Holidays Sri Lanka: Part 1 - First taste of Sri Lanka
Holidays Sri Lanka - Part 1: My first visit to Sri Lanka was in 2014. I was travelling in Southern Africa when my now-husband invited me to come visit him. We had met in Cape Town a few months before. He was now working at a beach resort in a place called Kappalady in the Northwest of Sri Lanka. I knew nothing about Sri Lanka, so I had a peek at pictures online and the country and the resort looked beautiful. I was on the look-out for my next travel location so I said what-the-hey, let's give holidays Sri Lanka style a go. So booked myself a flight to Colombo.
Prior to my 2014 visit, I had never before been to Asia. Therefore the road from Colombo's Bandaranaike airport, with its lush, tropical tree life and tuk tuks, was a fascinating visual feast.
Kappalady village
Eventually we turned off the main road and went bumping along a not-so-main-road between beautifully maintained fields of fruit, vegetables and other crops.
Then we entered the village of Kappalady. A mixture of coconut leaf huts and colourful asian style brick buildings. Children played in the sand outside the houses. A group of men with legs wrapped in the traditional lungis of Sri Lanka and India sat in a circle on a patch of grass, talking and laughing. Men, women and children rode, two to a bicycle along the side of the road.
Kappaldy lagoon As we passed out of the village I had my first glimpse of Kappaldy lagoon. It was fringed with palm trees and bordered on the opposite bank by a long sandy beach.
We drove through a grove of coconut palms and onto a bridge over the lagoon. A fisherman stood waist deep in the water. He cast a hand-held net which he then began to draw slowly back in towards him.
A slender, long-billed, white-feathered crane stood on the shore of the lagoon, gazing at its reflection and occasionally darting its beak into the water.
We left the lagoon behind and drove up to the gates of Elements Beach and Nature resort.
Check back in in a few days for part 2 of Holidays Sri Lanka
LIKE IT? PIN IT!
