SWELL TIMES

Palm-tree-lined beaches? Check. Excellent reef breaks? Check. A cool-kid scene complete with surf stays, yoga retreats, and oceanfront cafés? Check, check, check. Sri Lanka’s south coast has all the ingredients to become the next great lifestyle destination

By Chandrahas Choudhury

ON a grassy bluff at the southern tip of Sri Lanka, I clasp a negroni, my feet pointing downhill toward the Indian Ocean. Snatches of jazz float into my ears from Cape Weligama’s Surf Bar. On the horizon a cluster of roseate clouds match the hue of my drink. There is traffic on the ocean. Half a dozen surfers use the last light of day to glide balletically into a break created by a headland. These stick figures remind me of fishermen in an old Japanese woodblock print, their histories and identities dissolved by the low light and the immensity of their stage. But in truth, they only began showing up in any real numbers on the south coast about a decade ago. Between December and April, when the first of Sri…

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Conde Nast Traveler (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2024

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