‘Sir’ Lanka Part I – Sri Lanka....Colombo, Unawatuna and Hikaduwa

• Packaged Tourism – The people you meet :)
• Sri Lankan Indian fusion food – download recipes here
• Blood on the sheets – a family tradition
• Flashing Buddhas and too many Christians

Sri Lanka’s international airport is 2 hours drive from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.  I was staying in a hostel in Colombo and their pickup service from the airport was $40US (a shared taxi).  The only mode of transport I’d paid that much for in India was an airplane.   I took the local bus, it was $1.  :)  This was my introduction to Sri Lanka, the Sir of the local tourist destination and boy were the prices surly.

The one thing that's cheaper in Sri Lanka is King coconuts.  I drunk 4-5/day! 

Sri Lanka is new tourist destination.  The last decade brought the Asian tsunami and the end of the civil war but Sri Lanka has recovered well and tourism is high growth sector.  The country already has an amazing tourist infrastructure.  For me, it was like a quiet, litter free version of Kerela (the closest state in India).  With that brings a different kind of tourist.  This is package holiday heaven so the prices vs. India are high and there is a lot more focus on getting a sun tan and cheap beer vs. a spiritual journey.

My reason for going to Sri Lanka was to renew my Indian visa. Usually a painful process involving online forms, queues and interviews with immigration officials.  Something I was not looking forward to (despite the fact that I was getting to go to a tropical island to drink cheap beer and get a tan ;) ).  On the morning I was to go to the embassy office I woke early, had finished my yoga practice by 0730 and all ready to go to the embassy.  Getting to the embassy when it opens (0830) is critical to have a smooth visa process.  The only problem was my door wouldn't open. The lock had jammed and despite the hostel having a phone in the room (it was a fancy pants hostel) there was no-one picking up.  At 0800 I finally got out of the room and headed to the embassy.  As I was, at that stage in a bit of a rush and I hadn't had time to put my documents in a folder.   As soon as I walked outside there was a burst of wind and they blew away out into a busy street.  Papers collected and dusted off, my rickshaw rocked up at the embassy at 0815.  Despite what the website stated the embassy no longer processes the visas, it’s been outsourced to a company across the other side of town.  Lucky for me, my rickshaw driver could sense the urgency and we arrive by 0845 and there’s only a small queue.  I hear the usual visa stories:

• Erwin from Holland who applied a week ago even spending an extra $5 to have the agency type out the application for him is told to re-do the application due to a typo
• Danna from the US who had been told two times that her passport was ready for collection and it wasn't    All her luggage was over on the other side of the island as she thought she could come over and back in a day, two days later.  

Oddly once I’d handed over my application I was confidently told it would all be done within 5 working days.  5 working days mi hole.

As soon as I was done with my application I headed to the bus station to get out of Colombo.  Sri Lanka is known for its’ stunning beaches and that’s where I wanted to be.

2 hours later I was in Unawatuna, a town it took me two days to get used to saying.  I’d been told by friends who’d been that this was one of the prettiest beaches they’d ever been too.  WTF?  The beach was a very narrow strip full of Russian package holiday tourists (pretty petit girls with shrek boyfriends).   I knew I was in a tourist town when within 5 minutes of me checking in the hotel manager asked me:

1)      Do I like to chill out?  To which I replied yes and he offered me weed.  Then 30 seconds later,

2)      Do I like girls?  Yes.  To which he offered me a prostitute

I did what I always do at beaches.  Avoided the drugs and prostitutes and instead dropped my stuff, ripped my clothes off and ran into the sea for a swim.  The waves were amazing and I was soon body surfing back in on a good one.   So good in fact that I soon realized I was aiming towards my bag on the beach.  The sea here was crazy; the wave dropped just after the first line of beach chairs, pulling about 20 back out into the ocean.  Lucky for me one of the Shreks had saved my bag and 5 minutes later I had given into the default tourist pose and was sat with him and his mates drinking a beer and eating chips.  Yes I eat chips (once a year ;) )   I soon discovered that the life of a yogi meant I was the cheapest date on the beach and no match for the beer munching Russians.

I made friends with a few tourists over the next few days, all different sorts.  

• The English accountant who was working for a maritime insurance company with an office in Sri Lanka and loved it as it was so cheap.  She had no interest in going to India as “the only thing that is there is the Taj and I have no interest in that”
• The Spanish air hostess.  Well travelled (I'm not talking air miles I'm talking about someone who has lived and breathed living in developing countries) and a my favourite person to share a bottle of wine (yes I found a contingency one  after my Delhi disaster ;)
• The English student nurses. Hilarious girls working in Kandy on placement who gave me the banter that I've been missing so much
• The English solicitors on holiday.  A cool couple who were just there to relax and have good food.  And we did, we went to the best restaurant in town. 

Me blinging it up at Kingfisher restaurant with Neil and Louisa

I spent a few days doing yoga (and as it was a tourist destination looking up to see families taking photos of me!), and drinking beer in the sun.  I also did a cooking course.  I love Indian food and found Sri Lankan food bland by comparison so was delighted to find a cooking teacher who had spent time in India and Europe.  Chintha, as well as being an excellent teacher was also a local tour guide so I got a history of the local area.  One thing Chintha and I discussed was Religion and she started to explain the setup in Sri Lanka.  I had been slightly confused by how in Sri Lanka Buddha was placed alongside the Hindu deities with flashing lights around him: Buddhism at the disco just didn't look right.

The below from Wikipedia showing the contrast to India

I’m colourblind and charts are usually like kryptonite to me but these ones are pretty clear and I'm surprised.  Most of the people I met in Sri Lanka were Christians and the rest were Buddhists who said they were also Hindus, hence many rows of Hindu deities around the place with Buddha in the middle lit up like a disco.  Unlike Buddhists in northern India and Tibet, the Buddhists in Sri Lanka are Theravada which at first appearance seems to be the less strict version in which they are open to other gods.  However, based on the more recent violence by Buddhists they seem concerned about losing their 70%.  Even just the phrase 'hardline Buddhists' sounds odd.

Here's a more lighthearted angle.  Two Buddhist monks who bowed to Buddha on the poster for an advertising agency in Galle.  They didn't look 'hardline'!

Back to the cooking class: The food was amazing.  Here are some snaps and for a copy of the recipes click here. 

As I still had a few days to wait for my visa to be processed I decided to head up the coast in search of a quieter beach.  I stopped off at Hikaduwa staying at a small family run guest house on the beach with only two rooms for $10/night.  Hikaduwa has a reputation as a surfers paradise I was about 1km away from the cuba libres and young skirt.  I preferred having dinner with the family after going for a walk with the family a dog. Happy Days.

Me sharing a beer with Bandula the owner



The rest of the family indoors as although I'd bought beers for both son and father in Sri Lanka the son can never drink together with the father.

As I got to know the family quite well they told me all about the other guests.  My neighbours were a honeymoon couple from the local village.  They arrived after their wedding and in usual form locked themselves away until the following morning.  When, as was narrated by the mother of the family where I was staying, the bride has to wear a red dress and the mother of the groom must go into the house and check that there is blood on the sheets.  Que Romantico.

Here's the happy couple 



I had a few tourist days speeding around on a moped going to the local lagoon to spot monitor lizrards





The beautiful dutch colonial town of Galle.  The railway was an illustration of just how different things work in Sri Lanka.  A railway station without queues (or hundreds of people sleeping on the floor) and one of the most beautiful (if slightly impracticable) timetables  have ever seen:



And Tea Plantations

The guest house was a stark reminder of the 2003 Tsunami. 

Half the building was demolished in the Tsunami.  Sri Lanka’s worst tsunami atrocity took place only a few miles from here with the Queen of the sea line train being hit and 1700 people dying (40,000 in Sri Lanka).  I was in one of the rooms that hadn't been affected.  I found out why when taking a swim one day and coming in off the surf to discover huge rocks and coral under the sea immediately in front of my room deflecting the force of the wave.  I got off lightly with a few cuts but amazingly on the night of the Tsunami it saved lives.

The beach.......


I also discovered that the roof of my room had been destroyed by storms over the years.  I became aware of this on my last night when all my clothes were on the floor ready to bundle into my backpack for the 5am train to Colombo.  I awoke with a storm in the middle of the night, my mattress soaked through from a leak and the whole floor wet. So off I headed to the train station with a bag full of sodden clothes.  Bandula gave me a lift to the train station.  The night before over a few beers I’d inquired if he had enough petrol for the trip and was told not to worry.  We broke down 1km from the train station.  I ran the last kilometer (again I wanted to be at the India visa office in Colombo for 0830) but I made it and enjoyed seeing the sunrise along the coastal trip.  

Back in Colombo, I checked into the YMCA which had been booked out the week before.  I’ve never stayed at a YMCA before but if this an example of what they are like then I highly recommend them.  The Colombo hostel also was a good example of how Sri Lanka differs from India.  It was a men’s hostel with c100 Sri Lankan men walking around in their Doti and string vest; a similar scene to India but with one stark difference.  It was quiet.  Unlike their Indian neighbours  Sri Lankans have ability to whisper and respect people’s space so sleeping at the YMCA was a pleasure. 

All of a sudden I starting to enjoy Sri Lanka as a gorgeous holiday island instead of grumbling about the prices and food (I hate to think what I’ll be like in Europe!).  I arrived at the visa office at 0830.  My enjoyment continued as to my shock the clerk told me that my application was ahead of schedule and that I could pick up my visa that same day.  To my amazement it all worked out.  I celebrated as I left the visa office as they had even given me what I’d asked for (6 month multi-entry – something that never happens in the India Embassy in Nepal or Thailand).  I was feeling ontop of the world!

For Part 2 click here