We’ve noticed so many things that are quite different to India here. Same but different. We had anticipated that Sri Lanka would be virtually the same. Not so. The poverty is nothing compared to India. There is greater equality here amongst the classes, unlike India.
People don’t stare at us – or even at much at all. In India, it is normal to see a crowd gathered just to stare at, well, anything and anyone really.

Daily life in the country.

The traffic is different too. Tooting of horns is incessant in India, but here they show great restraint and only toot as they pass. Much more relaxing! Of course, the relentless need to pass other cars, trucks, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles or bullock drawn carts is as strong as ever. And the creation of three lanes of traffic when there should be two, as well as pulling out to overtake (just one toot), remain standard here. It seems the motto is “biggest vehicle wins”.

The country roads are fairly light on for traffic, but Kandy was nuts. There are very few traffic lights to manage the craziness, but it all seems to flow, albeit slowly. Everyone just pushes in, and everyone else just lets them in. You can cross three lanes of traffic by just pushing in. Perhaps it helps that they are only going at a snail’s pace.

The retail style is similar. Countless tiny shops all selling the same range of stuff – a little bit of everything.

English is taught in all schools and most people can speak it quite well. Signage is in English, Sinhalese and now Tamil. Although the English isn’t so prominent on the east coast. They tend to do their own thing there.

Our guide, Praki, says the country is only half corrupt. Bit I think this is a growing world trend…

Prices vary on the tourist scale. Sometimes we stopped for lunch and ate like kings for $3.50, and other times we could spend $50. Wine was expensive, but I always thought it money well spent whenever I found it.

Tipping was essential, despite the 10% already added to your bill. This is in addition to 18% tax. So when you see a price on a menu, you can add 30% to cover the tax, service charge and the tip. It was mostly good value though.

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect Sri Lanka to be “just like” India simply because they are right next door to each other. In fact it is only 32km between the two. There was once a ferry that linked the two coasts, but the terminal was destroyed during the civil war and hasn’t been rebuilt.

I’d love to see some of the northern parts of the country that we didn’t get to. So maybe, after we’ve experienced some other cultures new to us, we might return one day.