Hi there

We got married in Bentota in September, spent two weeks all up in Sri Lanka, including time in Colombo. There is a lot of "bad press" around about Sri Lanka, we chose to ignore it at the time and had a wonderful experience, so much so that we are going back for a month's backpacking in May. The people were so friendly and helpful and not once did we feel unsafe.

I'd say to your friends to just go for it, they will almost certainly have no problems. At the end of the day, the way the world is, when your time's up it's up, no matter where you are. Seize the day!