Live Like a Local at Tamarind Gardens, Digana

Walkers Tours has established a ‘Live Like a Local’ experience with sustainability at its core. Its essence is to give back to the community whilst giving visitors an insight to rural Sri Lanka. The home of our project is the village of Digana, located 20 kilometers outside the Hill Capital of Kandy. Overlooking the Victoria Reservoir, the construction of this quaint and unique property is nearing completion. Most of the building and even the fittings are made by village craftsmen. Designed to reflect typical Sri Lankan village houses, the eight rooms at Tamarind Gardens will consist of an en suite bathroom, mosquito net and a pedestal fan.

The property is home to a working farm which includes cattle, goats and poultry. Vegetable and fruit gardens on the property contribute to the fact that all meals are prepared with home grown produce, whilst meat is sourced from the local village. Other services like laundry, maintenance and housekeeping are outsourced to villagers in the vicinity to ensure that the community directly benefits through tourism. Guests are given an unforgettable opportunity to immerse themselves in typical village life. They are encouraged to volunteer in several activities like assisting in the preparation of meals, growing fruits and vegetables and caring for livestock.





Digana is situated at the border of the dry-zone, with harsh conditions for cultivation for crops – often the only means of making a living for these villagers. The difficult environment contributes to local community needing to struggle for survival and Walkers Tours firmly believes that supporting them in any way is critical.

As a result, many projects have been introduced to help create some form of financial stability to villagers. These include helping to build chicken coops or goat pens and donating water storage tanks to ensure that families have access to clean, safe water.

This exciting new project will give visitors an enriching experience. Here, they can take a break from fast paced metropolitan life and strike a balance between having a great time and being considerate to the planet and its people.

Go Fly a Kite!

Kite flying in Sri Lanka is considered a relaxing past time. It is an activity that is mostly enjoyed by young children, especially during this time of year, as it falls in the midst of school holidays.

This year the Sri Lanka Kites Community is organising an international kite festival. The festival hopes to draw in kite flyers, regardless of age. Internationally kite flying is often considered a professional sport, with countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and India holding similar festivals each year. The Sri Lanka Kites Community aims at creating a platform for kite flyers to promote the sport professionally with participants hailing from over 30 countries across the globe.

Galle Face Green is most definitely one of the best spots in Colombo for this event, as it has ample space for all participants and is blessed with a steady flow of wind. The skies will be dotted with many colourful and imaginative shapes. Why not try making your own kite? All you will need is coconut eakles or bamboo skewers, gum, yarn and tissue paper. Try out a variety of shapes, from the most aero-diametrically favourable structures to the more complex forms.

Come fly your kite along with the rest of us on the 13^th and 14^th of October at the Galle Face Green!

Office Olympics 2012

In true Leisure Inbound spirit, our colleagues at Walkers Tours and Whittall Boustead Travel Limited (our sister company) won the overall silver medal in the Office Olympics, held on the 28^th of July 2012.

The Office Olympics was organised by a popular local radio station, with an impressive thirty two teams participating in the event. Our six member team who named themselves ‘The Y-NOTS’ included the likes of Andre Power and Asitha Jayawardana of the Nature Odyssey department, Shanendra Fernando from our Data Entry team, Sidath Jayaweera from the Chinese Market, Gayanga Botejue from Whittall Boustead Travel and Nanduni Rajapakshe of Web Sales.  The Olympics comprised of six exciting events, four of which required team effort. Out of the six grueling events held at the Olympics, our crafty colleagues managed to secure positions in an astounding four events! This meant that the Y-NOTS were the overall silver medalists for the Office Olympics 2012 walking away with Rs. 120,000 as prize money!



Rubberband Archery



Wastepaper  shootout



Concentration at its peak during an intense game of rubberband archery




Our Olympians



The Y-NOTS managed to bag medals for the following events:

Gold medal - Office chair hand ball (team event)

Bronze medal - Obstacle course race (team event)

Silver medal - Waste paper shootout

Bronze Medal - Pin your boss (darts)

Congratulations to the well deserved winners!

Fruit salad

Sweet, sour, juicy, round and even the downright strange - we have them all. As Sri Lanka is located in the tropics, it comes as no surprise that the island is blessed with a variety of exotic fruit.

A drive around the island, mostly on the outskirts of towns and cities will take you past a number of roadside stalls selling colourful fruit. If you are a fruit enthusiast, then this is going to be a gastronomical ride of a lifetime! Although I cannot describe every single fruit found in Sri Lanka (this would require me writing an entire book), I will touch on a few favourites enjoyed by locals.

At any given time of the year, you are bound to run into bunches of bananas sold by the gazillions at any fruit stall. Choose from the larger savoury bananas like Kolikuttu or the smaller sweet/sour kinds like Ambul Kesel. You are bound to go bananas over the numerous varieties and flavours waiting to be chomped on!

Mangos are my personal favourite fruit. When eating mangos, one generally looks for big flavour and little fiber. If you’re lucky enough, you will be able to get your hands on mangos from Jaffna, undoubtedly the best in the island. These deliciously sweet mangos are juicy, full of flavour and are just the right consistency when ripe.



Jaffna Mangos

The wood apple is a strange looking fruit. This peculiar bulbous fruit is brown in colour and has a hard outer layering. Once cracked, the fruit reveals a sticky brown pulp within that has a jam like consistency. The wood apple is used to make a popular drink called divul kiri, which is a definite must try on your list of Sri Lankan specialties to taste whilst on holiday.

I cannot forget to mention a few seasonal favourites. Jambu is one such fruit. These small bell-shaped, blushing fruits have a very subtle flavour comparable to a snow pear. They are often enjoyed raw or eaten with a pinch of salt and chilli for an added Sri Lankan kick!

Next let me introduce you to my dear old friend, the rambutan. Rambutan is found in South East Asia and is yet another strange looking fruit. Its red skin is covered with hairy protuberances and cannot be eaten. However once the skin is peeled away, the succulent opaque fruit is revealed. Its flavour is slightly sweet with an acidic after taste that will leave you begging for more! Rambutans are not found all year round, however when they are, you will find them piled up in glorious red bunches by the roadside and at any fruit stall. Other popular fruits include the pineapple, papaw, watermelon and of course the coconut.



A delicious mound of rambutan

Yes, our tiny island is jam-packed with a vast array of delicious fruit. Be astounded by the variety of colours, smells and tastes that greet your senses when visiting a local fruit market. It’s amazing that such a large variety of produce is grown locally in various parts of the island. I think that Sri Lanka’s fruit platter can be paralleled to its society. There are so many ethnicities found in the island, resembling one colossal fruit salad.