Sri Lanka’s recent history is dominated by civil war and natural disaster. The three-decade conflict only ended in 2009, and during the war, the Indian Ocean Tsunami killed 35,000 Sri Lankans and displaced half a million more. Indeed, the south coast is still lined with endless ruins of breezeblock houses. Only a few years ago, visitors to the country were confined to hotels in the capital for fear of terrorist attacks, and yet when I went there this summer, the cities bustled and in the countryside, bucolic serenity and Leyland trucks reigned supreme.

The only threats I faced were the searing heat (summer days can reach 40˚c) and one particularly officious train guard. The north of the island contains Sri Lanka’s most impressive archaeological sites – ruins of medieval capitals, with palaces, monasteries, hospitals and vast Buddhist Stupas thronged with white-robed pilgrims. A combination of ancient stone steps reminiscent of Indiana Jones and narrow, worryingly rusty spiral iron staircases clinging to sheer cliffs brought me to the summit of Sigiriya, a ruined city perched on top of a 1,200ft high rocky outcrop. Luckily, during the ascent, one’s mind is distracted from vertigo by signs pointing out that loud noises turn the clusters of humming black protuberances on the walls into lethal swarms of malevolent, short-tempered hornets.

Sri Lanka’s wildlife is spectacular and – if you ignore the macaques that roam the country stealing ice cream from young girls – unbearably cute. There are elephant orphanages where calves play in the river and reach out with their trunks to grab any fruit, limb or camera dangled within reach, and turtle hatcheries where hundreds of tiny babies learn to swim before being released into the wild.

Heading into the highlands was a somewhat surreal experience. In colonial-era ‘Ceylon,’ the British tended to retreat uphill in search of cooler climates, and it shows. Here the hills are draped in tea plantations with unmistakeably Scottish names and at the centre, the village of Nuwara Eliya is a bizarre fusion of Midsomer Murders and corrugated steel. 

Jethro Thompson