General description: Enlightening and exhilarating, this authentic experience gives you a glimpse of Sri Lankan village life where the villagers go about their daily lives with the greatest respect to nature. Spend a morning in a remote village near to the Cultural Triangle – an area the locals call ‘God’s village,’ that is said to have been a refuge of King Wasaba (66-110 AD).
Experience description: Swooping eagles and exotic butterflies are some of the visual highlights of the journey before the ultimate view of the majestic Sigiriya Rock Fortress and surrounding mountain ranges in the distance. Where the boat ride ends, a bumpy one on tractor begins. Take in wide open paddy fields and miniature forests that have a lot to offer by way of birds, lizards and butterflies. The tractor stops at another hamlet for a tour of vegetable and fruit plantations and a first-hand account of how traditional and superstitious farming are kept alive. Stop along the way at cool mud structures with palm-thatched roofs for refreshing fruit slices and native aromatic herbal brews served in coconut shells, which make this experience neither too hectic nor laid back. It does however work up a big appetite, so the mini-adventure is tied up with a feast of fresh vegetables harvested from the fields you have just explored. Prepared in Sri Lanka’s traditional clay cooking pots; olden day prep methods in cutting vegetables, pounding raw rice, weaving palm baskets, and cooking over a wooden hearth are demonstrated before the final reward of a large, delicious, warm meal served on lotus leaf, in keeping with good ol’ fashioned rural hospitality.