In June 2023, my wife and I spent 14 days going around Sri Lanka, and it was our first big trip together.

We planned a 2-week loop of the island, then booked a car and an English-speaking driver-guide to take us round it, with the train seats reserved in advance.

So how did the plan hold up on the ground? Mostly, it held. Nearly every stop on the plan is a pin on my visited map.

Why Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is about the size of Ireland, a short flight from Singapore, and it packs ancient cities, tea hills, rainforest, beaches and national parks into a loop you can drive in 2 weeks. Do note that June is the southwest monsoon. On the coast that means 26 to 30 degrees in the day, the hill country sits at a cool 14 to 22, and short afternoon showers are common.

The ancient cities: what is worth the heat?

We landed in Negombo, near the airport, and drove north to Anuradhapura, the island’s first great capital. The Sri Maha Bodhi is a fig tree grown from a cutting of the tree the Buddha sat under, and it has been tended there for over 2,000 years. Nearby Mihintale is the hill where Buddhism is said to have arrived in Sri Lanka.

From there we went to Minneriya for an elephant safari. In the dry months, herds gather around the old reservoir there to feed on the grass, and it is one of the largest gatherings of Asian elephants anywhere.

Then Polonnaruwa, the later medieval capital, and the Dambulla cave temples, where the rock is painted and lined with Buddha statues.

Sigiriya or Pidurangala?

Both, if you can. Sigiriya is the famous one, a 5th-century palace built on top of a rock that rises about 200 metres out of the plain. Pidurangala is the rock next door, and it is the one you climb for the view of Sigiriya itself. We went to both.

Kandy and the tea country

On the way to Kandy we stopped at a spice garden, then spent a night in Kandy, by the lake. Kandy’s big sight is the Temple of the Tooth, which holds what is believed to be a tooth of the Buddha. We also walked the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya.

From Kandy, the road climbs into tea country. We had lunch at Chill Ramboda on the way up, with a waterfall view, and then Nuwara Eliya, the old British hill station that people still call “Little England”. We visited the tea plantations, sat in a tea lounge in the middle of the estates, and had English high tea at The Grand Hotel.

We also walked Horton Plains, a high plateau that ends at a cliff called World’s End, with Baker’s Falls along the trail.

Ella: what is there to do?

In Ella we walked to the Nine Arches Bridge, a stone railway bridge in the middle of the jungle, climbed Little Adam’s Peak, looked across at Ella Rock, and went down the Flying Ravana zipline. We ate at Higher Ground, a treehouse cafe.

Yala: leopard country

Yala National Park is known for having one of the highest densities of leopards in the world, and we stayed at a lodge right on the park’s edge.

The south coast and Colombo

The last few days were on the south coast. We stayed at Mirissa, climbed Coconut Tree Hill, the palm-topped headland that is on every Sri Lanka Instagram feed, and spent time on Unawatuna Beach. We stopped at a sea turtle hatchery and walked the walls of Galle Fort, the old Dutch fort town.

We ended in Colombo, at the Gangaramaya Temple, the Lotus Tower and Galle Face Green, the seafront where the street food comes out in the evening.

How did the trading fit in?

The same way it always does, in about 15 minutes a day. Sri Lanka is 2.5 hours behind Singapore, which barely moves the routine.

That routine is what lets a 2-week trip run without the markets running the trip. I wrote up how it works, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.

What would I tell a friend?

If you are planning Sri Lanka, here are three things. Hire a car and a driver-guide for the loop, because the distances are short on the map and slow on the road. Do Pidurangala for the view and Sigiriya for the history. And give Ella at least 2 nights.

Have you been to Sri Lanka? Which would you pick first, the ancient cities, the tea country or the coast? Let me know in the comments.

All my other trips are on the travel log, country by country, and more photos from this one are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.

Spencer Li

In September 2022, a week into 5 weeks across Central Asia, I flew from Almaty to Dushanbe. Kyrgyzstan had been yurts and high pastures. Tajikistan turned out to be something else again: a new capital of giant monuments, then a turquoise lake high in the mountains, then two of the oldest cities on the Silk Road.

We had 4 days, from 11 to 14 September, with a small group and a minibus. We started in Dushanbe in the south and drove north through the Fann Mountains to Khujand. This is that route, from my photos.

Why Tajikistan?

Tajikistan is the smallest of the Central Asian countries, and more than 90% of it is mountains. It was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

It also sounds different. The Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs speak Turkic languages, but Tajik is a form of Persian. So you might be thinking, does that change much on the ground? It does. The names change, and the heroes on the plinths are Persian poets and kings.

What is Dushanbe like?

Dushanbe means “Monday” in Tajik, after the Monday market that once stood there. Today it is the capital, and the centre is a long run of marble, fountains and gold.

The first stop was the National Museum of Antiquities. Its star is a reclining Buddha, about 12 metres long, found at Ajina Tepa, a Buddhist monastery in the south of the country from about 1,300 years ago. It lies in a room of its own on a red carpet.

The next morning was the monuments. On Dousti Square, which used to be called Lenin Square, Ismoil Somoni stands under a tall gilded arch, with stone lions at his feet. He ruled the Samanid state at the end of the 9th century, and the Tajiks count him as the father of the nation. The statue went up in 1999 where Lenin used to stand. The country’s currency, the somoni, is named after him too.

A short walk away is the flagpole. It is enormous. At 165 metres it was the tallest in the world when it went up in 2011, until a taller one went up in Jeddah in 2014. In the park beside it, the poet Rudaki stands in gold under an arch.

What is the Istiklol tower?

The newest thing in the city. The Istiklol Complex, the Independence tower, is 121 metres tall with a crown on top, and it opened in 2022 for the 31st anniversary of independence. We saw it only days after the anniversary.

At night, the whole square in front of it was lit up blue, with dancing fountains and the tower glowing pink and gold behind them. The next morning, in daylight, I found the carved wooden doors at its base, covered in gold patterns.

How do you get to the Fann Mountains?

By road, straight up.

On 12 September we left Dushanbe around midday and drove north into the mountains. The road climbs through steep, bare gorges, and by about 14:00 my phone put us at about 2,600 metres, looking down into a canyon full of haze. Then it drops into a valley of fast turquoise rivers.

What is Iskanderkul?

A glacial lake at about 2,195 metres, named after Alexander the Great. Iskander is the Persian form of Alexander, and “kul” means lake. One legend says his horse, Bucephalus, drowned in it.

Before the lake, we stopped at the waterfall where it drains. The Fan Niagara drops about 38 metres into a narrow rock gorge, and a small viewing platform hangs out over the drop.

We reached the lake shore at about 17:00. It is a deep turquoise. Bare grey and red mountains rise all the way round it, and on the far side the slopes run straight down into the water.

Where did we sleep?

In a village higher up the valley called Sarytag, at about 2,400 metres. It is a few stone and wooden houses on a dirt road, with goats grazing on the grass.

The next morning, we walked further up the valley along the river. We crossed a wooden footbridge strung over the water, and the valley opened out into a wide gravel riverbed with mountains on both sides. The water was so clear you could see every stone on the bottom.

Lunch was plov, the rice dish of Central Asia, cooked with carrots and big pieces of meat. In the afternoon we went back down to Iskanderkul for a picnic on the shore. By 17:14 the water was still enough to hold a perfect copy of the mountains.

What is in Istaravshan?

On 14 September we drove north out of the mountains to Istaravshan, one of the oldest towns in the country.

In the centre is a mosque with a tall brick minaret, its prayer hall held up by rows of carved wooden columns.

Then Mug Teppe. This is the hill where the old citadel stood. Alexander the Great took it in 329 BC, and the Arabs stormed it in AD 772. Little of the original is left. The gateway on top, with its blue dome, was built in 2002 for the town’s 2,500th anniversary, and in front of it was a bed of red roses.

What is in Khujand?

Khujand, in the far north, is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. Alexander the Great took it too, and renamed it Alexandria Eschate, “Alexandria the Furthest”. It sits where the Syr Darya river leaves the Fergana Valley.

The fortress stands on the bank of the river, with two round towers at its gate. Inside is the Historical Museum of Sughd. It runs in order from ancient history to the recent past, with mosaic battle scenes of Alexander’s army, a cave scene, a map of the Samanid state and a red star of portraits from the Soviet years.

In the evening, a cable car runs over the Syr Darya, from the fortress side to a park on the far bank. That was the last evening in Tajikistan. Next came Uzbekistan.

How did the trading fit in?

The same way it always does, in about 15 minutes a day. In September, Tajikistan is 9 hours ahead of New York, which put the US open at 18:30 local time, after each day’s driving.

One frame from Iskanderkul has my laptop open on a picnic blanket by the lake at 16:29 on 13 September. That was the day a hotter-than-expected US inflation number came out at 17:30 local time, and the S&P 500 fell about 4.3%, its worst day since June 2020.

I wrote up how the routine works, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.

Where does it fit in the trip?

Tajikistan was the third of the 4 Stans. Before it came Kyrgyzstan, which has a post of its own, and Kazakhstan. The rest of the 5 weeks, through Uzbekistan and Turkey, is in Exploring Central Asia. Every trip is on the travel log, and more photos are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.

Would you go for the lake or the old Silk Road cities first? Let me know in the comments.

Spencer Li