Leaving Lanka

Leaving Sri Lanka:
6 weeks was more than enough time. Before coming an old boss, who was originally from India he told me that, "No, I've never been to Sri Lanka, why would I want to go there?" Or something to that effect, and on some levels he was correct. Sri Lanka is very beautiful but in the sense that the show girl at a boxing match is good looking. Physically all there, but not exactly someone you're dying to talk to. There just isn't a lot for me to say about the culture. Buddhism abounds but it was hard to see any effect on daily life apart from the monthly full moon festival. In various places at various times it can be a huge deal. Complete with parades of elephants and dancers and entire streets turned in markets. Markets which sell cheap plastic nick nacks, clothes that have made their way here from various events in the united states such as some College Football bowl game of years ago and as many forms of sugar as one can imagine.

Usually though, it's a laid back place, living perpetually by 'Island Time', the highway to Galle was supposed to be finished years ago but no signs of construction exist. Island time is a great way to vacation but after weeks of chilling at the beach or killing time over pots of tea at the old dutch fort, listening to stories of the owner it starts to get old. Cricket is huge here and the one match I went to was a lot of fun due to it's historic nature, but to paraphrase the Lonely Planet Guidebook, 'It's like listening to someone countdown from 1000 to 1 and getting really excited around 10.' That really just leaves the beach and it's various vices for entertainment.

Upon arrival I was told great tales of the parties at the beach on the weekends, and with enough cheap coconut liquor even I can get into disco rave kinda thing but there is one huge catch: complete lack of girls. The breakdown of attendance is pretty much 80 local guys, 10 foreign girls and 10 foreign guys. Great odds for the ten girls. Local girls are never seen out. Ever. To make the situation even more interesting many of the local guys at the beach parties have wives or girlfriends at home. I don't what they think the men are doing on weekends, but it ain't very pious. I get the impression that even in a society where arranged marriages are no longer officially common, the promiscuity and it's acceptance that came from that system still lingers. And divorce is a process that takes years, requires connections and in the end is very rare. The beach scene also illustrates another interesting aspect of Sri Lankan life: mistrust.

The guys from the Lucky Tuna don't like the guys from the Happy Banana and somehow the guys from the Kingfisher don't like someone, I never bothered to figure it all out. And the guys from the beach aren't welcome in the city on the grounds that they are dumb beach bums and they get all the foreign girls. On the surface it's all laughs and smiles for the Westerners but underneath it all no one likes each other. Even the adults don't trust each other. In Kandy, Ian the guy I stayed with was able to get his spacious house in the best neighborhood in the city because he was an expat and the owners would only rent to foreigners. Renting to locals in the past had proved troublesome as payments were usually late or nonexistent and the house left in very bad condition.

The family I stayed with thought that the Tuk-Tuk driver, Priyantha who lived next door and drove all of the volunteers was trying to overcharge and so they conspired to put him essentially out of business. He was in fact just playing favorites, giving the volunteers whom he liked (yours truly and friends included) rates that were cheaper than local prices (there are two prices for everything in Sri Lanka - local and foreign and it's really damn annoying) and a lot of times free rides if convenient. The family bought the boy friend of the younger daughter a tuk-tuk, which was probably part of the dowery for the wedding next year, supposedly so that he could drive it to work and then one of his friends would drive it as a tuk-tuk for hire during the day. He has a motorbike and has never driven the tuk-tuk to work, while Priyantha is basically screwed.

More evidence of this distrust comes from their attitude towards the night. Many people won't go out late at night and there was a curfew at the home where I stayed. We were told that it was for our safety and so if you're not back by lock up time between ten and eleven you gotta find somewhere else to sleep. Locking up the house consists of a front gate, two deadbolts and a key lock (which even from the inside can only be opened the key kept by the owner) on the front door as well as the same deal with the second floor balcony door. There's also a large dog in a cage out front, but he only barks at people he knows - seriously.

...That's where I had to get on the plane to go to India and now that I am here I can't be bothered to finish this post. First impressions of India soon to come.

Please excuse the numerous typos, I'm sending this from a dirt stained computer in an 'internet cafe' in Chennai that costs 25 cents an hour.