Flat, low-rise Jaffna has a compulsively fascinating cityscape. Mostly it's a sprawling patchwork of comfortably middle-class colonial-era suburbs, almost lost in lush foliage and palms. But all this screeches to a halt in the tireless commercial centre, which, in turn, rubs shoulders with the gaping holes and eerie rubble of bombed-out former civic offices. It's an intriguing, friendly and utterly untouristed place that repays gentle exploration.