MORE FACTS
| Visas: Automatic entry (for between 30 and 90 days) is given on arrival to visitors from most western European countries, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Public holidays: Eid-ul-Fitr; Tamil Thai Pongal Day (14 Jan); Independence Day (4 Feb); Maha Sivarathri (Feb/Mar); Eid-ul-Adha; Good Friday; Sinhala/Tamil New Year (April); Labour Day; National Heroes Day (22 May); ProphetÂ’s Birthday (June); 30 June; Christmas; plus Full Moon (monthly). Good buys: Silks, gems, prints and tea. Local dishes: Typical dishes include fiery hot curries served with rice and small side dishes of vegetables, meat and fish. Hoppers are a unique Sri Lanka snack, similar to a pancake, served with egg or honey and yoghurt. Interesting fact: Only a quarter of the people in Sri Lanka live in cities or urban conurbations. Good reading: Sri Lanka has some fascinating literary connections. An Historical Relation of Ceylon, the memoirs of Robert Knox, who was held captive by a Kandyan king for 20 years in the 17th century, became one of the sources used by Defoe for Robinsoe Crusoe. Pablo Neruda lived in Colombo in the 1930s and many of the poems in Residence on Earth were written in Ceylon. Paul Bowles owned the island off Weligama for a short time and wrote much of The Spider's House there. And Arthur C Clarke, whose Fountains of Paradise take a setting that bears an uncanny resemblance to Sri Lanka, has spent many years on the island. |