His first port of call is the fortress town of Galle built by the Portuguese in 1588. Later, he finds out about captive elephants at a foundation where he meets a majestic elephant that has been rescued.
The presenter embarks on the second leg of his Sri Lankan adventure, beginning with a train journey to the mountain town of Haputale, where he learns about the British tea tycoon Sir Thomas Lipton and visits a family of modern day tea growers. In the water surrounded city of Kandy, Alexander is introduced to Sri Lanka's ancient traditional medicine, Ayurveda, before visiting a rural jungle retreat where he finds himself at the mercy of Dr DeSilva who treats him to an array of traditional Ayurvedic treatments. Later, Alexander heads south towards Udawalawe National Park to the baby Elephant Transit Home, a rehabilitation centre for young orphaned elephants, and finds out more about how humans and elephants co-exist on the island.
On the last leg of his journey around the spectacular island of Sri Lanka, Alexander Armstrong moves north into Tamil country. But first he has a nail-biting close-up encounter with a cobra as he meets a snake expert called Sampath who is always on call to rescue the deadly but endangered reptiles who inadvertently find their way into peoples' homes.
