Well, you can’t stop progress. Last year, Sri Lanka was rated by the National Geographic Channel as the second-best island in the world. At the time, the widely watched programme commended the isle as “definitely one of the best places to visit”. Some of its reasons: arguably one of the greatest islands for sandy shores (100 miles of its 1000-mile coastland are “amazingly undiscovered beaches”); history to make Greece envious and culture to give ancient Rome a run for its money (I paraphrase what the editors of the channel said!); wildlife as a major highlight; superb cuisine, if a tad spicy; “basically, everything for a tourist”.

If the “Jade Pendant in the Indian Ocean” was inveterate traveller Marco Polo’s favourite island, then it is clearly Nat Geo’s tropical cynosure now. The latter press their point home by showcasing Sigiriya, our unique rock fortress and kingly citadel, as a place not to be missed because of its curious splendour and breathtaking views. (“You don’t get to number two without some must-see sights,” the popular TV channel gushed, a year ago.)

Fast-forward to sometime recently this year… when ‘Lonely Planet’, the world’s largest travel guide and digital media publisher, named Sri Lanka as the No. 1 destination in the world to travel to in 2013. Its positioning statement for the island says Taprobane the Resplendent has “endless beaches, timeless ruins, welcoming people, oodles of elephants, killer surf, cheap prices, fun trains, famous tea, flavourful food”. Do go on, dears, this is music to our ears… after the war decades of cacophonous bad press. Going all bard-like, the travel guide’s promotional blurb avers that “the Undiscovered Country’s” war is over and “Sri Lanka is looking up”. Well, chums, where have you been since 2009? We forgive you the tardiness – because, as you say, “Sri Lanka has been hiding in plain sight.”

Not any more. With the likes of Lonely Planet among a host of others going all Marco Polo on us again, thank you kindly, Serendib’s many attractions are about to be discovered by design and not default. No more passing through en route to Angkor Wat, Bali, and the rest of exotic South East Asia. In case you haven’t surfed through the itinerary, here’s some of what our admirers have chosen to highlight about Lanka, Lanka, lovely Lanka…

That few places have as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites (eight, dears!) packed into such a small area. That its 2,500-year civilisation and culture can be discovered with ease, at ancient ruins and legendary sites that are a stone’s throw away from monkey- and elephant- and leopard-thronged safaris. That once the tropical attraction of the coast and lowlands is done with, one can “head for the hills” – which are “verdant, virescent, and virally infectious with allure” (my kind of alliteration-loving scribe penned that last phrase). It gets better, with “impossibly green tea plantations and rainforested peaks” which “beckon walkers, trekkers or just those who want to see it on a spectacular train ride”.

My only grouse is that the train now employed is neither the legendary steam of the Viceroy Special ilk. Nor even the romantic enough diesel-electrics from a bygone era (Sri Lanka’s ageing fleet of locomotives dates from as far back as 1954, the time those lovely M2s were first brought down from Canada’s GM electromotive division’s stables) – but some cold, clinical, efficient enough but lacklustre Chinese diesel-multiple units.

I have another grouse. While “dazzlingly white” (really?) beaches (“the beaches!”), world-class surfing and diving sites sans world-class crowds, etc. rule (“the sacred home of the world’s oldest living tree”, “the sight of hundreds of elephants gathering”, antique temples, mellow villages, marvellous flora and fauna, etc. etc.), there’s hardly a mention of Sigiriya. Is it hiding in plain sight? Are its charms no longer sufficient to soothe a savage breast not unlike that of Kashyapa, its maverick architect and monarch? Have the promoters failed to spot a rock atop a top tourist spot? (Trying asking that last question after a big lunch and a Sunday sun-downer…)

There are two types of tourists amongst those who love our island–those to whom Sigiriya is just a rock… and others to whom it has pride of place among the unlisted wonders of the modern and ancient world. Warts and all, we love it – as much as we love our increasingly warm place in the sun!

To quote Lonely Planet: “Sri Lanka is spectacular, it’s affordable and it’s still mostly uncrowded. Now is the best time to discover it.” Oh, and did we mention the wonder that is Sigiriya?

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Coming home

Letters to the Editor

Appreciations

Taking Sri Lanka to a nano future

Painting the pangs of Partition

Lionel Wendt helps mould young sculptors and artists

Revelations for the season

The Art of the Fugue in the tradition of the ‘Chamber Music Plus’ series

Oriental designs and sets from the past

Meemure: Stepping into the dim mists of time

The rain dance

LK: The extraordinary role he played

It’s the turn of the widows to wage their war

‘Friends of Prisoners’ Children’ to hold all-star charity concert

People and events

Ivor Dennis to be feted at ‘Kurulu paradeesaye’

FERCAP conference at Waters Edge

A new look for the Narada Centre