s moat vibrant lifestyle destination, overlooking the public space known as Galle Face Green and the Indian Ocean, the Mall rivals the best in Bangkok, Singapore or Dubai. Blatantly contemporary in a style that says, “this is the future” it is an intimidating modern urban jungle. I wanted a map (or a personal-shopper guide) so I could find my way around the shopping trails up and down several levels. There is a panel giving directions that lit up when I pressed a button, but since I wasn’t looking for a particular shop, that wasn’t any use.
If you’re in Colombo when it’s raining, or you have a morning spare, this Mall is the place to explore…and shop and eat. I found the signage confusing which is how I ended up in the core of the Mall, the Shangri-La Hotel and not a shop. It was lunchtime and I was hungry and defeated by the Mall’s choice of so many different places to eat, which I didn’t find.
That’s how I allowed myself to be lured into the bar of the hotel’s Capital Grill. My favourite cocktail is a Negroni, a vivid blood-red combination of Campari, red vermouth and gin. The restaurant’s bar counter had some miniature wooden barrels, one of which was labelled “Pineapple Negroni” so I opted for that. When it was served, with a stirrer of orange peel and a slice of dried pineapple, It looked nothing like the traditional Negroni being a lighter shade of pink. However, it tasted right, but there was a lot of ice: upmarket in style and price (Rs1,600 ++ which is about US$8.80, £6.73)
I don’t often do “fine dining” simply because there are very few restaurants in Sri Lanka that perfectly deliver the gourmet goods. The Capital Grill elevated our lunch from “fine” to “classic”. We sat in the restaurant’s Blue Room, embraced by deep blue banquettes. The décor is complex and opulent; the restaurant’s White Room is less boastful but not so much fun.
We had ordered while drinking in the bar from the broadsheet menu so were ready to eat when the steward guided us to possibly the best table (No. 40) in the restaurant because it is in a corner with a view of all the action, including chefs performing behind a glass panel.
I spoiled myself with braised lamb shank, a huge hunk of meat that was accompanied by broccoli and mashed pumpkin presented in a copper pan. It cost Rs4,900 ++ (US$27; UK£20.76) proving just how high-end and up market you can go in Colombo in 2020.
Happy holiday.
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru
Greetings from Sri Lanka Let Serendipity be your guide.
From the emails I am receiving from family, friends and fans of this newsletter and website, it seems that a lot of people are making plans to visit and tour Sri Lanka this year. Of course, that’s great news.
However, I am worried that the tours these prospective visitors are planning for themselves, may not be the best way to enjoy Sri Lanka. Although on a map, distances are not far between towns, in reality travelling between places takes a long time, and is tiring whether by rail or road.
My personal advice to holidaymakers who haven’t been here before and aren’t on a pre-arranged package tour is to be kind to yourself. Getting to Sri Lanka by plane takes time so, from the airport, make your first stop one that’s not more than an hour or so away by taxi. If you want the familiarity of a city, head for Colombo or, if you want beach life, Negombo, or south by the Expressway to Bentota.
That will give you a chance to recover from jet lag before you start to discover Sri Lanka. If you embark on a long journey as soon as you arrive, you won’t enjoy it. And jet lag will dog you until you get back home. Give your body and mind time to adjust to this “land like no other.”
Local passenger transport.
if you want to experience the tranquillity, beauty, healthy lifestyle and interact freely with the warm people of Sri Lanka, it’s best if you come independently and allow plenty of time. Then you can let serendipity, the word conjured up by the ancient name of Sri Lanka, Serendib, guide you.
Serendipity has come to mean, “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” In other words, come to Sri Lanka with an open mind and let things happen. Of course, do your homework first so you have a basic idea of what Sri Lanka has to offer, such as wildlife instead nightlife, rice and curry instead of pizza, surprises instead of routine.
A surprising sight, a village brick kiln.
If you prefer to be organised, buy a tour from a travel agent in advance so everything is taken care of, instead of trying to arrange it all yourself before you get here. However, if you fancy the freedom of serendipity, just come and see what happens. There’s plenty of accommodation (from budget to extravagant) for last-minute bookings, whether you do it online when you’re here or as a walk-in guest. But not at peak times like mid-April when it’s Sri Lanka New Year or August.
Happy holiday.
Royston Ellis Editorial Consultant Sri Lanka Holiday Guru.
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Experts tell me that this is an Old World monkey endemic to Sri Lanka. The animal is a long-tailed arboreal species, identified by a mostly black appearance, dark face (with paler lower face). The species was once highly prevalent in suburban Colombo and in areas with high temperatures and high humidity. Inevitably, as trees are cut down in rapacious urbanisation, there has been a significant decrease in the population level of the monkeys, making these leaping leaf-eaters an endangered species.
