cultural triangle

I took another mini-vacation this week and went to see the famed Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka. In the middle of the country there are many ancient ruins and well…cultural stuff from the time of the Kandyan empire. I saw the Sigiriya rock fortress, the Dambulla caves, Pollonaruwa ruins of the ancient city, and managed to squeeze in a safari and a trip to Kandy. The trip culminated with dinner on the beach in Negombo. I won’t blather on about how amazing everything was (though it was amazing). It was the same tourist stuff that I am sure everyone does when they visit that part of the country. Ruins and things like Sigiriya always fascinate me though, it’s interesting to think of people building massive structures before they had things like machinery and measuring instruments to get everything precise.

What is also weird is that the majority of people lived in relative squalor while very very few people got to live in crazy opulent palaces on cliffs. I can just imagine being a random villager getting recruited to build a cliff palace and just wondering why I had been recruited for such a task. Also, I don’t know what they ate back then, but it must have been good to enable them to build fortresses and things with their bare hands. I suppose they had elephants too, but still.

Traveling further north has also reemphasized to me how dire the tourism situation really is here. Hotels are doing their best to pull out all the stops so that people visit and stay. The southern beaches have some local tourism but the center of the country and the north do not and it is pretty tough to see the staff at restaurants and the hawkers looking desperate for business. I feel like Sri Lanka is on its last legs here and if things don’t pick up soon, they are going to get horribly worse. I don’t think that hotels can operate at a loss forever and eventually things are going to start to fold and that will be bad for everyone involved.

So, if you haven’t visited Sri Lanka already, you should. Its got something for everyone, ruins and culture, beaches and nightlife. Even elephants, both wild and tame.

Mark just visited me for a bit and although I am quickly becoming a pro at short visits, they are always a bit sad. It was like this for my parents as well. I hope and hope and look forward to the visit and then before I know it, it’s upon me. I have fun for a short window of time but then, in what seems like an instant, this time that I have looked forward to so much is over.

I have become very accustomed to life in my little guesthouse and the more I think about it, the more I am reassured that I made the right decision in coming and living here. There is something homey about this dorm-like atmosphere and I feel like I really am leading a travelers lifestyle. The other benefit is there are always weird characters hanging out. Today there were some random Aussie surfers and the day before some bohra aunties, its always an adventure