Reading and traveling yes please. But what to read before heading to Sri Lanka, here is a good start.

“Colombo, with its fine port, its midway position between East and West, was one of the great junctions of the shipping world in the 1920’s. Yet the city had none of the chaos of masonry, the hustle and bustle that one associated with the other great cities of the East, be they Singapore, Shangai, or Bombay. Instead the principal impression of Colombo was tress and water.

The city was flanked on one side by the ocean, and its inhabitants where never very far away from the salty smell of sea air and its cooling breezes. In the middle of the city was the extensive Beira lake, from which tributaries snaked their way through the city, forming smaller lakes at various junctions. The waters of the lake where bordered by foliage of unrivaled beauty, palms of every variety, masses of scarlet flamboyant blossoms, the waving of leaves of plantain trees. The streets were wide and lined on both sides with huge trees that cast their shade over the roads. The most common of these was the Suriya tree, whose profuse blossoms often formed a carpet of primrose yellow over the pavements”

From Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai.