Shaped With Love

Warm and welcoming, Sri Lanka is all heart and no hype.

- Benaifer J Mirza

Right from – “Oh, why didn’t you go along with some of your friends, or probably in a group?” – to my best friend’s mother-in-law telling me, “If you didn’t have any company, I would have come along with you,” – my trip to Sri Lanka was met with quite a few surprising and judgmental reactions. The reason being that I was heading for my first-ever solo trip!

A solo trip was always on my bucket list. While I had seen a number of places, including Paris and Singapore, on my own, I always had some uncle and aunty (read: stick to curfews), or friends (read: let’s all “chill” together) to go back to. Exactly why I wanted to do a trip where it was I, me and myself throughout the trip. And, there was no better, more peaceful, and, most importantly, safe place than Sri Lanka to venture out for a solo trip.

Coming from a buzzing city, such as Mumbai, the calm and peace of Sri Lanka is quite a welcoming respite. While most people have the typical itinerary of Colombo-Bentota-Kandy when they visit Sri Lanka, I included unheard destinations, such as Dambulla, Nuwara Eliya, Sigiriya and Galle, to my list, and that is what made the difference. My choicest takeaways