Sri Lanka bouncing back and providing a less commercialized, less spoilt alternative to perennial favourite destinations for Australians such as Bali, states The Age in a report published on January 6.

Once ravaged by war, Sri Lanka is now a hot spot for different reasons, as The Age writer Keith Austin reveals in this report.

Lonely Planet, in its book, Best in Travel 2013, hails Sri Lanka as a "cut-price paradise back on the map" that is best for "culture, off the beaten track, value for money".

Today Sri Lanka is a beautiful and deeply spiritual country where almost every road junction is watched over by a Buddha; or a Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god; or the Virgin Mary; or Christ on the Cross, the writer further said.

It's a fresh green land bursting with vitality and rice paddies and tea plantations, with wildlife parks and elephant sanctuaries, and where wild monkeys sit genially by in 1000-year-old temple grounds.

The writer explains unlike its neighbour India, there are no tigers to see. But Sri Lanka is said to be home to 92 mammal species, 242 types of butterfly, 435 birds, 107 species of fish and 98 types of snakes, including the revered and feared king cobra. “If you are very lucky you might spot one of the leopards that make their home in the national parks. Ditto the golden jackal, shaggy sloth, civet and the armour-plated Indian pangolin,” he said.

The Cultural Triangle is the area of Sri Lanka's northern plains that boasts the amazing ruined city of Anuradhapura. The capital of the island from the 3rd century BC to about 933AD, this was one of the mediaeval world's great metropolises, he explains.

For full report please visit:

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/activity/great-outdoors/wonder-land-20130104-2c858.html