SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka seems like an ill-starred country. Civil war still smolders in the north and the east; the south coast is still recovering from the paralyzing shock and devastation of the December 2004 tsunami. Travel advisories in most Western countries urge travellers to give Sri Lanka a miss as it's not worth the danger of getting caught in the Tamil Tiger/Sinhalese government crossfire.

However, one ALT visisted in March 2007 and wrote this long article in the country's defense. Check it out before making up your mind!

"I had the best holiday of my life there, and at no point did I feel unsafe during my journey. Despite its relatively small size, the country offers an incredible wealth and variety of diversions. You can visit ancient ruins in Anuradhapura, the cave temples at Dambulla, and the remarkable rock fortress at Sigiriya (all of which are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites). You can tour tea plantations in the cool highlands, puttering down roads surrounded on all sides by fairytale landscapes of terraced fields and plunging waterfalls. You can join jeep safaris in the country's many national parks, where the number of wild animals you'll see (including elephants, crocodiles, and leopards!) frankly beggars the imagination. You can join the throng of pilgrims praying beneath the world's oldest living historically-documented tree, the Sri Maha Bodhi, said to have grown from a sapling of the tree under which Gautama Buddha sat when he reached enlightenment. You can watch the dancers and firewalkers of Kandy after a day of walking the world-famous Peradeniya Botanical Gardens and seeing the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. You can climb the peak of Sri Pada to catch the gorgeously surreal sunrise from its summit. You can tramp the hills of Horton Plains and gaze out over the towering precipice at World's End. You can browse the finest (and least expensive) sapphires in the world at the country's ubiquitous gem markets. You can hobnob with expat elites in crumbling colonial mansions of Galle Fort. And last but not least, you can visit the spellbindingly gorgeous deserted beaches of the south coast: Tangalle, Ahangama, Unawatuna... the list goes on and on.

All of these places can be visited for ridiculously cheap prices (a five-hour bus ride costs about US$1.50, a clean room for the night about $8). And don't get even get me started about the food. If there is a heaven, it must be something like this: leaning back in a rattan chair on the sun-kissed shores of Mirissa, sipping a mixed fruit lassi, letting the tradewinds of the Indian Ocean blow gently through your hair.

Put simply, the people of Sri Lanka need your patronage. Heck, they deserve your patronage. The country and its residents have so much to offer, it would be a crime to pass it up because of a few alarmist headlines. Is traveling in Sri Lanka 100% safe? Of course not. But where in this world IS completely safe?"

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