Sri Lanka was our shortest stop of the year at just two weeks. The trip got off to a bad start when we pivoted last minute, throwing our plans into disarray. We learned at the last minute that Hikkaduwa, where we planned to stay, had issues with dumping sewage into the ocean and unethical treatment of turtles. We didn’t want to be any part of that, so we stayed in Colombo primarily.

Why Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka was not on our original itinerary, and wasn’t even a thought until we started nailing down the booking details for South Africa. During that process, we learned that there was effectively no flight cost to stop there. Whether we went straight to South Africa, or stopped in Sri Lanka, it would cost the same.

There was another added bonus in that we could do an intermediate schedule adjustment. Sri Lanka is 1.5 hours behind Thailand time, and the two weeks gave us time to adjust to that. It actually allowed us to shift our schedule further than the 1.5 hours, which made for an easy timezone transition to South Africa.

Those reasons alone were enough that we figured, why not visit Sri Lanka?

Face Punch Upon Arrival

We were truly staggered in a bad way upon arrival. Thailand was so good and such a perfect location in every way that this was bound to happen. Sri Lanka turned into a repeat of Manila, although watered down, and with more redeeming qualities.

Stepping out of the airport the air was thick and brutal, and we had just been lied to by a taxi guy trying to sell us a ride. He basically told us we were screwed if we walked out the airport doors because we wouldn’t find another ride, and wouldn’t be allowed back in. There were taxis and PickMes galore outside, and our ride was cheaper through PickMe. The ride was sketchy at best though, with the driver’s car sounding like it would die at any moment.

I’ll cover the Airbnb in more detail, but our initial impression was that it was stifling hot and had a ton of ants. On top of that we were getting the vibe that the host was freaked out about too much electrical usage, seemingly even if we were willing to pay for it.

In the morning things didn’t feel any better when we went to the grocery store. The walk there felt very Manila-like with lots of traffic, not much sidewalk, dirty, and hot. The store had limited grocery options as well.

Adding to the negatives, we had to either bundle up or wear bug spray everywhere because there is a major dengue outbreak. It made things very uncomfortable.

Add all of that up and we had a pretty miserable outlook for the next two weeks. We failed to enjoy most of our time in Colombo, but things can suck in a useful way. That was really the case here because it allowed us to reset our comfort tolerance to set us up for more enjoyment in South Africa.

Food

The biggest draw for me personally was the Sri Lankan food. It was the only aspect of the country I couldn’t wait for, and it didn’t disappoint.

We had a variety of local foods either form the grocery store, or most often via PickMe delivery. We ate at a place called Paan Paan more than anywhere else. It was affordable and had very high quality food. We had things like somosas, kottu, curries, tandori chicken, etc. It was all very good and I enjoyed the high spice levels. The spice level was so hight that my eyelids (and the rest of me) swelled up, and it wasn’t from rubbing the spice into my eyes. It was my body protesting the spice from the inside.

Eating via PickMe was by far our best option. We ate all sorts of different restaurants delivered and try a wide variety of foods. The cost actually came out close to grocery store cook at home meals as well, to my disbelief. It only cost $14.18 per meal, and we could have made it cheaper, but ordered with reckless abandon.

The grocery store on the other hand was a let down. It is a normal enough sized grocery store, but half of it was taken up with non-food stuff like pet and cleaning supplies. We had very limited options to work with. We ate a lot of really basic things like cheese and crackers, egg meals, yogurt bowls, grilled cheese, etc. The cost wasn’t good either at $13.33 per grocery store meal.

Airbnb

As I mentioned already, our Airbnb felt like a sauna on arrival because they didn’t pre-run any AC. The place was relatively nice though after we got some cool air in there. It was on the larger side of our Airbnbs this year with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

The most amazing feature though was a premium water filter that we could dump tap water into and get potable water out of. After researching it a bit, this is a legit water filter.

The place just never felt comfortable or like home though. We were constantly watching the electricity usage even though we were fine with paying the extra. It ended up costing us about $30, but we wanted to run the AC more and would have paid $60 or whatever it took. The host seemed almost panicked about the cost though. I’m not sure if she’s had people stiff her in the past, or if it’s because it raises her electric usage level for the remainder of the month. Whatever the reason, we spent a lot of hot days in this condo.

The internet access was appalling and at times literally unusable. The speed I measured was 1.5 Mbit, which would be a normal speed if this were the year 2000. In today’s world you can’t do shit with that though. On top of that, it went out for long stretches of time. If I could have fixed any one thing during this stay, it would have been this.

The Sites

Partly because we wanted out of our condo, and partly to see more of Sri Lanka, we did some on-purpose site seeing. The first thing was a tour of Colombo itself (see day 245 of this post). It was cool to see the unique architecture and history of the city.

The second major thing we did was a full day tour south of the city toward Galle. This included beaches, turtles, and the Galle fort.

We learned some of what Sri Lanka has to offer from these two tours, and while some of it was very beautiful, it was ruined by many fixable issues. The current practice of dumping human shit into the ocean could be fixed. Treating turtles unethically on the beaches of Hikkaduwa could also be fixed.

Locals

The local people were all very kind to us. I appreciate this more now that I’m in South Africa where many people are clearly not necessarily friendly to us. In Sri Lanka it seemed like everyone we encountered greeted us warmly, and started from the position of liking us until we give them a reason not to.

Parting Thoughts

I’m grateful for having been able to see Sri Lanka, and I wanted to love it for the people who live there. There were aspects of the country that we did love, such as the affordability, the locals, the food, and the raw beauty. It is however a place we don’t intend to return to. If the resorts and hotels get their sewage under control we would consider it one day.