SRILANKA  Ξ

A visit to Sri Lanka sometimes feels like a vacation at the circus. Sitting along the road at the famous Kandy perahera (parade), we watched bare-chested men crack whips, boys on stilts juggle torches and crimson-robed elephants lumber along beside their bejeweled mahouts. And the carnival atmosphere doesn't evaporate after the parade ends.

Sri Lankans smile constantly -- perhaps amused, perhaps joyous -- at the spectacles that surround their daily lives: stilt fisherfolk reeling in mullet along the south coast; young couples walking the walls of the 17th-century Dutch fort in Galle; children searing their tongues with a fiery curry meal. For the traveler, it all starts to feel like a never-ending perahera. Sri Lankans sweep you into their circus so persuasively that you're soon moving with the show, instead of watching it.