Local Knowledge

Taxis

Have your hotel order one for you as they're generally not found on the street. If you fancy a bit of shake, rattle and roll, tuk tuks (auto-rickshaws) are rife.

Tipping culture

Although a 10 per cent service charge is usually added to hotel and restaurant bills, staff don’t always get what’s due, so good service deserves appreciation at your discretion. A chauffeur who has been helpful might expect 500Rs a day.

Siesta and fiesta

Banks open from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, and there are ATMs everywhere. Travellers cheques are less convenient to change in small towns, so use the airport banks if you’re heading directly to the hills. Most shops are open seven days a week. Poya (full moon) days are dry days.

Packing tips

Marco Polo complained of leeches when he scaled Adam’s Peak in the 13th century. Some things never change, but beyond soap and salt, an effective wet-season weapon is cure-all ayurvedic balm Siddhalepa, sold in any small roadside kadé (stall). It vanquishes mosquitos, too.

Recommended reads

While his younger brother, Michael, is known for writing The English Patient, Christopher Ondaatje provides fascinating insight into Raj life. His book Woolf in Ceylon, about the Bloomsbury writer, introduces a lupus to fear even before Leonard Woolf left the Ceylon civil service and married Virginia. The Bitter Berry is a novel by Christine Wilson, daughter of renowned jungle-inhabiting authority on the Veddas (Sri Lanka’s aboriginal “forest people”), Dr RL Spittle. The island’s famous resident, the late Sir Arthur C Clark’s Sci-fi The Fountains of Paradise features an elevator that rises out of the top of Adam’s Peak into orbit.

Cuisine

Crumpet or strumpet? The hopper, a plain Jane pancake made of rice flour, has leapt off the breakfast menu and used her lacy crust and racy décolletage to seduce the late-night diner. Variations include egg-hoppers wrapped around chilli relish, or treacle hoppers in lieu of dessert. If sipping arrack, the local palm toddy brew, plump for Old Reserve or seven-year-old drops. Fresh coconut juice is a healthy thirst-quencher you can trust while travelling.

Regional specialities

Gargantuan jackfruit, the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, turns up all over the menu. It can be served curried and meaty; you’ll swear it’s a tuna steak. As a ripe fruit you might crave its nectarous mango-lychee flesh but get a local to cut it for you. The large seeds resemble a chestnutty butter bean and usually come in a creamy coconut sauce, or eat them roasted as an aphrodisiac.

Currency

Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR).

Time zone

GMT + 4.5 hours.

Dialling codes

Country code for Sri Lanka +94. Local code for Hatton: (0)51; Nuwara Eliya: (0)52; Ella/Bandarawela: (0)57.

Do go/don't go

If you’re serious about a pilgrimage up magical mountain Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak), time your visit for the dry season, which runs from December to April. Avoid June and July if you’re afraid of showers. Generally, Sri Lanka has more than enough sun to be a year-round destination – there’s always a monsoon-free patch of coast to be found.