(From top): Fishermen fish at sunrise in the bay near Matora, south of Colombo; the Golden Temple at Dambulla; a view of the city centre in Kandy

Indians are hardy travellers and they aren’t worried about small things like tsunamis. So, it shouldn’t be any surprise that Indians have been heading to Sri Lanka in droves, helping to put the country’s tourism industry back on its feet after last year’s tragedy.

But it’s not hard to understand why Indians are filling the flights to Serendip. It’s a great place for a vacation and it has everything that Indians look out for. If that isn’t enough, there are great packages on offer designed to make the most economy-minded traveller sit up.

Let’s look at some reasons for going to Sri Lanka. For a start, it’s: 1. A shopper’s paradise 2. Has great sights and beaches 3. The Indian rupee is stronger than the Sri Lankan rupee right now, so your money goes further.

If you aren’t convinced and want more evidence, remember that 82,434 Indians can’t be wrong. That’s how many of them have visited Sri Lanka this year between January and September. And that’s an increase of 21 per cent over the previous year.

The post-tsunami decline in travellers to the island is now a distant memory and the country’s tourism board is stepping up its efforts to establish it as a safe place for holiday-makers. Says Maadhuri Verma, destination manager, Sri Lanka Tourist Board, “We anticipate closing 2005 with more than 1,20,000 arrivals from India.”

“It’s evident that despite the tsunami, the tourism industry has become buoyant once again. During the peak winter season ? also a festive time ? Indian arrivals to Sri Lanka are expected to surge by another 17 per cent,” adds Rajeev Nangia, associate director operations, TRAC Representations, the company that represents the Sri Lanka Tourist Board in India.

Boosting the growth is a variety of factors. Visas to Sri Lanka are issued on arrival (very convenient), so this cuts out on the mandatory trek to the high commission. Travellers can enjoy luxurious hotels and resorts at amazing prices. And there’s the convenience of connectivity. Sri Lankan Airlines has 85 direct flights a week out of India to Colombo from nine cities ? Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Trichy, Trivandrum and Calicut (it also has three weekly flights from Mumbai to Karachi). The other carriers that you can hop on to include Air Sahara and Jet Airways.

In addition, there are some great packages available. Take SriLankan Holidays, which is masterminded by the national carrier, which offers a clutch of packages to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Maldives (you take onward journeys by AirLanka). For a package in Sri Lanka, you can expect to pay about Rs 32,000 per head for a 4-night 5-day stay. This includes airfare, accommodation (on twin-sharing basis) at a top-of-the-line hotel or resort, airport transfers (in India and Sri Lanka), breakfast and a half day’s worth of sight-seeing.

Sharuka Wickrama-Adittiya, area manager, SriLankan Airlines, promises more for those who can afford it: the SriLanka Air Taxi. This is a premium product, an off-shoot of the national carrier. It operates two aircraft ? a nine-seater and a 12-seater ? and it’s popular with Indian tourists. The air taxi service touches 13 destinations in the country and a round trip costs $150 one-way. However, the planes can also be chartered. Says Wickrama-Adittiya, “The service is picking up in popularity as travellers can reach their destinations in Sri Lanka in 20 to 30 minutes flat, as opposed to driving down, which could take from three to six hours (depending on where travellers are headed). Since the planes fly low, travellers can get a bird’s eye view.”

Now for Destination Sri Lanka itself. Where are the top spots that the 80,000-plus Indians headed to this year? There’s cosmopolitan Colombo, historical Kandy, the sun--sands of Bentota and the tea garden-dominated landscape of Nuwara Eliya.

Naturally, all travellers set off from Colombo. It’s a flourishing seaport and a typically commercial capital (it has the same relaxed atmosphere as Goa). It’s best for strolls down the beaches, visits to temples, churches and shopping (at bargain basement prices). Go looking for garments, spices and the famed Japanese Noritake porcelain. The company has a manufacturing unit here.

Three hours from the capital and you hit the hill resort of Kandy (it is said that no visit to Sri Lanka is complete without a visit here). It has old-world charm and travellers can be sure of laid-back times. En route to Kandy, most stop at the government-run Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage near Kegalle. Set up to save abandoned and orphaned wild elephants, it’s a popular attraction here.

Further away, Nuwara Eliya or Little England is great if you want to drive through or visit tea plantations and tea estates. It’s about a five-hour drive from Colombo. Waterbabies needn’t despair as the Bentota Beach resort complex that lies south of Colombo brings a host of watersport activities (think windsurfing, water-skiing and catamaran rides) while offering great resort hotels.

While in Sri Lanka, also climb the amazing Sigiriya Rock (191 km away from Colombo) that’s a World Heritage Site. A visit to the Horton Plains (20 km south of Nuwara Eliya) is also a must. From here you get stunning views of World’s End, where the land abruptly ends, dropping down a steep 700m.

And what next from this neighbour? Sharuka says that the country is planning on stepping up the glam quotient. He says, “Casino and golfing holidays, wildlife and eco-tourism are on the agenda.”

My favourite holiday

Haimanti Sukla,
singer

I hardly ever get the time to travel for pleasure, so as much, most of my trips have been to places where I’ve gone for work, but stayed on a couple of extra days as a sort of vacation. These trips have taken me all over the world, but the one destination that I enjoyed going to the most was Australia.

My trip there happened a few years ago, part of a cultural programme organised by the Bengali Association. The 2000 Olympics had just got over, but the spirit of the Games was still in the air. Everywhere, there was an air of festivity, with participants roaming around the streets, ready and willing to get their pictures taken with us. It was a lot of fun!

Australia is incredibly beautiful, especially Sydney and Melbourne, where we went. The huge mountains, the sea lapping at the shore, the sight-seeing spots and most of all, the friendly people — each place was nicer than the other. There’s a sizeable population of Bengalis there who’ve made Australia their home — in fact, they’d even taught the locals a few words from our dialect!

Route map

• Here’s a new way to pass the time at 35,000 ft (no, no, not what you’re thinking). You’ve tried reading, working on your laptop and eating and drinking yourself silly. Did you ever think about learning a language as you speed from one corner of the globe to another?

That’s what Singapore Airlines is suggesting that you do. Berlitz(r) Word Traveler is a fully interactive language-learning programme on KrisWorld, the airline’s inflight entertainment system that offers lessons in 22 different languages including Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Turkish, Tamil, Arabic, Hindi, Malay, Tagalog and Dutch. If that isn’t enough, you can also polish up your English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese. With this add-on, fliers can spend a productive time on-board. And, it’s not all work and no play because the programme is complete with self-tests and many games.

• Fancy a wild weekend? ITC’s WelcomHeritage package might be your best bet yet. The hospitality major is offering several packages to its properties in
Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Take the Corbett Ramganga Resort in Uttaranchal for instance. For just Rs 8,555, you and your partner can cosy up in a deluxe safari tent for 2 nights and 3 days. All meals and taxes are included, though sight-seeing is extra depending on the spots you want to hit like the nearby National Park.