I visited Sri Lanka for the first time in February this year with my mother, Moira. We enjoyed a wonderful Kudu tour during two weeks with Amila Salgado as our full time guide. Our small group of a dozen English people immensely enjoyed the whole experience of visiting such a beautiful tropical island with a great variety of habitats.

Only a few of us were already interested in birding, but our delightful and most knowledgeable guide, Amila, was a real inspiration and we looked forward each day to seeing some of the most beautiful birds including the endemics. Amila not only had great skill in finding and indicating these birds, but was able to describe them and their habits with great knowledge and patience! This also applied to other wildlife including mammals, reptiles and butterflies. I am very interested in tropical trees and flowers and another member of our group, a keen botanist, also expected Amila to assist us with our questions relating to the local flora, which he ably did.

Amila has a wonderful gift of transmitting his own pleasure, interest and enthusiasm to his audience helped by his sense of humour and thanks to him we shall now continue to enjoy discussing and watching birds. Following such a happy trip, which for me was one of the best holidays ever, I will be re-visiting Sri Lanka again to enjoy the flora, fauna and great history of the country.

Angela D. Warr-King

Director: Hotels & Leisure
Grant & Partners, London W.1.

I have just completed my second tour with Amila Salgado as our guide and ground agent for Sri Lanka. This last tour was his inaugural tour for his new company, Birdwing Nature Holidays. As I have now come to expect from him, the logistics were put into place with great attention to detail ensuring a trouble-free smoothly run tour for our party of 11 people. The hotels were well chosen to give great variety, the transport was spot on and the itinerary was well designed. On the bird front Amila was his usual enthusiastic self and led the group with great skill.

Amila is great fun to travel with and his social skills are excellent and he has become a great friend.

Two fantastic tours under our belt and I hope more to come. I can recommend Amila highly enough and should anybody reading this be thinking of visiting Sri Lanka whether for birds, botany, general wildlife or culture or a combination of all of these, then I would urge you to consider contacting Amila to see what he can do for you. His previous managerial and guiding experience with one of Sri Lanka's major tour companies has enabled him to set up his own small company which, I know, will go from strength to strength.

Please contact me if you require further information.

Thank you Amila

John van der Dol
Kent, UK
February 2006

We had been invited to tour the island of Sri Lanka with friends from Australia; our party consisted of 4 adults and 3 teenagers. We were met at Colombo airport by Amila Salgado who was to be our guide. We were fortunate during the next 2 weeks to not just explore the sites but have the company of Amila who brought the trip to life with his amazing knowledge of the historical and cultural highlights and his infectious enthusiasm for the birds, wildlife and plants of Sri Lanka. We began our tour in Negombo where we explored the beach and the markets and rested after our plane flight from Australia. Amila convinced us to leave early the next morning to travel to the Pinnewala elephant orphanage in time to see the baby elephants being fed.

The memories of the elephants strolling down to the river and the time spent watching them enjoy wallowing in the water were unforgettable. It took some persuasion to get us to leave the river and to travel onto Dambulla. At Dambulla we stayed at Habarana Lodge where Amila took the opportunity to take us on an impromptu birding and wildlife walk around the spacious grounds in search of owls and other birds he knew were in the area. Only a few days into our trip and we were already enjoying the fabulous outdoor restaurants and the extensive choice of dishes available including the fabulous curries. From Dambulla we visited the ancient cities of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura where Amila continually amazed us with his ability to retain and impart a wealth of information about the historical significance of the area.

Our next destination and highlight was Sigiriya and after the arduous climb to the top (with many welcome breaks along the way to hear about the history or wildlife) we were rewarded with the most spectacular scenery. From Dambulla we drove to Kandy where we took the opportunity to view some cultural dancing and look at some magnificent gems and gold jewellery for which Sri Lanka is famous. In the evening we visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth and the next day enjoyed Amila’s extensive knowledge once again as we strolled around the Peradiniya Gardens.

We began the drive up into the mountains where spectacular scenery greeted us as we travelled through rolling hills covered with the brilliant green of the tea plantations on our way to Nuwara Eliya. Amila suggested that we make the trip to Horton’s Plains and walk the track to World’s End. By this stage of our tour we had come to rely on Amila’s suggestions and good judgement to add extra experiences to our itinerary. Amila’s passion and enthusiasm for birding, wildlife and plants became infectious and we were soon watching for birds along the track and making frequent stops to find out about the plants or wildlife as we walked. The view from World’s End was breathtaking and this was to be yet another highlight of the tour.

Next we travelled to the South East coast to see the fabulous wildlife at Yala national park. We were looking forward to touring the national park with Amila, due to his exceptional knowledge of birds and wildlife; we knew that we would have the best opportunity to learn about what the reserve had to offer. The only safari we did for Yala national park couldn't have gone better as we bagged Leopard, Elephant & Sloth Bear with a baby: Sri Lanka’s Big Three (or 3 ½ ?) plus added Spotted Deer, Wild Boar, Ruddy Mongoose, Wild Buffalo, Mugger Crocodile & many birds including Black-necked Stork thanks to the expertise of Amila. His telescope was a great assistance for us to enjoy most of these sightings.

Now that we had come to the coastal area of Sri Lanka we began travelling through the area that had been devastated by the Tsunami just 6 months earlier. Some rebuilding had begun but many people were still living in tents and temporary huts along the roadside.

We continued onto Galle where we toured the Fort and learned about the Dutch history in Sri Lanka. After 2 restful nights at the fabulous Lighthouse hotel we drove to Colombo to spend a day touring the city sites and take the opportunity to do some shopping before we headed to the airport.
The trip had reached its conclusion and we had mixed feelings of sadness at leaving the beautiful island of which we had so many fabulous memories. Our cameras had recorded our trip along the way but photos are not able to impart the experiences we had shared together throughout the 2 weeks of the tour.

We had been fortunate to be invited to tour the island with good friends who knew the island well but also to have had Amila as our guide. Amila was able to relate so easily to our group and his communication skills were excellent. However what he added most to our tour was his immense knowledge and enjoyment of the birding, fauna and flora of Sri Lanka. His cultural and historical information, travel tips, organising ability and humour enhanced our experience and have left unforgettable memories of our short time in Sri Lanka. I have certainly begun to look at the wildlife and especially the birds of Australia more eagerly since our trip and I must thank Amila for this new interest.

Maree Dresser, Melbourne, Australia

Since we retired, we have been able to escape from the U.K. for a short break during the winter months to the tropics/semi- tropics. For the 2005/6 winter we chose Sri Lanka. The native people of Sri Lanka made valuable contributions to the appearance of the countryside long before Europeans began to exploit its riches. For example the Buddhist temples with their extensive landscaped areas around them, and the several very large reservoirs constructed to provide water when there is no natural rainfall.

On our recent trip, we were very fortunate to have as our local guide Amila Salgado, who gave names to all birds that stayed long enough to be seen or heard, and of course substantiated his identification by turning to the appropriate page in the up to date bird book. He was more than pleased to be able to show us a good proportion of the endemics. Amila also had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Sri Lankan history and a sound knowledge of native trees that may not have horticultural value, but nevertheless are memorable, e.g. the tropical forest trees with red/purple pigments in the leaves.

Peter and Kathleen Newton, Manchester. M21 0ZA, United Kingdom.
June 2006

I returned to Sri Lanka with my brother, sister, father (and spouses) after an absence of 43 years. Amila was our guide and we were very pleased to have such an informed and accommodating guide. Amila has a wealth of knowledge on the flora and fauna of Sri Lanka, as well as history. We will never forget 'Dendrocalamus giganteus’ even we laymen got interested in scientific names thanks to his enthusiasm. Amila joined us on many of our 'family discoveries' and smoothed the way in locating many of these.

Our cultural night on our final night in Sri Lanka was inspired by Amila's ‘Traditional-dress night’ - we were very pleased to do this.

We would have no hesitation in recommending Amila as a trusted tour guide and
look forward to using his services if we return once again to Sri Lanka.

Lynne and Steve Beven, Australia.

Tour leaders come in all shapes and sizes and with varying degrees of interpersonal skills, local knowledge and knowledge of local avifauna. Many stay in the memory for good and other reasons. Some become good friends. Amila may come in the smaller category for the former and I for one like a leader whose head I can look over to see what has been found! However my abiding memory of my 2 weeks in Sri Lanka is his profound knowledge of all aspects of natural history, local history and international matters, his unending enthusiasm and his willingness to accommodate all needs whenever possible. His humour never deserts him.

The events of the 26th December, 2004 immediately brought Amila to mind. He however was thankfully up in the mountains, but Yala did not fair so well and it is with sadness that one thinks that many of the very friendly and colourful locals we met may have suffered.

Best regards,

Brian Short
Kent, England.