Those of you who have read some of my other blogs will be familiar with the "Random Notes" posts that crop up from time to time. For those of you who are not familiar, these are just the odd fluff that catches in my addled brain during the course of a journey. Stop now if you expect some coherent narrative.
The people of Sri Lanka seem to be deeply involved in the competition for Friendliest People on the Planet. Aside for the general scuffle and scrum that goes on with each boarding or disembarking of a vehicle of conveyance, the Sri Lankans are warm and genuinely interested in travelers. I forgive them the scrum because Sri Lanka has a population density that makes the US and Europe seem uninhabited. If one does not push and shove a bit, one will never get off of that bus.
It is seemingly impossible to have the shortest interaction with a Sri Lankan without at least being asked what country you are from, or more precisely "What is your country please?" Anything that takes longer than buying an ice cream will be entail questions about family, occupation and the amount of time one will spend in Sri Lanka. Almost everyone addresses us as "Sir" of "Madam" to the point that this is now the only way I can say thank you to anyone. "Thank you Madam" has not been a part of my vernacular for, well, ever, but it is common usage now.
Sri Lankans love baked goods and sweets. I mean, these people get down on some serious cake munching. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that every third store front on the main street of candy was a bake shop. The storekeepers sell all manner of soft white baked goods. Good luck on a nice toothy bread, but if you like sponge cake, they cut it off in slabs and sell it by the kilo. Seriously, by the kilo.
Speaking of food, Sri Lankan grub rocks. First level of food is the bake and sweet shops, followed by the milk bars and short eats. Milk Bars are self-explanatory and Short Eats are Pakora, Samosa, Stuffed Buns and all manner of snack type food. A hungry traveler can order a Mixta, which is a platter of all of the varieties of fried goodies heaped in a pile and dropped on your table. Next up the food chain are Hotels. Hotels are not places to sleep, but combo eateries that usually have a roti grill, a hopper stand, and a fried rice and khottu wok the size of a satellite dish. Behind the work stations are the curry kitchen and glass cases with different BBQ'd meats. Past all of this are the tables where you can sit and chow down. Hotels are our mainstay for sit-down dining and a huge dinner for two, with drinks and tip, will set you back between $5 and $6. Further up the ladder are restaurants and tourist places, but that is not our gig so I have no knowledge of these.
Like everywhere I have been in SE Asia, everyone loves a market. The stall markets here are similar to the rest, a crazy jumble of makeshift stalls and narrow passageways where one can purchase anything that swims, walks or flies. There is clothing by the bale, odd assortments of hardware and electronics of dubious quality. Cheap Chinese toys vie with cheap tourist crap, usually at the most visible front of the market. The further back you dig, the better the goods. One of the odd things about Sri Lankan markets is the abundance of "Adventure Clothing." We passed stall after stall where the vendor would point to the gear I was wearing and hold up a similar item from Colombia or North Face or some other brand. At first I thought they were knock-offs until one vendor gentleman reminded me that lots of this stuff is (duh!) Made In Sri Lanka. Seriously, I could show up in a pair of bad surf shorts and flip flops and leave like I was just hit by the entire REI catalog, and for a lot less dough.
There is a huge building boom in this country, much of it aimed at the steady increase in tourism since the end of the civil war in 2009. Based on what I am seeing, it is a bubble that will burst for some of these entrepreneurs. Places like Ella and some of the beach areas are already being overbuilt. Beaches have been damaged by overdevelopment, badly placed breakwaters and jetties, and too many people. Other areas remain pristine and wonderful and I hope that remains the case. As travelers in the rainy season, we see the empty guesthouses and eating places. Our hosts have told us that the high season is, indeed, a crazy time with rooms filling up While this can be true, it still means that a business has to make it through the lean times of the hot season and the rainy season when the tourists are few and the rooms many.
Sri Lanka is an amazing place, boasting an incredible diversity of landscape and culture contained in a small island nation. To me, the country seems closest to India from the viewpoint of culture and cusine, but without the frenetic insanity that is much of India. The overall feeling on a personal level is more like Thailand, with a vibe of mellowness that seems nonexistent in India. This country suffered a terrbile war that lasted almost three decades, yet that is not the overriding feeling here. I don't have deep day-to-day interaction with the Sri Lankans, but I can contrast the feeling here with that of Cambodia, where the horror of the Khmer Rouge shadow is still dark and long.
So, that is it for the random notes for now. Sri Lanka is an amazing place, vibrant, beautiful and very, very real. After three weeks here your skin smells like curry, your face always feels dewey and your feet are almost never clean. The smells and flavours of daily life are intense and comples, leaving one savoring and pondering. This is true both as a metaphor and as a reality.
Oh, one more thing. While I was packing up today, I grabbed my raincoat to place it in the top of my backpack. I felt something on my back and reached to see what was there. A gecko had been hanging out in my coat and, disturbed by the movement, it ran up the nearest hiding place it could find which was my bare back. I am here to tell you Friends and Neighbors, a suction footed gecko running up your body will render you wide awake faster than you can say "Holy-Cripes-WTF-was-that?!?!?" Fortunately no geckos were hurt during the filming of this blog and the little fellow skittered under the bed and disappeared.
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