The people in Sri Lanka

Believe it or not - I've had various requests in the past month to start writing this blog in english. I feel a little bit of pressure combined with excitement - now I have to start writing about interesting things in a funny and well-written way. I want to state here and now that I don't promise any of these things. This blog is merely for my friends and family to keep track of me without me having to write numerous e-mails. It's a lazy blog. It used to be a lazy blog in swedish, now it's a lazy blog in english. I hereby hope to please Cam, Tom, John and the german without a name on the train from Ella to Kandy. I also hope that all of you understand that this used to be my only time to actually use my mother tongue. It's your fault if I go back to Sweden without being able to speak correctly.

My month in Sri Lanka is coming to a sad end. It feels as though this month has passed with a tremendous speed, what have I done? Next to nothing, it seems. One thing that I have done, is socializing. Therefore I will now write a little bit about the wonderful Sri Lankans, the great tourists and two of the not so great kinds of tourists.

I never get tired of talking about my love for Sri Lankans. The reason for this is that at least all of the ones I've met have been super friendly, smiling, helpful and have never tried to cheat me. As a single female traveler, I've been taken care of constantly. I've been walked to buses, shown the way to places, I've been given rides by cars and motorbikes, I've been fed, invited for tea, I've collected phone numbers and addresses "in case of danger or problems", I've got so many smiles everyday, that it's impossible to count. The only people who seem to have any kind of alterior motives are the young guys. Here's a typical set of questions that a local guy in his 20s/30s asks: "Hello! How are you? Where are you from? What's your name? Are you married?" Of course I'm married! And my husband is coming to Sri Lanka in just a few days. The positive thing about the marriage question is that there seems to be a great deal of respect for the fact that I'm supposedly taken and the "goodbye" arrives very soon after I start talking about my imaginary husband.

My favorite Sri Lankans so far have to be recognized here with a special love: Ramees, the laid back diver who's the only guy who's never asked about my civil status! He took me to see Buddhas well traveled tooth in Kandy and invited me for a delicious meal at his aunts house. Santa & Veejay, the two crazy surfers with an uncountable number of skills that they are more than happy to show: capoeira, gymnastics, drumming, speaking japanese and pretending to speak french, etc. Ranga: the owner of Beach Hut in Arugam Bay, with a huge heart and a special connection with single travelers. The woman who owns Sitaras restaurant in Arugam Bay. Yum! The food is so great, voluminous and cheap! My "host family" in Haputale. They actually started to feel like my parents almost immediately. I would also like to give some love up to all my sisters who can't speak english, but certainly can smile in the warmest way and love to touch my hair with big question marks on their faces.

Now to the tourists... Most of the tourists in Sri Lanka (that I've met) are pretty damn great. In Arugam Bay I found the really golden ones and we formed a group who practically did everything together for about ten days. From the moment the group was formed in Arugam Bay until the official break-up in Ella, I had to forget everything about reading, writing, having time for myself and being silent. It just didn't happen. Life with this group was like a festival - hanging out, talking ALL THE TIME. There was never a moment of awkward silence or not knowing what to say. A lot of the time was spent trying to get in to the conversation without being cut out after half a sentence. Yes - it was great! And yes, it was exhausting! I was more than ready for some meditation after hanging out with the golden crew.

Members: Angela from England, who has a great sense of humor and was the "planner", she led the group in a smooth yet determined way. Katie from Australia, the cool surfer who has the funniest comments when you least expect it. Tom & John: the british surfers who are just like a pair of comedians. They were also concerned to keep the group small and exclusive. My tendency to constantly invite new people caused them to give me a new nick-name: the social terrorist. Laila, the norwegian musician who was also my roomy and is wise beyond her years. Melina from England, the warm and wise.. She joined later and the first time I saw her, she was only wearing shawls, her bag had been stolen in Nepal.

As I'm on the chapter tourists, I feel a certain need to tell you about the not so great tourists. No matter where I travel, there's two categories of tourists that I just can't stand. The globetrotter and the hater.

The globetrotter: This tourist doesn't like to call himself tourist, he'd rather use the term traveler or mabye even citizen of the world. He is very common in India, but appears when you least expect it almost everywhere. He is often to be seen in a touristy restaurant and can be recognized very easely: he's talking about all the countries he's been to, all the cheap deals he's made, all the time he's spent in remote areas where there's no tourists/western food/english speaking people/guest houses/electricity, but where there's lots of danger/insects/crazy situations/discomfort/cheap stuff. The globetrotters main goal is to make you say "wow, you're so cool" AND battle you by telling you crazier stories than you. In his world there's a system of points to each and every situation and he's willing to loudly declare how few points you have compared to him. The only thing that could possibly make him shut his big mouth is if you live in the country/speak the language/stay with local friends/have done something that's crazier than what he's done (e.g. riding a donkey from Sweden to Sri Lanka via Afghanistan. If you meet a globetrotter, it's advisable to stay as far away as possible. Without going into further detail, let's just say I didn't and I wish I could get my precious time back and have my ears washed.

The hater: This tourist is - if possible - even easier to recognize. After just a few moments talk, she'll drop a comment like: "I love Sri Lanka, but I don't like the people" (this happens everywhere, I've even heard it in Denmark!!!). The hater always has plenty of stories of another kind than the globetrotter, stories of being cheated, badly treated and stories of situations where she just seems disappointed that the locals aren't exactly like the good ol' people at home. This is something that can make me so angry that I just want to yell in their faces: "go home then, you don't deserve to be here anyway, among these lovely people! They treat you badly because you are a rude, nasty and stupid person!" I don't yell, though, but i find it impossible to keep my mouth closed in these situations and I think the message comes across pretty clearly anyway. This habit of mine made Tom and John give me my second nick-name: Mike Tyson. The combination of the social terrorist and Mike Tyson sometimes gets me in trouble. At first I'm friendly with everyone and try to give people a chance. When I realize that some of them are crossing the line for what's tolerable behavior (according to me), I bite - and I bite hard!

I haven't written much about what I've done, so here's a short resume. After Arugam Bay, the golden crew went to Ella to swim on top of a water fall - it was just as fantastic as it sounds. After that I went to a meditation and yoga ashram in the forest outside of Kandy. I stayed there for five days and just enjoyed being alone and getting back into meditation again. The yoga was amazing, I really need to do more of that! After seeing the Buddhas tooth in Kandy with Ramees, I went to Polonnaruwa today. Tomorrow I will explore the ruins here and then go back to Colombo to fly to Thailand on thursday night. I've read that it's ok to fly to Bangkok, as long as I move on straight away, so I'll take the train to Chiang Mai the same day - no reason to worry!