Full country name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Area: 66,000 sq km
Population: 19 million (annual growth 1.04%)
Capital city: Colombo (pop 2 million)
People: 74% Sinhalese, 18% Tamils, 7% Moor, 1% other
Language: Sinhala, Tamil, English
Religion: 69% Buddhist, 15% Hindu, 8% Muslim, 8% Christian
Government: Democracy
President: Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
Prime Minister: Sirimavo RD Bandaranaike

Getting There & Away

The only way to enter Sri Lanka is by flying. Colombo is the international gateway for direct flights from Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. There are cheap flights available between Colombo and Madras, Trichy, Trivandrum and Bombay. Departure tax is US$10.

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Getting Around

There are no domestic passenger flights in Sri Lanka, which leaves buses and trains as the dominant modes of transport. Buses, ranging from smoke-spewing monsters to modern private coaches, are cheap, plentiful and always overcrowded. Train travel, while slower, is infinitely more comfortable. Motorbike and self-drive car hire are becoming increasingly popular, though motorists often run an obstacle race around cows and dogs - many of the latter significantly three-legged. It's common to rent a car with a driver for a day-trip or a few days' tour of the island; prices are reasonable if you're with a few friends. Local transport consists of buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws. Use your nonce and agree a fare beforehand.

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Recommended Reading

An idiosyncratic insight into the country can be found in the touching and disarming Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje. The Canadian writer returned to explore his Sri Lankan roots in 1978.

William McGowan's Only Man is Vile: The Tragedy of Sri Lanka is a brilliant and indeed tragic account of the country's recent ethnic troubles, mixing travelogue, history and reportage. Dr K M De Silva's exhaustive A History of Sri Lanka provides the comprehensive overview.

Leonard Woolf's A Village in the Jungle, written in 1913, is a sombre and deeply observant account of village life in the early part of this century.

Young Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunesekera has achieved modest international literary success with Monkfish Moon and Reef. The conflict in Sri Lanka hangs like a menacing black cloud over most of his stories.

Sri Lanka has some fascinating literary connections. Robert Knox, who was held captive by a Kandyan king for 20 years in the 17th century wrote a memoir called An Historical Relation of Ceylon. This was one of the sources used by Defoe for Robinsoe Crusoe. Pablo Neruda lived in Colombo in the 1930s and many of the poems in Residence on Earth were written in Ceylon. Paul Bowles owned the island off Weligama for a short time and wrote much of The Spider's House there. Arthur C Clarke has spent many years on the island, and wrote The Fountains of Paradise, a futuristic fable with a setting that bears an uncanny resemblance to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan-born author Karen Roberts has woven a sensitive tale of unlikely connections and fated relationships in her debut novel, The Flower Boy.

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