Part 1

Dean Hethington's Sri Lanka

'Pearl of the Indian Ocean' - 'One Island, a Thousand Treasures' - Sri Lanka is relatively small but with a remarkable diversity of land features and sights along with Asia's greatest density of wildlife refuges and national parks, golden beaches, ethereal pagodas, ancient ruins and vibrant wildlife, including leopards and elephants in the wild, and world class surfing and whale watching.

In the island's 'Cultural Triangle', visitors can see breathtaking visible remains of Sri Lanka's ancient kingdoms, dating from 500BC. To the north, is Girihadu Seya-Thiriyaya, a 2,600 years old, world's oldest Buddhist shrine - probably the only one built in the Buddha's lifetime. Farther south are World Heritage Sites, ancient capital 377 BC to 1017AD, Anuradhapura, and second capital, Polonnaruwa, rich in ancient ruins, carvings and artefacts.

There is also Sri Lanka's 'Up Country', 69 km from second-largest city, Kandy, an entire mountainous world of the interior containing some staggering landscapes: weirdly shaped hills, lotus flower covered lakes, verdant green rice fields and terraced tea plantations, great swathes of jungle foliage, numerous waterfalls and Pidurutalagala Mountain (2,550m), highest point in Sri Lanka.

Let's wait to explore the capital Colombo and 'up country' and at Colombo, board the excellent train service featuring wide views of the scenery to Batticaloa (Colombo-Batticaloa 1st class sleeper berth - £6 / $10) after which, it's an easy drive or bus ride south along the east coast to world class surf spot, among the world's top ten surf points, Arugam Bay, home to the monthly 'Poya Day' or Full Moon Party, and close access to Yala National Park and surrounding reserves.

Antarctic winter swells plus occasional storm driven waves roll into Arugam Bay, featuring at least three excellent right hand point breaks plus a righteous shore break May through November, also featuring an offshore wind for much of the morning. These and others are a short tuk-tuk ride from town or accessible by boat. Much of the almost constant rain of both monsoons - the Southwest, May through July (which drenches the West coast), and the Northeast, December to March (which affects the rest) - passes on by this protected weather enclave. Even rain during the monsoon is intermittent making it a year-round traveller destination. Dry season is from December through April. The first Full Moon Festival was born in Europe. Followers celebrate, and to become 'clean of all evils', they are not permitted to sleep until the sun rises. Now, an Asian sun rising in the East and open sea adds to the spiritual experience, so 'Poya Day', has been held monthly at the most easterly point of the island, Arugam Bay. Perhaps not as well-known as Goa or Ko Pha-Ngan (Thailand) featuring now thousands, it may be the advantage of this gathering.Did you say leopard? Not far from Arugam Bay, nowhere on earth has leopards like Sri Lanka's newly-reopened Yala National Park, where the world's highest density of them, one of perhaps 200 members of local subspecies 'Panthera pardus kotiyamay', (conceited beasts with the muscular confidence of tigers), may be spotted on reputable jeep safari although it's never guaranteed.

"My second time in Yala, I was visiting with Leopard Trails, and got close, approximately 15 meters away. Our jeep was fortunate enough to grab a good position near a mother and both of her cubs... One of the cubs who was moving around a bit through the bush came out just long enough for me to get photos," says travel writer Laurel Robbins (who spotted them on all three visits). Here as well, wild elephants along with wild boar, spotted dear, sloth bears, pangolins, king cobras and jackals can be seen. Around the lagoon nearby, spot crocodiles, kingfishers and iridescent sunbirds, lesser flamingo, pelican, painted stork, rare black necked stork, grey heron, purple heron, night heron, darters and lots of other endemic and migratory birds.

Four hours' drive south from Colombo or a short train ride (to Matara), the southernmost point on the island, Mirissa, (at Dondra Point) between November and April, is for spotting blue whales, the largest animal on earth - fully grown, it may reach a length of 30 meters and weigh more than 150 tons - and sperm whales as well as myriads of bottlenose and spinner dolphins swimming along with you on your whale spotting boat excursion (around £33 / $50 per person). Your chances of seeing a whale are near 90-95 percent. (If not, most companies promise to re-book your tour for free). There are 27 cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) species hereabouts. The upwelling along the continental shelf at its narrowest with one kilometre deep waters only six kilometres out supports whale feeding largely on krill in the deep water trough. While passing the South Coast in January, they're thought to be migrating from the Arabian Sea to The Bay of Bengal. In April, they pass on the return journey travelling west toward the Maldives and the Arabian Sea. Some pods are believed to be year-round residents.On the horizon, the towering vertical blow of a blue whale and finally one last long breath before making that beautiful dramatic sweeping curved arc dive back down to look for food.

(Dean Hethington served as editor and writer for various business, travel and trade publications in Asia, the US and has lived and travelled extensively throughout Asia. This two part article was originally published in Marianas Variety)