Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

by Dr Jonathan Barrell, TMA Member Daylesford, Victoria

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia; known until 1972 as Ceylon. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest.

Sri Lanka has a documented history that spans over 3000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka is a diverse country home to many religions, ethnicities and languages. It is the land of the Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Moors, Indian Tamils, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings were composed on the island. The country’s recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively but controversially ended in a military victory in 2009.
We visited central and southern Sri Lanka in 2011 for 4 weeks. The people and cuisine and seaside villas such as www.ambalamavilla.com near Galle and www.kadjuhouse.com near Tangalle are fabulous.
Highlights included the tiny tea country mountain village of Ella www.mountainheavensella.com, the very slow train to Nuwara Eliya,, and climbing the rock at Sigiriya just north of Kandy.In Colombo I would recommend  www.gallefacehotel.com  and www.mountlaviniahotel.com, the latter being a fabulous venue for wedding party photo shoots that last for days.Travellers to Sri Lanka do need to seek medical advice about their trip as diseases such as hepatitis A, typhoid, rabies and dengue do occur and are largely preventable click here to find your nearest TMA clinic

Springs Medical Centre
You can give us a call on (03) 5348 2227 or visit our clinic website click here

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