Getting Married in Sri Lanka

Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport is 35km north of the city center. Most visitors fly in, spend the first night in Colombo, and then transfer north into the Cultural Triangle the next morning. Colombo's colonial-era Fort district — the former center of Dutch and British colonial administration — has been remarkably well-preserved: the Grand Oriental Hotel (formerly a British officers' mess), the Dutch-era Wolvendaal Church, and the Galle Face Green seafront promenade where everyone in Colombo gathers at sunset for kite-flying and watching the Indian Ocean. The Pettah bazaar adjacent to the Fort is one of South Asia's most intensely atmospheric market districts — a labyrinth of specialist streets (dried fish, textiles, electronics, spices) that has operated in the same physical space since the Dutch colonial period. Dinner at the Galle Face Hotel's veranda restaurant facing the sea.

• ✦ Galle Face Green — Colombo's seafront promenade at sunset
• ✦ Fort district colonial architecture
• ✦ Pettah bazaar — South Asia's most atmospheric market
• ✦ Galle Face Hotel veranda dinner on the Indian Ocean

Transfer 170km north to the Cultural Triangle — the area around Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Polonnaruwa that contains the greatest concentration of ancient civilization in Sri Lanka. Check into your jungle lodge and climb Sigiriya the next morning at dawn. Sigiriya is the most dramatic ancient monument in Sri Lanka and one of the most extraordinary in the world: a 200-meter volcanic rock rising vertically from the jungle plain, its summit carrying the ruins of King Kassapa's 5th-century palace and water gardens. The summit is reached by a series of iron staircases built on the rock face, passing the world-famous Sigiriya frescoes of cloud maidens (Apsaras) painted on a sheltered section of the cliff face — extraordinarily preserved 5th-century paintings in vivid reds and yellows. The view from the summit over the surrounding jungle and tank (ancient irrigation reservoir) landscape is extraordinary. Nearby Pidurangala Rock is lower, easier to climb, and provides the best photographic view of Sigiriya's vertical silhouette.

• ✦ Sigiriya Lion Rock at dawn before the day-trippers arrive
• ✦ Sigiriya Apsara frescoes — 5th-century cloud maidens on the cliff face
• ✦ Summit palace ruins and the water garden complex below
• ✦ Pidurangala Rock for the photographic view of Sigiriya's profile

Dambulla Cave Temple Complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site 20km south of Sigiriya — five cave temples carved into a dramatic rock outcrop and containing 153 Buddha statues and 2,000 square meters of wall paintings spread across multiple chambers, with the largest most ornate cave (Cave 2, the Maharaja Viharaya) containing an extraordinary seated Buddha over 15 meters long. The paintings cover every surface of the cave walls and ceiling in a continuous narrative that has been maintained and repainted across 22 centuries. Polonnaruwa, 70km northeast, was Sri Lanka's medieval capital from the 11th to 13th centuries and preserves extraordinary royal palace ruins, Buddhist monastery complexes, and the Gal Vihara — four enormous Buddha figures carved from a single granite rock face, the most magnificent rock-cut sculpture in Sri Lanka and one of the greatest in Asia.

• ✦ Dambulla Cave Temple — 153 Buddha statues in 22-centuries of cave painting
• ✦ Polonnaruwa royal palace ruins
• ✦ Gal Vihara — four colossal rock-cut Buddhas
• ✦ Ancient irrigation tanks visible from the ruins

Drive three hours south from the Cultural Triangle to Kandy — Sri Lanka's last royal capital, set on a lake in the foothills of the central highlands. The Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) is Buddhism's most sacred monument in Sri Lanka: the golden-roofed temple on the lakeside contains the relic of the Buddha's tooth — the most venerated object in Sri Lankan Buddhism, paraded through the city on the back of decorated elephants during the annual Esala Perahera festival in July/August. The Kandy Botanical Gardens (40 hectares, one of the finest tropical gardens in Asia) adjoin the lake. The Kandy lake itself is a beautiful artificial creation of the last king. Walk the lake road at dusk and attend evening puja at the Temple of the Tooth — drums, conch shells, and incense at 6:30pm, 7:30pm, and 9:30pm.

• ✦ Temple of the Tooth — Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist monument
• ✦ Evening puja ceremony — drums and incense at the Buddha's relic
• ✦ Kandy Botanical Gardens — one of Asia's finest tropical collections
• ✦ Kandy Lake evening walk

Drive from Kandy through the central highlands to the tea country — the most beautiful landscape in Sri Lanka. The road through Nuwara Eliya rises through increasingly dramatic scenery: tea bushes covering every hillside in geometrically perfect rows of vivid green, the picking women in colorful saris moving through the rows, and the colonial bungalows of the estate managers looking improbably English in their blue-grey hills setting. Nuwara Eliya itself is a strange Victorian colonial creation at 1,900 meters — a hill station of half-timbered hotels, a golf course, and rose gardens that earned it the nickname Little England. Visit the Pedro Tea Estate for a factory tour and tasting. Continue to Ella — the most beautiful small town in the hill country, set in a gap in the mountains with a view over the southern lowlands from the Ella Gap. Hike Little Adam's Peak (45 minutes, extraordinary views) before the famous Nine Arches Bridge for sunset.

• ✦ Tea estate landscape — vivid green rows across the highlands
• ✦ Pedro Tea Estate factory tour and Ceylon tea tasting
• ✦ Nuwara Eliya — the Victorian hill station at 1,900 meters
• ✦ Nine Arches Bridge and Little Adam's Peak in Ella

Drive south from Ella through the southern lowlands to Udawalawe National Park — the best place in Sri Lanka to see wild elephants. Udawalawe has a resident population of 500+ Asian elephants that can be seen in herds of 20-30 animals at the reservoirs in the early morning and late afternoon. The park also has leopard, sambar deer, water buffalo, and an extraordinary diversity of birds. Take a jeep safari at dawn (6am) for the best elephant concentrations. Continue south to the southern coast at Mirissa or Tangalle — the most beautiful beach area in Sri Lanka, with crescent bays of white sand and deep blue Indian Ocean. The south coast from Mirissa to Tangalle is lined with coconut palms, beach yoga retreats, and excellent fish restaurants. The whale watching season (November to April) makes Mirissa the best place in South Asia to see blue whales.

• ✦ Udawalawe National Park elephant herds at dawn
• ✦ South coast Indian Ocean beaches — Mirissa and Tangalle
• ✦ Whale watching at Mirissa (blue whales, November to April)
• ✦ Fresh fish dinner on the beach at sunset

Drive west along the south coast to Galle — the Dutch colonial fort town that is the most beautiful and best-preserved colonial town in Sri Lanka. The Dutch Galle Fort (1663) is a complete walled town of Dutch and British colonial buildings still in daily use as boutique hotels, galleries, cafes, and homes. The ramparts — a complete circuit walkable in 45 minutes — face directly onto the Indian Ocean and offer the finest coastal views on the island. The lighthouse at the south corner is the most photographed monument in Galle. Inside the fort: the National Museum, the Dutch Reformed Church (1640, with a floor of 18th-century tombstones), and a cluster of excellent boutiques selling Sri Lankan silk, batik, and gemstones. Colombo Airport is 2 hours north by expressway. Take home Ceylon tea (the best is Silver Tips Imperial from the Kenilworth Estate), a blue sapphire from Ratnapura, and the specific smell of Sri Lanka's spice markets that stays with you for months.

• ✦ Galle Fort Dutch colonial town — a complete walled settlement still in use
• ✦ Fort rampart walk — 45-minute circuit above the Indian Ocean
• ✦ Dutch Reformed Church with 18th-century tombstone floor
• ✦ Ceylon tea and Sri Lanka gem shopping before departure