Long ago we decided to keep work-related and
pleasure travel separate, not wanting the constraints of
work trips influencing when and where we traveled for
fun. But with Jennifer launching a year-long
worldwide "instructional odyssey", and especially
with the first stop being Sri
Lanka -- a country we've wanted to visit for quite
a while -- we decided to suspend the separation policy.
This travelogue covers the tourism part of our time in
Sri Lanka; there will be a separate blog (and even an
instagram feed!) for Jennifer's odyssey. After our adventures in Saint Petersburg and northern Sweden, we bid goodbye to Emily as she headed to her second year of college. We returned home for just a few days, then Jennifer continued to Colombo to begin her teaching, with Alex joining her a few days later. When Jennifer was busy teaching Alex did some sightseeing on his own, and he gave a talk at a conference Jennifer was participating in as part of her visit. We also carved out a few days to see a bit of the country together. It's been a new experience to mix work and pleasure travel, and traveling without kids along is also "new" in that we haven't done it in 21 years. So far so good. Tourism in Sri Lanka didn't truly take off until its civil war ended less than ten years ago, but the industry is growing steadily and with good reason: even in our short time seeing only a small part of what the country has to offer, we readily appreciated its historical, cultural, and natural charms. Outside of our time in the main city of Colombo and the cultural center of Kandy, we hired a driver to rush us from place to place -- Andrew was competent and delightful, greatly adding to our enjoyment of the quick trip. Tourism highlights:
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