Sri Lanka

A Night in Colombo

We arrived in Colombo late in the evening. We still needed to book a cab and driver to take us on our sightseeing trips so we were wondering what to do about it. I saw a taxi agency at the airport and since it was run by the tourism department of the government of Sri Lanka, Andrej and I agreed it would be the safest thing to hire a cab from them. However, the official was as smooth of a talker as most private vendors and tried to charge us a flat rate, which was not very reasonable. I went into my haggling mode and tried to negotiate on the price with him and make it lower. Andrej, being the clueless person in the nuances of “third-world” haggling, said aloud that the price they were offering was cheap and that some random chap had asked for a much higher rate online. At that instant, I wanted to punch Andrej so hard. I don’t remember if I pinched him or not but I do remember rolling my eyeballs at him. I figured I needed to teach my man on how to be shrewder with the locals so they wouldn’t take him, a foreign person for a foul ride! The agent finally agreed to give us some discounts. I wanted to negotiate further but Andrej held me back and asked me to let it be. The total fees also included our stay at Kandy for the following night so we thought it wasn’t so bad of a deal. We took the same cab with the driver that was going to take us around for our tour of Sri Lanka and proceeded to our hotel. Andrej thought he had booked a place near the Colombo airport but we were to find out that the guest house was located on the outskirts in a place called Negombo, which sounded like a town situated in the heart of Kenya. Our driver, Vijay, spoke good English and was one of the humblest persons I had ever come across. He seemed like a trustworthy driver right from the start and that was a very comforting feeling. 

The streets of Colombo looked deserted by the time we were out of the airport and there was hardly any traffic. The streets were lit up but they were very different looking from the wide and spacious European roads I had been on the last month or so. They looked familiar because they resembled so much the roads in South Indian cities, but narrower in size. After driving for about a half hour, we finally arrived at our guest house, Amaya Chalets. The guest house had separate cottages and looked like a residential home with a front porch for each cottage and potted plants to complement the complex. We got our luggage out of the car, fixed a time for the start of our tour with Vijay and wished him goodnight. Our nameless caretaker led us to our room. He seemed like a friendly man but did not utter a single word. For a while we assumed he was mute but then again we thought maybe he could not speak English. Andrej became very confused by the caretaker’s constant nodding as he could not distinguish between a yes or a no. Just as we were about to settle down with our luggage, I noticed that the regulator of the ceiling fan did not work and the fan could only be set to its maximum speed; so I asked Andrej if we could do something about it. The caretaker was more than willing to shift us to the next available bedroom so we moved our bags there. The guest house was pretty nice looking and had an attached living room other than the bathroom! I was starting to really feel the heat so I went to take a shower. Their heating system was hard to figure out so I ended up taking a cold shower. I found out how to operate the machine only after my bath. I also found a centipede that had passed out in the living room and freaked out because I have the utmost distaste for worms. Andrej was least bothered by the pest and asked me to ignore it too. Our bed did not have any extra sheets to cover ourselves with, but it had a canopy to protect us from invading mosquitoes and insects. By this time, Andrej was starting to feel a bit better with his sunburns. His entire body was red and the pores from his face were starting to ooze out yellowish liquid. It looked like his face was made of wax and he was beginning to melt in the Sri Lankan heat. We retired to bed early as we had a packed schedule ahead of us.

Day 1: Sigiriya, Rock Temple, Golden Temple, Kandy

Vijay came to pick us up at about 7:30 AM. We had a good night’s rest so we were fully recharged to continue on with our journey. The manager of the Amaya Chalet was awake by that time and engaged in some friendly conversation with us before we left the guest house. Our first destination in Sri Lanka was Sigiriya, an ancient palace built upon a massive column of rock and situated near the town of Dambulla. Sigiriya is a UNESCO listed World Heritage site and one of the most popular tourist destinations. It was going to take us about four hours to get there. We noticed how green and verdant Sri Lanka was, and every nook and cranny of was covered by thick canopy of trees and plants. They had coconut trees in aplenty as well as palm and banana trees. At every street corner sat vendors selling the famous King Coconut, the most popular coconut juice in the land. There were also many other tropical and semi-tropical fruits such as papayas and jackfruits; at least those were the fruits I could recognize out of all the kinds sold. The landscape was very characteristic of coastal lands with a few patches of paddy fields here and there.  We first made a stop at Vijay’s home as he wanted to pick up some clothes to change into. We were greeted by his kindly looking wife, his very sleepy baby boy and their dog. Vijay’s home was humble but it did not look like he was impoverished and lived a fairly decent life. Their home was located somewhere in the countryside and had considerable vegetation growth. Vijay informed us that the family also grew their own food. After bidding farewell to his family, we were on our way to Sigiriya. Andrej and I slept for the most part of the journey. We were running low on Sri Lankan currency so Andrej withdrew some money from an ATM. We weren’t hungry yet so we decided we would have authentic Sri Lankan food at one of the restaurants by the street after our tour of Sigiriya.

Andrej and Sigiriya

As we approached our destination, the Sigiriya rock stood out impressively from the green thicket around it. The entry fee was a hefty $30 for each foreign visitor. We felt we were being overcharged for a tour of a volcanic rock formation irrespective of an ancient palace having been built upon it. Andrej saw tourists taking an elephant ride and took a picture of it with the rock in the background. It captured the essence of Sri Lanka perfectly, so we imagined. We first made our way to the museum but since we had a lot more to sightsee, we took a quick tour of the museum. The place didn’t have much to see so it didn’t take us long to make our way out of the building. However, the Sigiriya rock was quite the sight to behold. It looked very grand even though it was, after all, just a rock in its natural form. It outstood everything around it and appeared as if someone had intentionally placed the structure there to suit their own purpose. The weather was very hot that day and I was concerned how Andrej was going to cope with it with his bad sunburns. He seemed pumped and ready to climb the rock but I wasn’t looking forward to this exercise being afraid of heights. We made our way up the rock by following the broad stairways that became narrower and narrower as we went higher. My legs were beginning to shiver and I began to run out of breath but I walked on as Andrej continued to motivate me. I took a break every now and then to catch my breath and drank water. 

The verdant nature of Dambulla.
Panaromic view from the top of Sigiriya Rock

The Lion's Gate

Fresco wall paintings

We got a panoramic view of the surrounding areas from wherever we were and it proved to us, yet again, how green and verdant the nature of Sri Lanka was. We passed by fresco wall paintings, the “mirror wall” which had no connection to its name and plenty of monkeys. We then arrived at what is known as the “Lion’s Gate” to enter into the main palatial ruin on the top of the rock. There were two gigantic rock-cut lion’s paws on both sides of a stairway leading us up to the top. When we made it to the summit, we were a little disappointed to find that the place was not well-maintained and appeared barren. We were hoping to find some ruins of the palace or at least remnants of an architectural legacy but all we saw was tourists clicking pictures of each other and a few patches of grass on what appeared to be remains of a terraced garden. We spent a few minutes looking around and made our way back down as the sun was beginning to take a toll on us. 

On our way down, we saw many monkeys sitting on the railings, least bothered by our presence. We also saw ruins of garden pools and fountains. Andrej was being the loving gentleman, walked according to my pace and turned back every other minute to check on how I was doing knowing very well my dislike for heights. Amazingly, I did not have any panic or nausea attack even though my legs were starting to become very tired. We compared the moment with our experience of climbing the stairs of Ulm, the church with the highest steeple in the world. Andrej was surprised when I told him Sigiriya was less scary than Ulm because it was in an open space, no matter how high and there was lesser chance for feeling claustrophobic. When we came back down, we had quite the difficulty of finding the exit to the parking lot. There were no signboards giving directions to where we were or where the exit was. Some locals tried to befriend us, offered to show us the way out and sell us souvenirs. We declined all of them, even though we got distracted by a little wooden box that one of the vendors sold. It was intended to be a puzzle of sort and one had to align the sections in a particular way to open the box. Andrej in his typical nerdy fashion figured the way to open the box within seconds.

Golden Temple, Dambulla

Our next stop was the Rock temple and Golden temple in Dambulla. On the way, we stopped at a roadside restaurant to savor some authentic Sri Lankan food. We invited our driver Vijay to have lunch with us. The place was a very modest looking one with only a table and some chairs, just something we were looking to experience. We sat down and got served a whole array of home-cooked Sri Lankan meal including chicken, fish and assorted vegetables. The food tasted really amazing but I felt it could have been less spicy than what it was. Andrej endured the heat much better than I, the Indian, could. The three of us ate to our heart’s content and still the bill came out to be just under 1000 Sri Lanka rupees ($8 approx.) After lunch, we drove to the Golden Temple and Rock temple at Dambulla. We were sightseeing at the height of noon and the sun was in our eyes. Andrej had started to peel from his skin and neck, and I couldn’t restrain my hands from peeling off whatever dead skin I could find on him.  He looked like a person with a contagious skin disease but I was glad to know that the pain he was feeling from the sunburns had reduced. Vijay parked our vehicle in the parking space while Andrej and I went in to purchase our entry tickets. We saw that members of SAARC countries had discounted ticket rates so we were able to save some money on my entry fees. We discussed with each other whether the same conditions would have applied at Sigiriya, where we had paid the full $30 fee for each of us.  

Rock Temple

Boddhisatvas

 The temple complex has pre- historic caves which were converted into temples. It has five major caves which served as shrine rooms. It serves as a popular Buddhist monastery till date. We first checked out the Golden Buddha statue which was supposed to the highest statue of the Buddha in that particular posture. There were some tourists as well as local devotees offering flowers to the statue. After this, we made our way towards the cave temples. My tired legs had barely recovered from our climb up to Sigiriya rock so I was a bit unsettled to engage in some more rock climbing to get to the five shrines. There were many monkeys and more tourists on the way up.

Philosophizing monkey

The monkeys looked like cheeky little fellows, looking totally at home and doing what they do best, monkeying around all over the place. There were also vendors trying to sell us souvenirs but we did not buy any items at this place. I tried to grab on to Andrej’s hand whenever I felt the need to for support. As we went higher, we noticed that the Dambulla rock, like Sigiriya also offered a panoramic view of the surrounding flat lands. Across the horizon, we could see the Sigiriya rock. I remembered from somewhere that the distance between Dambulla rock and Sigiriya was about 20 KM, similar to the distance between the ancient town of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. From what we saw, the distance between Dambulla rock and Sigiriya seemed very extensive; so it made me think the volcano which erupted from the mouth of Vesuvius must have been of unimaginable magnitude to have stretched over and beyond a 20 KM radius. We had to take off our shoes before entering into the cave temples. We tried to avoid paying money to the “shoe keeper” so we left them under a bench near his kiosk. The temple complex had five shrines all hewn out of the overhanging rocks. There was also a small Hindu temple within the complex, appearing at odds with its surrounding Buddhist shrines. Andrej being the curious cat entered into the temple while I stayed outside; the Brahmins tied the sacred thread on his wrist and asked him to pay a donation. 

We thought this routine business of demanding donations and making tourists pay alms at every given monastery/monument seemed to contradict the whole notion of renouncing material wealth which was central to the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddhist cave temples looked well-preserved in their ancient and tranquil setting. There were numerous statues of the Buddha in various postures- reclining, seated, and standing, which neither of us had knowledge about what they signified. The ceilings and walls were painted with magnificent murals depicting the life of the Buddha and ‘Boddhisatvas’ as well as ‘Apsaras.’ We also came across a few tourists with their guides giving them a history lesson in their respective languages. Even though the shrines were typically Buddhist and housed Buddhist artifacts, the common passageway in front of the caves could pass of as any Christian monastery of medieval times. After our tour of the caves, we made it back out to collect our shoes from under the bench only to realize that the shoe keeper had collected them in his little kiosk. We reluctantly had to pay money for his service, thus failing our efforts to avoid the fees. We climbed down the rock to make our way back to the parking lot. We met many more friendly simians along the way.

Sri Lankan cultural show (Mallawaarachchi)

City of Kandy

Our next and last stop for the day was Kandy, a popular tourist town located in the central province. We were to catch a Sri Lankan cultural show (Mallawaarachchi) in the evening and continue with the tour of the city sights the following day. Kandy was a hilly region and the city reminded me much of the “hill stations” in India, perhaps because of the terrain, the greenery and the common colonial legacy they shared. The city was very populous and we could spot foreign tourists walking around with their backpacks. Out of all the places we had visited so far in Sri Lanka, Kandy appeared to be most westernized. Vijay parked our car near a building that looked unseemly for a cultural event to have been organized at. We climbed up a few flight of stairs that looked out to a small courtyard. In the corner was an auditorium full of tourists and visitors already seated to watch the show. We purchased our tickets and were handed the program list for the evening’s entertainment. There were a few locals selling souvenir items at the entrance of the auditorium, we gave the stuffs a quick glance before going towards the chairs. Andrej and I had arrived a bit late to the venue as the front row seats were already occupied by the time we got there. It was interesting to see a multitude of tourists in one big room at the same time. We realized how popular this cultural show must be and also how important must be Kandy in terms of attracting tourists. There was a vendor selling soda inside the hall, we got a bottle of Coca-Cola to enjoy as we waited for the show to begin. The cultural show opened with a “puja”/a blessing ceremony where lamps were lit and songs sung to appease the gods and various spirits. Each dance routine had a theme and storyline behind it which were summarized in the order of programs list.  Some dance depicted harvesting season, while others symbolized the victory of good over evil.  Most of the dances reflected the folkloric and indigenous beliefs of the people of the land. 

Firewalkers 

The cultural show included both male and female troupes performing their dance items separately. Some of the male performances were a cut above the rest as they showcased outstanding acrobatic skills in their heavily ornamented traditional dance outfits. There was one piece depicting the mischief of demons and the way they agonize humans. It was performed by two masked men gesturing with their hands towards the crowd and trying to attract a round of applause from them. The musical instruments used by the performers included drums, mini cymbals, and trumpets. Overall, the cultural show was entertaining; and finished under an hour. After the show, we went outside of the hall to watch men displaying their firewalking skills. It was starting to drizzle so we tried to find a shade to shield us from the rain. In our hope to get a better view of the firewalkers, we climbed to the first floor of the building adjacent to the courtyard. This last show was a very short one and took less than ten minutes. A large number of tourists had gathered around the firewalkers and drummers who were dressed in traditional white ‘lungi.’ I suppose we were expecting to see something more but the firewalkers dispersed abruptly after walking barefooted two or three times across the burning hot embers.

After the cultural show, Vijay drove us to the hotel that the cab agent had booked for us. It was already nightfall by the time we got there. The hotel was located on the outskirts of Kandy at a very deserted looking area; we were not thrilled about this as we had planned to come back to the main market to eat our dinner. We did not want to burden Vijay to drive us back to the city center so we decided to hire a three-wheeler (or a “bajaj” as it is commonly known in Sri Lanka). The porters helped us with our luggage and we tipped them some money. I went to use the bathroom and noticed it was becoming pest-ridden with every little insect imaginable crawling as the hotel people had forgot to turn off the lights and closed the windows.  I turned off the lights, shut the windows and the door between the bathroom and bedroom. We then headed back to the main market on a Bajaj the hotel manager had hired for us. We were indecisive about what and where to eat and paced up and down the main streets of Kandy for at least 15 minutes before finally heading into one of the restaurants. The restaurant did not have any diners at except two elderly foreign couples and us. We ordered some Indian food and also beers but we were told that alcohol was not served because a Buddhist temple was located on the same street. This perplexed me as I had clearly seen a pub right across the street with people drinking alcohol on the patio. I tried to ask the waiter if he could tell us where we could find a place to drink but he informed us apologetically he was a new employee and did not know much about the surrounding areas. 

Bahiravokanda Vihara Buddha statue, Kandy

After dinner, we wanted to walk to up to a hill to go see a majestic looking statue of the Buddha in white stone, the Bahiravokanda Vihara Buddha statue. Andrej wanted to walk but I wasn’t too keen as my legs were tired and because we didn’t seem too sure about which of the streets to take. Andrej’s direction-finding skills are totally trustworthy but it was getting late and the streets were already looking empty, so I wasn’t sure if it was safe to walk around on our own. After stressing over the street barriers that seemed to have no exit point Andrej agreed that we take a Bajaj. We found a man who spoke little English and seemed to be accustomed to transporting passengers back and forth from the temple. He agreed to bring us back to the market and we promised him we would take no more than 10 minutes. As we drove up, I was glad to know we did the right thing by taking a three-wheeler instead of walk as the statue wasn’t all that close by and the winding streets were completely dark as there was no street lighting. It was very windy up there, the temple complex looked forlorn but the tall statue of Buddha overlooking the city of Kandy conveyed peace and security. Andrej and I walked in separate directions to check out the complex. For a second, I thought I lost him so I turned around to find him; that moment I realized I was starting to really act like I could not stand him being out of my sight even for a few minutes and I thought to myself, “get a grip!” I heard him call out for me in my ‘Thadou’ name…I was relieved to know I wasn’t the only one looking out for him. As we were about to leave, a monk appeared out of the blue and asked us politely to remove our shoes. He took us around the complex and showed us a Bodhi tree, “pipal” as they are also called in India, a tree considered to be the most sacred by Buddhists because it was under a Bodhi tree that the Gautama Buddha was believed to have attained enlightenment. I asked him some questions relating to dharma and nirvana and he tried to answer my queries with whatever he knew. The monk was a very pleasant fellow and asked us where we were from and how Andrej and I know each other, the same old questions that we get asked by most people wherever we go. When Andrej told him he was Slovenian, the monk, much to our surprise told us that he had been to Slovenia and Italy before for give lectures on Buddhist philosophy. This was a surprise considering 90% of the people we meet don’t even know if a country by the name “Slovenia” exists. Even though the conversations were interesting we couldn’t help but drift our minds to the driver that was waiting for us outside. Our ten minute waiting period had extended to a half hour and he was becoming agitated by our delay. We said goodbye to the monk who gave Andrej his contact info and went back to Kandy main market. Before heading back to the hotel, we drank the most popular Sri Lankan beer, “Lion” at a pub across the street.  We took a shower and went to sleep under the anti-mosquito canopy that every Sri Lankan bed comes equip with.

Day 2: Temple of the Tooth Relic, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Tea Plantation

In the morning, we got to see the amazing nature surrounding us. The hotel may have been located on the outskirts of Kandy but it was quiet, tranquil and abundantly green. We got served English breakfast and some fresh fruits. This was our last afternoon in Sri Lanka as we were to board a flight to Bangalore the same evening. We put our luggage in the car, said our goodbyes to the hotel staff and told the manager we would recommend his hotel to our friends if they planned on visiting Kandy in the future.

Our first stop was the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy. It is believed that a tooth of the Buddha has been preserved in his original state in one of the temple complexes. The temple complex was quite big, perhaps the biggest temple we had seen so far in Sri Lanka. It looked serene and well-kempt with a moat surrounding the complex. From outside, it appeared like a palatial home built in Buddhist architectural styles. The insides of the temple complex were equally memorable. The gardens were well maintained and the complex was full of local as well as international visitors. Andrej and I went from room to room and hall to hall to see the statues of the Buddha being venerated by loyal devotees. We weren’t sure if we were allowed to take photos but then we saw other tourists taking pictures so we realized it was not an issue. 

After a few moments of checking out the front portion of the temple, we made our way into the interiors of the complex. The most significant place to see was the Temple that is believed to house the tooth of the Buddha. We were told that only the highest ranking monk had access to the tooth and that it was made available for public viewing every five years. The temple was beautifully decorated with elephant tusks, swords and gold plated panels running across the ceilings and the walls. Paintings of important Sri Lanka kings and monks too adored the walls. We then went into the museum located right above the main temple. Without our asking, a man with a pleasant countenance walked towards us and started to give us a tour of the place. We figured he was the caretaker. He led us around the museum and attempted to explain to us the various artifacts housed in the hall. There were many gifts from other countries that have a major Buddhist following such as Myanmar, Japan and Nepal. He also informed us that the temple was dependent on financial funding from outside sources and donors. He then showed us pictures that demonstrated vividly the extent of damage caused from bombings by the LTTE guerillas. It felt awful to see the historical legacy and material culture of a nation being reduced to ashes. The government had made all efforts to restore and renovate the destroyed parts of the temple and the temple now stands secure, but this tragedy was something that would haunt the memories of most Sri Lankans in the days to come. Before we stepped out of the museum the caretaker asked sheepishly for a tip. Andrej told him he didn’t have enough Sri Lanka rupees on him but tipped him a decent amount.

The Elephant Orphange,
Pinnawala

Our second sightseeing for the day was the famous Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala. The orphanage was supposed to take care of abandoned wild Asian elephants and also breed them. Before purchasing our tickets, we decided to shop for souvenirs at the many shops lined up outside the orphanage. Andrej wanted to get a souvenir for his Dad while I was looking for something I could display in the living room of my home. I found a wooden showpiece that I liked and started to haggle with the lady shopkeeper. We agreed on a price and I told her I’d come back to pick up the stuff after our tour. Andrej still could not find something his Dad might like. We purchased our entry tickets; while Andrej paid in full, I got a discount for being a SAARC national. We spent much lesser than we had previously anticipated because of the discount on my tickets. Before heading into the main nursery, the guards at the reception asked us to go and watch elephants bathing in the nearby river. There were plenty of souvenir shops on both sides of the street but the most interesting shops were the ones that sold stuff made from elephant poop. We decided to check these shops later and walked towards the bathing area. There were adult as well as baby elephants at the river being bathed by their trainers. It was so amazing to see these wonderful creatures being spoiled and taken care of so generously by the workers. 

 

They looked completely at home in their natural surroundings and seemed to have got used to the periodic yelling of their bossy trainers giving them directions on where to go and what not to do. We spent a few good minutes taking pictures of the pachyderms. There were plenty of tourists in and around the bathing area enjoying the view as much as we did. Then out of the herd, an elephant was called out and being led away by a couple of trainers towards the nursery. We walked along the street with the elephant as people made way for the mighty looking animal. Although the elephant seemed to have been trained and tamed, it was chained from its foot, perhaps as a precautionary measure. The trainers invited us and other tourists to take pictures with the elephant whenever it paused on the way; but we declined the invitation knowing they were looking to extract some tips from us. 

Recycled paper made out of
elephant poop, ingenious!

Before going to the nursery we checked out one of the elephant poop shops. I learned for the first time that elephant poop contained lots of fibre-filled waste material as much as cow or horse poop and thus served as a base from which stationery materials such as paper could be produced. They are considered to be eco-friendly, recyclable and a novel alternative to wood-pulp based paper products; but we did not purchase any items as they were kind of expensive.

Us posing for a snap with a darling

We finally made our way to the main part of the orphanage where elephants, big and small, were fed, bathed, and trained. Some were made to roam freely in the open, while others were kept behind fences. It was such an amazing feeling to be surrounded by so many elephants. I was keen on taking a picture with the elephants so I asked Andrej to do me the favor. The trainers were enthusiastically inviting us and other visitors to take pictures with the elephants so they could get some tips off of us. We caved in to their invitation after some time. Andrej and I stood on each side of an elephant that was being disciplined by a trainer while another trainer took our photos. Usually, we don’t do “couple photos” since Andrej gets uncomfortable with taking pictures of himself; so I’m usually hesitant to pressure him into taking photos with me even though I like taking plenty, be it couple photos or solo pics just for memory. It was a welcome relief when he agreed to the trainer’s request to join me in a group photo with the elephant. It turned out to be a really good one of us with the elephant that I couldn’t help but upload on facebook the very same night. The trainer tried to get us to tip him some money after taking our photos by going into the whole sob story about how little they get paid and that the salary they get from the orphanage is their only means for survival. We did not pay him a huge tip so he didn’t look very pleased with us. The complex seemed to be equipped with whatever an orphanage for elephants required, from trainers and caretakers to water bodies and fodder for the elephants. Being in a surrounding like this made me feel good inside, knowing the elephants had a home and people to look after them…it’s always nice to see humans extending compassion and consideration to sentient being other than themselves. After taking a good look of whatever the orphanage had to offer, we made our way back out towards the parking lot. I picked up the souvenir that I had purchased earlier, a little something to remind me of Sri Lanka before we got into the car.

Herbal garden

Tea shop

Our next stop was the tea gardens that Sri Lanka, like India, is known for. Vijay suggested that we make a stop at one of the herbal gardens which was located on the way to the tea plantation so we agreed on doing that. The garden was small and did not have much to offer. I could recognize some of the herbs such as aloe vera and betel nut plant. I was expecting to see only aromatic and therapeutic herbs but seeing a betel nut shrub amidst the thicket seemed to undercut the idea of calling a garden “herbal.” The garden had a souvenir shop so we went to see if they had anything interesting. Indeed, they had a lot of spices and ointments from various herbal plants but they weren’t reasonably priced so we ended up buying nothing. Besides, whatever they had in the store could be found in India and bought at a cheaper price. We then headed to the tea plantation.

When we arrived at the plantation, it looked like there was nobody there. Andrej and I made our way up the hillock and began to take pictures of the place. Suddenly, two ladies appeared in the scene and initiated conversation. In her broken English, one of the ladies tried to demonstrate to us the art of plucking tea leaves. She pointed out to us the type of leaves that produce high quality tea and those that produce tea only fit for “poor workers.” She also showed us how, when, and under what conditions tea is planted. She was also kind enough to give us some souvenirs in the form of fresh tea leaves with buds attached to them. Another interesting but somewhat disturbing information she gave us about tea plantations was that cobras and other snakes liked to make the gardens their habitat, thus threatening the safety of tea gardeners. We took a few more pictures of ourselves plucking tea leaves with the two ladies. Before leaving, they asked us for some tips, just like every other Sri Lankan working in a tourist-related place. We then headed to a factory in the vicinity where they manufactured tea. The factory was not a big in size but seemed to produce good quality tea. Since Andrej and I have never tried Sri Lankan tea, we thought it would be a good idea to purchase some packets from the shop/cafeteria that had been opened right above the factory. While I got a standard black tea for myself, Andrej got a more expensive tea for his mom and also another to gift my mom. We didn’t stay much longer in the shop as we were on a time constraint and made our way straight to Colombo airport. We tipped Vijay before going into the airport and thanked him for having been such a wonderful driver and also our unofficial tour guide.

Our Sri Lankan sojourn had been completed in less than two days. We did as much as we could and saw as many important tourist attractions as possible. We also attempted to live the local way of life by eating our meals at roadside restaurants that served authentic and “unadulterated” Sri Lankan food. Much of the coastal terrain, the verdant vegetation and the people (not to mention the elephants) reminded me of South India. I was already under this impression from the pictures I saw and told Andrej what I thought; my predisposed opinion had irked him a little. But after seeing the place with my own eyes, I thought I wasn’t so wrong to compare. Also perhaps because Sri Lanka has a substantial Tamil population and most billboards and road signs in the towns used Tamil and Sinhalese letters, I was perhaps inclined to compare the country with some of the Indian states. But in all fairness, Sri Lanka is a country with a unique touch only specific to it. And what sets the country apart was the Buddhist religion and way of life that the Sinhalese people followed and lived by so dedicatedly. Every Sri Lankan that we met during the course of our short trip was warm, friendly and always willing to help, sometimes maybe a little too much in the hope of getting tips and such. Obviously, there is a lot left to discover and see in this beautiful country which we couldn’t have covered in two days. But we were pretty glad by the end of the trip that we managed to see some of the most prominent places (all classified as UNESCO world heritage sites) that Sri Lanka as a tourist destination is renowned for.