Well the funny thing is Sri Lanka is one of the few nations I have been to where I never visited the capital. We were visiting during the election (1999-2000) and things were hairy. When we arrived the airport was in lockdown and at first we thought it was some sort of scam but a suicide bomber had attempted to assassinate the PM the day before and there were bits of head and hair on the front page of the newspaper. Welcome to Sri Lanka.
Before we even arrived we had done some research. Sir Lanka is perfectly safe as long as you don't go to the north. Or the east. Or the south. Or the Capital.
So once we were allowed to leave the airport we went straight to Kandy. It is like paradise on Earth. Spent ages there and it seemed so nice. Funny some UN election observers were staying in our hotel and we said, "The election is going well."
They replied, "Except for the 1,073 reported incidents of electoral violence." Gulp.
We were even visiting a small town one day, it all seemed fine to us but back at the hotel we heard there had been an election related murder there.
Anyway it was beautiful and full of awesome historic sites. We visited Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya (As an Arthur C Clarke fan I had wanted to go there for years) and Anuradhapura (right now I am touching a leaf from the Sacred Sri Maha Bodhi - the oldest historically documented tree in the world).
Finally we went to Negumbo for a short break before flying to India.