Celon Eco Tours

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Sri Lanka
Minuwangoda
Celon Eco Tours

Tour guide & driver in Sri Lanka since 2004. I offer tailor-made, personal holidays to and will cater for as much, or as little of your trip as you wish.

18/07/2014

With trumpeting elephants, monkeys crashing through the trees, peacocks in their finest frocks and cunning leopards sliding like shadows through the undergrowth, Yala National Park (also known as Ruhunu) is The Jungle Book brought to glorious life. This vast region of dry woodland and open patches of grasslands is the big draw of this corner of Sri Lanka, and though it’s far from Kenya, a safari here is well worth all the time, effort and cost.

18/07/2014

Trincomalee (Trinco) appeals to tourists primarily as the gateway to the fine Uppuveli and Nilaveli beaches. Possibly the site of historic Gokana in the Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle), the town itself is mildly attractive and is situated around several picturesque bays and rocky peninsulas. Its economic trump card is a superb deep-water port, considered to be one of the world’s finest. However, this has made it the target for all manner of foreign attacks: the Danish preceded the Portuguese, who desecrated the city’s holiest Hindu shrine before losing Trinco to the Dutch. By the British takeover in 1795, the city had changed hands another seven times. It suffered further attacks in WWII, this time from Japanese bombing raids.
Today the population is a potentially explosive mix of Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims. Although the city was safe and enjoyably vibrant at the time of research, interethnic tensions erupted again in April 2006, so keep your ear to the ground.

18/07/2014

Sigiriya is famous for its palace ruins on top of a massive 200 meter high rock surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs and other structures. The rock itself is a lava plug left over from an ancient long extinct volcano. It is also renowned for its ancient paintings (frescoes), which are similar to those found at Ajanta Caves in India. It is generally agreed, however, that the Sigiriya Frescoes exhibit a uniquely Sri Lankan style.
Sigiriya may have been inhabited through prehistoric times. It was used as a rock-shelter mountain monastery from about the 5th century BC, with caves prepared and donated by devotees of the Buddhist Sangha.

18/07/2014

Nuwara Eliya (nu-rel-iya, meaning ‘City of Light’) keeps its colonial hill station atmosphere more completely than any place in the subcontinent. The town centre is a concrete tangle but the outskirts still keep the atmosphere of a misplaced British village, with hedges, rose gardens and red-roofed bungalows sporting twee names. It was a favoured stomping ground for the tea planters – the ‘wild men of the hills’ as one British governor called them. The old post office, the racecourse, the English country house–styled Hill Club with its hunting pictures, mounted fish and hunting trophies and the 18-hole golf course all somehow seem more British than Britain itself.

Nuwara Eliya has a fair assortment of country-style houses with large gardens – many have been turned over to vegetables, making this one of Sri Lanka’s main market-gardening centres.

Come prepared for the evening cool – Nuwara Eliya is much higher than Kandy. In January and February you may find yourself needing to sleep with two blankets and all your clothes on. The town can be grey and grim in a peculiarly Scottish way on rainy days. Nuwara Eliya is the ‘in place’ for socialites during April, around the Sri Lankan New Year. At that time of year the cost of accommodation – if you can find any at all – goes through the roof. Horse races are held on the picturesque semiderelict racecourse then, too.

The town has an abundance of touts angling to get a commission for a guesthouse or hotel.

18/07/2014

(pronounced gawl in English, and gaar-le in Sinhala) is a living time capsule. It has a vibrant commercial district that’s also shambolic and often charmless, but pass through one of the Fort gates and you are transported back to the Dutch colonial era.

18/07/2014

Lovely Arugam Bay (aru-gam-beh) is the east coast’s most traveller-friendly destination. It’s basically a single laid-back strip of beach accommodation, following the Panama road and backed by the Muslim village of Sinna Ulla.
From April to October it has the best surfing waves in Sri Lanka, but Arugam Bay is also a great place to unwind, eat seafood and enjoy a mellow party scene. During the low season (November to April) things get very quiet, though NGO types still come for weekend getaways and the sea is better for swimming. At any time of year the surrounding region offers some superb opportunities for viewing birdlife, crocodiles and elephants.

18/07/2014

The sacred city of Anuradhapura, now in picturesque ruins, was once a major center of Sri Lankan civilization. The fascinating ancient ruins include huge bell-shaped stupas built of small sun-dried bricks, temples, sculptures, palaces, and ancient drinking-water reservoirs.

18/07/2014

, Adam’s Peak remains an essentially Buddhist place of worship (unlike, say, the genuinely multi-faith pilgrimage town of Kataragama). The mountain has been an object of pilgrimage for over a thousand years, at least since the Polonnaruwan period, when Parakramabahu and Vijayabahu constructed shelters here for visiting pilgrims. In the twelfth century, Nissanka Malla became the first king to climb the mountain, while later foreign travellers including Fa-Hsien, Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo and Robert Knox all described the peak and its associated traditions with varying degrees of fanciful inaccuracy.

18/07/2014

The town, and the countryside around it, is lush and green and there are many pleasant walks from the town and further afield. The town centre, close to Kandy’s picturesque lake set in a bowl of hills, is a delightful jumble of old shops, antique and gemstone specialists, a bustling market and a very good selection of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. As night falls the city becomes eerily quiet.

18/07/2014

I am a Sri Lanka tourist authority approved tourist driver. I am affiliated with Sri Lanka Driver Tours.I have been a Tour guide & driver in Sri Lanka since 2004. I offer tailor-made, personal holidays to remember and will cater for as much, or as little of your trip as you wish. Whether you need a full tour organizing to your personal requirements or simply need a driver for sections of your stay, we will be happy to provide a surprisingly cheap and extremely cheerful quotation free of charge.

Address

28. A. 115, Ransiri Uyana, Horagasmulla
Minuwangoda

Telephone

94774299581

Website

http://www.srilankadrivertours.com/

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