Sri Lanka rises to 2,524 meters. From the coast, it takes three hours to drive to find yourself at fifteen degrees, in a landscape of hills lined with tea trees and cloud forests. It's the contrast that strikes people the most, much more than the beaches.

Adam's Peak is a unique experience: five thousand night walks, with pilgrims, to be at the top at sunrise. From December to May, when the path is lit. It's not technically difficult, it's long, and the atmosphere is worth the lack of sleep.

The Horton Plains offers the World's End, an eight-hundred-metre cliff that falls suddenly. You have to be there at dawn: after ten o'clock, the mist has swallowed up everything and you can see nothing. It's the classic trap, and half of people discover it on the spot.

Ella Rock and Little Adam's Peak can be done in one morning, from the village, without a guide. It is the easy gateway, and it is enough for many.

And for those who want the real thing: the Knuckles, classified by UNESCO, where you walk for two or three days without meeting anyone. There, a guide is not a luxury.