A week in Ceylon

Link to pictures

Pre-conceptions are restrictive. I think most of us have them, I know I have them. I went to Sri Lanka with the pre-conceived notion that it is very similar to India. It is true that there are similarities between India and Sri Lanka, but Ceylon, as it was formerly known, is a different country. It’s a country where the vehicles stop at each zebra crossing letting the pedestrians cross the road, it’s a country where you see people standing in line and not trying to break it, it’s a country where you can just go 15 minutes before the departure of your train, buy a ticket with ease and comfortably sit on a train without having problems to find a seat. And this difference wasn’t more apparent than when, upon reaching India at 4am, the Chennai airport was swarmed by thousands and thousands of people everywhere. Although fascinating, sometimes entertaining but most times frustrating, and in its own unique way beautiful, it is very difficult to manage the chaotic people of India.

Sri Lanka is also a country in war, where its hagglers consistently express the lack of tourism and the problems of inflation. But above all, Sri Lanka is a very lush green beautiful country with stunning landscapes and beaches.

We spent a single night in Colombo where we visited a couple of monasteries and enjoyed a nice walk on the coast at sunset time. On we went to Kandy, a hill station defined by its greenery and the Temple of the Tooth on the edge of the lake. Not too far from Kandy, I felt privileged to see many elephants bathing at an Elephant orphanage. It’s the first time that I see a group of elephants roaming freely up close. After a couple of nights in Kandy, I endured my best tuk-tuk ride of my life (from Kandy to Sri Pada to Unawatuna). Emelie baptized our tuk-tuk the “pimped rick” for its bright red color. A four hour ride through the beautiful hilly regions of Sri Lanka, and we reached Sri Pada, also known as Adam’s Peak - Sri Lanka’s third highest peak and also, the highlight of this trip, for me.

We started our climb at 2.30am. In the silence of the night, stars glittering in the skies, equipped with a small torch, we could only see the step in front of us and hear the rustling of the waterfalls. Four dogs followed us from the village at the bottom of the mountain up to the top and then accompanied us back to the village during our descent. They, as was told to me, always accompany the first climbers of the day. We reached the top at around 5.30am and waited for the Sunrise. Zoysa, whom I will describe later, said this was the most beautiful sunrise he'd seen in the last 3 years of climbing. It took another couple of hours for the descent, where I lost sensation of my knees except the hurt, but Sri Pada was absolutely worth it.

From Sri Pada, we hopped back on our pimped rick for a 9 hour drive to Unawatuna, a small beach town close to Galle. It was the perfect end to the trip as we relaxed in our bungalow right on the beach and 10 meters away from the turquoise colored sea. A little bit of snorkeling and a lot of just simple gazing at the sea and it was time to come back to the craziness of India. I couldn’t help but smile on reaching the overcrowded airport of Chennai.

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I could take various different images from Sri Lanka. But I choose to take the image of Zoysa with me. A 29 year old Buddhist man with a bright red colored tuk-tuk as his companion, the wolverine bearded and two mala necklaces Zoysa is the picture of humility, kindness, helpfulness and simplicity. He was our companion for the 13 hour tuk-tuk ride from Kandy to Sri Pada and Unawatuna. He was my barefooted companion during the trek to Sri Pada. He was a silent climber during our ascent and a politely inquisitive companion during the descent. He helped the monks with their bags during our descent, offered to pay another tuk tuk driver himself for showing us a hotel, and a corner to sit on and smoke his cigarette was all he usually needed. When I asked him if he would go back to Kandy directly upon reaching Galle or if he would spend the night to take some rest, he responded, “I like the sea and so I will spend 30-40 minutes at the beach and then I will return home”.

Looking at him, I thought to myself that sometimes, being good, is all one needs.