Sri Lanka's undiscovered east coast — Pigeon Island's coral garden, Nilaveli's empty white beach, blue whale watching at the continental shelf, and Tamil Hindu temple culture
Trincomalee is the most dramatically undervisited beach destination in South Asia — a natural harbour city on Sri Lanka's northeast coast (one of the finest deep-water natural harbours in the Indian Ocean, able to berth the largest naval vessels afloat) that remained largely closed to tourism until the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. The east coast that surrounds Trincomalee has a different character from the southwest tourist coast: white sand beaches (Nilaveli, Uppuveli, Marble Beach) that are genuinely uncrowded by international standards, water so clear you can see the coral from…
Trincomalee has been one of the most fought-over harbours in South Asian history — its deep natural harbour made it strategically essential to every maritime power that entered the Indian Ocean. The Tamils built the Koneswaram temple on the clifftop headland (one of the Pancha Ishwarams — the five most sacred Shiva temples in Sri Lanka) in pre-Buddhist times; the Portuguese destroyed it in 1622 and built Fort Frederick over its ruins; the Dutch rebuilt and renamed the fort in the 17th century; the British captured it in 1795 and turned it into their primary Royal Navy base in the Indian Ocean…