Surprising Things About Sri Lanka

Traveling to a new country is always eye opening, no matter how much you read on it and what you know and don’t know about the country beforehand, there is sure to always be things that while traveling make you think, “this is different” or “I’ve never experienced this before.”  For me, these are the things that I thought were worth mentioning because they made me pause and write them down.

1. Taking the bus is an experience in its own right: they hardly come to a full stop for people to get on and off, they blast Sri Lankan music seemingly from the same concert being played on the tv, there’s no timetable so you have to just show up to the “station” which is really more like a designated area where all the buses congregate, some of the buses have horns that sound exactly like the trumpet part being played on the TV  and they are ear shattering loud and used often, they are packed with people, there’s no A/C and the seats are too small to allow the two or three people to sit next to each other without overlapping onto the seat. At the beginning of my trip it was overwhelming, but by the end I looked forward to it.  Mainly because it was the safest place to be on the road. Still could do without the music though.
2. They drive on the left side of the road.
3. The people are so friendly, especially the kids. They always smile and say hi when you walk by and if you have a camera out ask for a picture to be taken. While walking through rural villages they would yell hello and wave from their houses 100 yards away.
4. You have to take your shoes off before entering a religious area, but unlike japan’s indoor temples most of theirs are outside, some are even at the top of a mountain that you have to climb while barefoot.
5. They have some of the dirtiest bathrooms I’ve ever been in and on top of that, most of the public toilets are squatter toilets.
6. There’s no McDonald’s or Burger King, but strangely enough there is Pizza Hut.
7. Animals roam everywhere and anywhere; cows walk across the middle of the road or just stop there, herds of sheep walk along side it, peacocks roam the fields, stray dogs lay along the road or half in it, monkeys can be found the country, deer wander into the bus stations to find shade (this really only happened once).
8. Dutch people love to come to Sri Lanka in an overwhelming majority. I did a tour where 7 out of the 9 people were Dutch
9. They don’t use toilet paper, but instead have water hoses next to the toilets, which makes it very weird when you have to use the bathroom and the toilet seat and floor are soaking wet
10. Bus and train travel is extremely cheap. It cost me 44 cents for a 3 hour third class train journey. Buses I took ranged from 27 cents to $1.30.
11. Park fees for tourists are extremely expensive relative to prices within the country. It costs 30$ to see the famous lion rock, $25 to see the ancient city in Anuradhapura, $25 to see the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Entrance fees for the national parks are set at $25. On one hand it’s good because it means more money goes back into these areas, but on the other hand, as a backpacker with a budget it really makes you pick and choose.
12. They drive extremely dangerously, especially the buses.  They pass vehicles when there’s hardly space, pass on blind turns  (which Sri Lanka has a lot of) and tailgate like it’s nothing.  In Cambodia they drove pretty bad, but it was at a slower speed.  In Sri Lanka, they don’t slow down.  Also, most roads are only two lanes, so when a bus passes they are coming fully into the oncoming traffic lane.  It makes driving a scooter an incredibly scary experience, a few times I thought, “I’m going to die.”
13. Distances aren’t far, but it takes an incredibly long time to travel them, 1 hour to go 17 miles (27km) in bus, or for the famous train line between Kandy and Ella between 7-8 hours to go around 86 miles (140km).
14. Everyone wears flipflop’s or sandal’s. Even on the hikes! not a single Sri Lankan wore trainers.
15. Cricket and volleyball are their two main sports
16. They do a head shake like a bobble head that’s impossible to interpret; it can mean yes, it can mean no, it can mean I don’t know and it can also mean of course.
17. They love bread; bakeries are on every corner and in the more rural areas they have tuk tuk mobile baker. It’s like the combination of a classical ice cream truck song and you can hear it everywhere.
18. They eat rice and curry with their hands.
19. Their English level appears to be better than that of Korea’s, made even more amazing by #20.
20. It is an amazing place with so much to do and see.  What makes it even more amazing is it’s only been 10 years since the end of a 26 year long civil war where over 100,000 people died.

It’s not an easy place to get to (unless you’re from the Netherlands, they have a direct 8 hour flight from Amsterdam), but once you do, you’ll be glad you did.