Jacqkie | Travel and Lifestyle

After sitting cross legged on the floor at the edge of a jam-packed rustic train for 3 hours, you expect nothing less from a famous city like Kandy to deliver. And delivered she did. Kandy, one of the more famous city in Sri Lanka surged in popularity after AirAsia connected most parts of South East Asia to Colombo. Sri Lanka has been popular for decades on its elephant conservation and tourism, but for the longest of time too, Sri Lanka had suffered from various tensions which have caused a lot of religious and political unrest. But beautiful things do not need to fight for attention. Over the years, the conservation efforts and wildlife tourism of Sri Lanka, or everything for that matter, which include its vibrant economy, people and culture crept through the ears and sights of traveler of all kinds, westerners largely who then slowly but surely put the word out there that Sri Lanka, IS the next big thing in Asia. To be honest, I had no idea why we chose to visit Sri Lanka...

Traveling can be the most ADDICTIVE thing. Just by a flick of a phone, you would stumble upon one breathtaking picture of a place you never knew, yet already loved. You tell yourself that it is yours to discover, and it's yours to learn. And then you start Googling about this mystical place. And like any hidden gem, the more you know about anything, the more in love you fall for it. Then you start searching for flights into that mystical place, hoping you'd stumble upon something more affordable. You'd look at your calendars every minute hoping you could somehow lock those dates in your head and tell the world that you're going to the most awesome place. Or you'd dream you'd be able to telepathically try and bring those dates nearer to you as fast as you can. In the most complex of excitement you're tangled in, you'd want to both tell the world and keep it to yourself. And when the day came, when you're actually queuing up to board the plane; yo...

Sri Lanka was my first time trying out airbnb as a guest. My family has been hosting numerous people from all walks of life through airbnb and it's about time that we do the same in a place so foreign like Sri Lanka, to call our second home. This trip was very close to my heart because I went with Daren after so long of not traveling together and to utilise airbnb seemed like the perfect choice. Daren and I went through a couple of options, a lot of options actually, the more we read about all these wonderful hosts the more I fell in love with them, and the more I got indecisive. Eventually, we've decided that he is to decide on the stays at Kandy, while I needed to decide on the stays in Colombo. Mr Dijen's House - First Home (First Night in Colombo) Our first homestay via airbnb was in a very beautiful house with some very edgy black stone walls. Upon reaching the bus station, we followed Mr Dijen's instruction very closely  and options were the bus and tuk t...