DHC Hope: Sri Lanka Hope

This September I spent a week in Sri Lanka: 3 days of touring and 3 days facilitating a financial management seminar. During the seminar we examined the financial performance of a local hotel group. Looking back over ten years, the civil war years were marked by static sales and a mixture of profits and losses with the last three years showing rapid growth in sales and profits. Clearly peace brings its financial rewards. While touring, my guide, Indra, talked about all the roadblocks that had to be negotiated during the civil war. Now you can travel freely. Friends of ours toured two years ago. Then you could not visit the north, where the Tamil fighters were based. The Sri Lankan Air in flight magazine had a long article about visiting the northern city of Jaffna and the surrounding areas. So I could see much to hope for in Sri Lanka but I confess that I find Chinese cultural order much easier to live in than Indian chaos. Leaving through Colombo airport was like being part of one herd of cattle amongst an number negotiating security, check-in, emigration and boarding.

Here are some photos of what I saw:

Polonnaruwa an 800 hundred year old ancient city
Minnariya National Park where we watched the largest herd of elephants I have seen in the wild
Sigiriya Lion’s Rock Fortress observed from below and the village which shows you the typical town sights
Dambulla Rock Cave Temple full of Buddhist statues dating back 500, 1200 and 1600 years
Kandy an old inland city where I saw a cultural show and visited the Temple of The Tooth Relic (said to be on of Buddha’s teeth)
Some of the things I saw in Colombo

The Ruins of the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa