The Alexis Angle – Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is the ninth stop on our gap year, and the shortest. The beginning of living here was hard for many reasons: such as that the food here feels like it is always spicy, we have to wear bug spray any time we go out so that we don’t get Dengue fever, and our apartment is almost stiflingly hot during the day. Despite all of that, I have grown kind of fond of Sri Lanka. These are the things that really stood out to me while here:

The Local People

The people here are so unbelievably friendly! Here, we stand out more than we have anywhere else, even in the Philippines. However, the reaction that people had to us arriving (and clearly being tourists) was completely different from how people in the Philippines reacted. Anyone we see on the street either smiles or waves at us, and anyone we talk to seems so eager to know “what do you think about my country.” I think I would be the same way too if I saw someone from Japan visiting Parker. I’d be a little curious about why they chose Parker of all places, and not the mountains or Denver. I can see why people are so excited to see tourists, because until going on gap year, I had never even heard of Sri Lanka!

Curry – Everything Smells Like Curry

 It’s everywhere, from the moment we stepped off the plane I got a big whiff of curry. I smell it on my towels, outside, when my dad is eating curry, on the people. It’s everywhere. If I didn’t wear perfume, I would probably smell like curry.

Driving

When we were on our 12 hour tour, you heard that right 12 HOURS, I noticed that our driver would constantly weave into and drive on the wrong side of the road. The first time he did it was unbelievably surprising, probably because there were cars on the road that we just weaved into coming straight at us! But I guess that’s just something that everyone here does.

I’m also unbelievably impressed by how well drivers here are able to navigate on tiny roads. For example: on our tour, we were driving on a dirt road that had enough space for our van and maybe one motorcycle, coming up the road towards us was a giant TOUR BUS. Somehow, I don’t even know how, we managed to inch past the tour bus and other cars, without a scratch. It must be some talent that all drivers here possess.

The Clothing

When I first stepped off the plane, the first thing I noticed that was different besides the smell of curry was the beautiful dresses that the women were wearing. I immediately thought of Aladdin, and the Saree dress that Jasmine wears. If I could own one, I would because they are so beautiful!

Spicy Food

I was so relieved when a few days ago I found a sandwich at a restaurant we order from often that wasn’t spicy. The food here seems to have never ending spice, everything is spicy, my dad has eaten so much spicy food that his eyelids have swelled. It’s everywhere, we are living in a land of spice.

Overall, Sri Lanka had its challenges, definitely testing our patience more than a few times, but I am happy we came here. Seeing different lives outside of Colorado never gets boring! Our next travel day is going to be the hardest one yet, almost a full 24 hours of travel, but I can’t wait to see South Africa!