The long journey up the old A9 highway to Jaffna is unquestionably the country’s most absorbing road trip, taking you from the Buddhist south into the Hindu heartlands of the Tamil north. Dawn trips offer an unforgettable oceanic experience, as your boat bobs and ploughs through the waves and the waters around churn with literally hundreds of dolphins racing, cavorting and frolicking alongside – and occasionally shooting clean out of the ocean in acrobatic leaps and twirls.ĭivided from the rest of the country for over two decades during the country’s tragic civil war, the north remains Sri Lanka’s final frontier, and the ultimate destination for those wishing to get firmly off the tourist track. The biggest draw here, are the vast pods of spinner dolphins regularly seen offshore. The peninsula comprises a narrow sliver of land, with the waves of the Indian Ocean crashing against its eastern side and the tranquil waters of the Kalpitiya Lagoon on the other. Hidden away on Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, the remote Kalpitiya Peninsula is one of the island’s true undiscovered – or, at least, only very slightly discovered – gems. Trekking also offers the chance to appreciate the range’s status as one of Sri Lanka’s most remarkable biodiversity hotspots, with leopards lurking in the shadows (although they’re rarely seen) along with other rare creatures including purple-faced langur monkeys, giant squirrels and some superb endemic birdlife. Swathed in a dense tangle of dwarf cloudforest and often concealed behind veils of drifting cloud, the Knuckles’ jagged grey peaks can only be properly appreciated on foot, and the entire region remains little visited, despite being inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2010. Rising out of the island’s central highlands east of Kandy, the wild mountains of the Knuckles Range are Sri Lanka’s very own Shangri-La – remote, beautiful, and known only to a privileged few. Well-visited places such as the British Museum, for example, could be viewed in numerous ways with different audio tours, said Manley.Ĭall Rawhide Travel and Tours and start planning that special vacation or event today. The start up has also recently received funding to start doing tours indoors, too, including museums, galleries and shopping malls. It was a huge moment for Manley and Edwards, working with the Lord of the Rings actor. If famous voices like McKellen can be secured to do similar tours in other locations, all the better, Manley and Edwards believe. The next stage for VoiceMap is to increase the number of these partnerships in other major cities around the world. The creators figured that with all the technology available to anyone with a smartphone, it just makes sense to open up a platform for people to be able to tell those stories.ĭigitally-savvy travelers already use their smartphone to do most travel-related tasks, from booking flights and hotels to ordering taxis, so it made sense to target this demographic, explains VoiceMap's Manley.Īnd although the product is now global, its development has been very much a product of South Africa. There are so many stories you don't have access to unless you have an insider.
Since it launched out of Cape Town in 2014, the service has grown to include over 300 tours and is available in cities across South America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. The app makes sense for many travelers, because if you have ever joined a group tour, you know the guide has been doing the same tour for decades and they are so tired of running through the same thing and They are probably not connected to the space they are in - they may not even be from the area.Īs such, VoiceMap aims to seek out the interesting perspectives that only a local can provide. Gandalf himself, Sir Ian Mckellen, has even created a tour for London's theater district. In some cases, the guide could be a local journalist or knowledgeable resident. The South African pair have built VoiceMap, a cellphone application that offers personalized audio tours of cities around the world. At least that's the aim of travel writers, Iain Manley and Lauren Edwards.
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