Jaffna is a different country, and the train now goes there

The northern line reopened in 2014 and the overnight from Colombo Fort takes about seven hours. Almost nobody on your flight will be going.

Jaffna does not feel like the rest of the island. The food is hotter and more sour, built on tamarind and palmyra. The Nallur Kandaswamy temple runs a festival in August that is one of the great sights of South Asia and is essentially undocumented in English.

The islands

A causeway runs out to Kayts and Karainagar. Keep going and there is a ferry to Delft, where wild ponies left by the Portuguese still graze around coral-block walls.

Being sensible

This is a region that came through a long war. Ask before you photograph people, and skip the military sites entirely.