Sri Lanka - a fascinating country

When I moved to Sweden to work with an NGO, I never imagined that would lead me to travel all the way across the World to Sri Lanka. When I got to know that an International Conference was being held there and that there could a chance of me attending, I was obvioulsy extremely excited - but I realized I didn't know much at all about Sri Lanka.

When I started researching about that exotic far-away country, I realized that it was a gold-mine waiting to be discovered. I couldn't really understand why, but for some reason it was being underrated, with plenty of people being totally unaware of the beauty waiting to be discovered on that amazing island.

When I boarded the SriLankan Airlines plane heading to Colombo, I was about to go out of Europe for the first time ever in my life. Unreal as it felt to actually be on the way to fulfilling my childhood dreams of travelling the World and experiencing far-away cultures, it was actually happening.

After many hours up in the air, I was finally approaching Colombo's airport and I couldn't wait to start my new adventure in Asia. My expectations were met as soon as I stepped outside of the airplane. It felt like I was in a different planet, as the air smelled completely different than anything I had ever experienced. Soon after I understood that it was the smell of tropical places, where I had never set foot before. It was a mix of humidity and heat and I got hooked on it straight away.

Having to wait for the transfer, I sat down at the Airport's main hall and tried to take in as much as I could from that place. The Airport's timetables were not digital, the WiFi didn't work and the people around me dressed and behaved in a very humble way. Suddenly I began to wonder about how spoiled we really are in Europe, without even being aware of it. But at the same time I wondered about those people's lives: were they happier than a rich person in Sweden? Did they live more fulfilling lives, even though they had less in materialistic terms?

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by my the transfer driver who came to pick me and some colleagues up, so off we went to the second biggest city in Sri Lanka: Kandy.

I had forgotten to look up on which side of the road you are supposed to drive in Sri Lanka. About 15 minutes into the trip between Colombo and Kandy, I realized that I still hadn't noticed any sign of it being left or right: drivers simply drove where the traffic allowed it. I had never seen more chaotic traffic in my whole life, but it was very impressive and fascinating that so many people could manage to be out on the road under such conditions without crashing.

At the same time as cars and Tuk Tuks swinged their way around the roads, people walked right in the middle of the road as well and even cows showed up from nowhere. It was both shocking and amazing. A completely different World, but so welcoming nonetheless.

A procession seen on the way to Kandy

Driving the 116 km from Colombo to Kandy took around 3 hours on many curvy roads. The landscape on the way was breathtaking, but I also saw levels of poverty that I had never encountered before. Plenty of the friendly people who smiled and waved at us on the way, were sitting by sheds without basic living conditions. Children ran around barefoot and their moms disposed of dirty water on the side of the road. It seemed unreal to me that so many people could live under such bad conditions, and I couldn't stop thinking about how unfair it is that we have so much on our part of the World, while those people don't have the bare minimum. I wondered, again, about what they felt. I started wondering if they resented us tourists. But apparently they didn't: all we saw was friendly faces and smiles, especially when we took pictures of the towns and their people.

It was in that moment that I understood something that has been with me ever since. I understood that that was exactly the point of travelling: to go out there, see things that you didn't even imagine could exist, be shocked and then realize that even though the World has many different places and people in it, we are all way more similar than we would otherwise believe.

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

Tucked away in the middle of Sri Lanka, visitors can find the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. If you are visiting Sri Lanka's second biggest city, Kandy, there is no way you can miss that Temple. It is a huge deal with locals and a very special experience for tourists. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, I'm sure you will be just as impressed as I was to discover that one of Buddha's teeth is actually there, hence the importance of the Temple for Budhists around the World.

Walking towards the Temple, I was deeply impressed by the power of that place. Somehow there was such a strong energy that one could feel, which also got enhanced by the Buddhist calls to pray playing across the town.

The clouds and thunder reminded us of the tropical country we were in and as we walked to the ticket office at the Temple, we could see the dozens of locals rapidly making their way to the entrance before the rain started pouring down.

After paying our tickets, we got informed that we had to cover ourselves (no legs or arms could be shown) and we were then directed to a security control that made sure of it: a female security guard made sure I was properly covered by the scarf I got to borrow from a friend, while guys were helped by male guards.

Everyone's shoes were left by the entrance, according to the Buddhist rules that needed to be respected in that sacred place.

As we made our way in to the Temple, barefoot and trying to stay covered in our makeshift outfit, we could see how dozens, if not hundreds, of people were lying down on the floor, while others prayed. There were corridors leading to rooms with exotic ornaments and other corridors leading to rooms full of people devoted to their prayers. Eventually there was a corridor that lead us to a room where people were playing instruments while many others prayed around them. I remember feeling like such an outsider, not understanding what was going on for most of the time, but at the same time feeling so overwhelmed by the sense of community that I saw in those around me.

After that unforgetable experience, we made our way out of the Temple feeling completely overwhelmed. We got to put our shoes back on, but not before a friendly member of the staff showed us to a tap where we could wash our feet, and another member of the staff divided a big carton into small pieces to give us in order to dry up afterwards.

I left feeling incredibly grateful for the amazing diversity that exists in our World.

Elephants and poo paper

Yes, I really mean poo paper, as in "paper made out of poop".

It turns out that, in Sri Lanka, it's a thing to transform elephant poop into paper. The poop is dried out in order to lose the bad smell and then it is boil for one hour to make sure that it is germ-free. Apart from that there are also other steps in the process of transforming poop into paper, but one thing is for sure: it really is made out of poop. Even if it doesn't look like it. And it is actually quite an environmental-friendly way of producing paper, if you compare it to conventional methods, which require cutting way too many trees down every year.

I had no idea about this innovative, yet weird, way of producing paper until I visited the an elephant orphanage and saw signs in surrounding shops announcing the sale of such products.

Apart from the fascinating discovery that poop can actually become useful paper, it was also interesting to see elephants at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. It will always be amazing to me to see such huge animals in all their beauty. But what started out as an overall positive experience became a shocking one when I realized that some of the animals weren't exactly treated nicely, with some of them being chained up and visibly distressed. I can't speak to the practices of such orphanages, but I certainly got a few concerns due to what I saw. It is hard to know what goes on in the backstage of such animal parks, but it certainly isn't fair or correct to chain animals up in the way that we saw, whatever the reason might be. With that being said, many of the elephants we saw seemed happy and were free to walk on certain areas while staff accompanied them. Even though it is always exotic to see such animals, I left that place with mixed feelings and hoping that my concerns were exaggerated.

Traditional Sri Lankan show

After everything I saw in Sri Lanka, from an amazing landscape with lush Nature all around, to fascinating religious rituals and celebrations, I didn't think I could get any more impressed by the Sri Lankan culture than I already was. But the cherry on top of the cake was still to come.

When, as part of the International Conference we were on, we got to see a traditional Sri Lankan show with music, dance and impressive tricks like walking on fire, I was completely in love. Not only had the trips around the country been amazing, with lush Nature, exotic religious rituals and friendly people everywhere we went, they also had this amazing cultural show to share with us. Their energy was contagious and it will stay with me forever.

I left Sri Lanka with a life-changing feeling of how the World is outside of our comfort zone. I had only ever been in Europe up until then and traveling to another continent for the first time totally gave me the travel-bug - even more than I already had before.

I promised to come back and explore the beautiful island of Sri Lanka even more, which I hope to be able to do soon.