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A teardrop shaped island at the southern tip of the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, "The Pearl of the Indian Ocean", has always been a hub of commerce. Chinese, Arab, Malaysian, Japanese and other merchants stopped here as they criss-crossed the oceans along their various trade routes. Only in the 1500s did Europeans arrive and colonize. The Portuguese first, followed by the Dutch and finally the British. They were interested in gems, ivory, cinnamon and other spices. (How boring must European food have been before this time!)

The island nation got its independence from Britain in 1948. Not long afterwards the seeds of war were sown between the Hindu Tamils in the north and the Buddhist Sinhalese in the south. The gruelling, decades-long civil war finally ended in 2009 and the country is beginning to get back on its feet.