Perched up on the plateaus of central Sri Lanka, betwixt the rising foothills of the spikey Knuckles Mountains and seas of rolling jackfruit and cocoa farms, the town of Matale is quite a haphazard array of crooked housing, choked streets and frenetic marketplaces like an urban antithesis to this wild section of the island.

In the town itself the touristic interest is pretty much shared between the dual religious sites of the Sri Muthumariamman Temple and Aluvihara monastery. The former looms large over Matale’s bustling Main Street, with colourful shrines and Hindu iconography, while the latter sits higher in the hills around town, its place sacred in the Buddhist tradition.

But it’s away from the city centre that Matale tour guides direct many first-time travellers, whether to wander the hiking trails of the Knuckles Range, or to discover the secrets of the Sri Lankan spice trade in one of its many welcoming plantations nearby.