Describing 50 UNESCO World Heritage Sites that he has visited, David J. Patten’s “Planet Earth’s Legacy” (307 pgs., $59.95 on Amazon.com) contains historical details, current information and future outlooks on the sites. Travelers looking for new destinations may find inspiration in the author’s collection.
I have been fortunate to travel to many areas of the world that are renowned for their ancient cultures or scenic beauty and are designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization). Somehow, however, the offerings of the island nation of Sri Lanka, situated off the southern coast of India, managed to escape my attention until recently, when two of my travel forum correspondents infused me with their enthusiasm as they planned their own tours there.
Sri Lanka is endowed with eight UNESCO sites — an amazing number for a country of this size — and I was privileged to visit five of them during my private tour in January 2018.
Planning a visit
Sri Lanka, until fairly recently, has not been an easy place for travelers to visit. Plagued by a brutal, 26-year-long civil war, Sri Lanka began to reappear on tour providers’ itineraries following the end of the conflict in 2009, when the country’s remarkable sites were once again available to travelers.
I decided to book a private tour in order to allow the most flexibility and the inclusion of sites that were of special interest to me. Go Tours Lanka (www.gotourslanka.com), based in Kandy, Sri Lanka, created an amazing itinerary for me that was customized according to my specific desires.
My 8-day program cost $700, not including hotels, meals or entrance fees. I opted to book my accommodations on my own in order to ensure the quality and location that I wanted at each stop. The tour cost did include transportation and full guide services in (excellent) English at all of the places on the agreed-upon itinerary.
Ruwan Wijerathne, the founder of Go Tours Lanka, personally escorted me. His services as a guide were enhanced by his professionalism, extensive knowledge, friendly support and interesting conversation.
We traveled in a comfortable, air-conditioned Toyota sedan on a program that included the Golden Temple of Dambulla, the ancient cities of Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, the Sacred City of Kandy and the Old Town of Galle. All five of these places are UNESCO sites, and deservedly so.
Subscribers were invited to write in about places, outside of the US, where they’ve had rewarding sightings of birds. (We cannot accept more submissions.)
In addition to the types of birds they saw, we asked travelers to each tell us where they were and the year/month/time their visit took place. We also wanted to know how difficult it was to reach an area, what equipment would be recommended and what the weather was like.
The most responses were about birds in Latin America, and we’re printing the last of those this month, with letters about other areas to follow.
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My husband, Knox, and I traveled to BRAZIL in July and August of 2012 to study wildlife, with an emphasis on birds. Because Brazil is a very large country, we concentrated on only two areas: the Pantanal of the Central-West Region and also a UNESCO reserve in the Atlantic rainforest, northeast of Rio de Janeiro.
For years, Marvin dreamed of attending the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland. As we were to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in August 2017, we saw a trip to Scotland and, in particular, the opportunity to attend a performance during the annual, 3-week Tattoo as a fine excuse for going there.
Although we live in Florida, a summer family gathering would take us to Los Angeles, so it was easy for us to head directly to Scotland from there. From LA, we flew on Aer Lingus to Edinburgh via Dublin. It was quite a jolt to our bodies, heading from the summer heat of LA to chilly, windy and often rainy Scotland, but, equipped with warm coats and beanies, we soldiered on.
Edinburgh
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo exceeded our expectations. For nearly two hours, we watched hundreds of bagpipers, drummers, international military bands and brightly dressed dancers and singers perform the most stirring show we have seen in our lives! It was a dazzling, breathtaking spectacle that thrilled us from beginning to end. This was a fabulous introduction to our Scotland visit.
Not surprisingly, Edinburgh was packed with thousands of tourists, many of whom (like us) came for the Tattoo. But there was so much else going on, including the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with dozens of offerings on the streets and in various venues.
Despite two visits to Rome, my wife, Paula Owens, and I had never managed to visit nearby Ostia Antica, ancient Rome’s seaport.
Located at the mouth of the Tiber River, Ostia Antica is less than an hour (by rail) from the heart of Rome. A Mediterranean cruise in January 2018 provided a good opportunity for us to finally visit this ancient coastal city from the ship’s port in Civitavecchia. Travel time was slightly less than an hour (by bus), 15 to 30 minutes less than taking a bus into Rome.
The most convenient departure point for a visit to Ostia Antica might be Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, which is practically adjacent to the historic site. The stumbling block with that is finding somewhere to store your luggage during your visit.
Ostia Antica was founded in the 7th century BC. Eventually, the city’s population peaked at possibly around 100,000. However, Ostia Antica was slowly supplanted as Rome’s primary port by the newer city of Portus. After centuries of decline, the city was abandoned by the 9th century.
You enter the 120-acre site on a lane of stones and grass alongside a necropolis. Proceeding deeper into the city, you’ll find a large theater, public baths and latrines, private homes, a warehouse, shops and even cafés in various states of decay.
In Rome, visitors can take a 2-hour tour of parts of what was Nero’s palace, the Domus Aurea, visiting rooms with impressive architecture and frescoes and then, in the Octagonal Hall, donning virtual-reality glasses that overlay computer-generated images onto physical spaces. The 200-room Domus, which was destroyed after Nero’s death and had its ruins built over, lies under portions of Palatine Hill.
