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Saturday, 3 December 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lanka is fast becoming a popular travel destination for Australians. Professionals and retirees prefer to go to Sri Lanka to get away from their busy schedules back home. They come back thoroughly impressed with the clean beaches, historical places, comfortable lodgings and above all the friendly people. 
From the time they get to Sri Lanka, most of them start loading their Facebook pages with eye-catching pictures and positive stories. Once they return they have so much to talk about. Their friends are impressed. They are motivated to plan their next holiday in Sri Lanka.
From Sri Lanka’s point, it’s most effective publicity free of charge while strategic plans and advertising campaigns are being developed by the tourist promotion authorities.
A weekly online newsletter devoted to cooking and travel published in Sydney has just completed a series of 13 articles on Sri Lanka. The Editor of ‘vegTARAian’, Tara Mathews shares her travel adventures with attractive photographs (most of them are uncommon) and most readable and stimulating text.
“I have so many fond memories of my recent visit to Sri Lanka. The food was incredible, the history fascinating and the landscape beautiful. It’s also a bright and vibrant country, with so much for all the senses. One of the biggest things that struck me was the friendliness, hospitality and kindness of the people,” she writes describing ‘The friendly faces of Sri Lanka’.
“They’re kind, inquisitive and so proud to show off their country. If you share a smile with a stranger, you’ll be rewarded with a genuine beaming smile that just lights up their entire face. You’d be hard pressed to not feel comfortable or welcome while you’re exploring this beautiful sapphire island.”
Among the many places she visited, Tara found Mirissa beach as one of the prettiest beaches she had ever swam in. “What struck me the most was the stunning blues and green hues of the beach. They were such calming and relaxing colours.”
Vegetarian meals being her speciality, she comments on what she tasted at Mirissa. “One of our lunches was at the home of a local fishing family, with the father and sons working hard each day to catch fish in the less populated bays around the area. They served us the most wonderful dishes with rice including jackfruit curry and watercress salad which we washed down with a tropical arrack punch.”
“Then the father and one of his sons took us down to the water to show us the age-old traditional of stilt fishing. While the fishermen balance up high on a wooden pole, they use one hand to cast a rod out and catch fish. How they manage to stay above the water is amazing!”
Admitting that Sri Lanka was “so much more captivating than I expected”, she sums up some of her most memorable experiences:
nVisiting a tea factory in the tea plantations of Haputale
nLearning about the ways Sri Lankans love and use coconut
nGoing on safari in Yala National Park and nervously watching a big, male elephant come stomping towards our jeep
nEnjoying wonderful hospitality and incredible meals in local homes
nSwimming in the clear, blue Indian ocean at Mirissa beach, and
nThe beaming, contagious smiles of locals.
