The Unglamorous Side of Adventure

I said in my last post that I was glad we are experiencing Sri Lanka. I think that statement still rings true, but my goodness this place feels hard. Our plan for Sri Lanka was originally walking on the beach and swimming with giant sea turtles. Our reality is a very hot condo, a high risk of dengue fever, no good place to walk, and a fairly limited grocery store. It feels like the worst travel whiplash after Thailand.

Sweating It Out In Sri Lanka

Our condo has air conditioning, but Colombo has tiers of electrical cost that increase rapidly with usage. While we don’t mind paying the extra charge that is passed on to us, the Airbnb host seemed a little stressed about this. This is likely because our usage will impact her electrical cost by elevating her into a higher tier for the rolling 30 day billing period. Because of this, we are trying to use it only when necessary. To be honest, it is always necessary, but we are only using it at night. It would help if we could open the doors/windows but there are no screens and we don’t want to risk mosquitos coming inside. 

I really don’t know how significant the risk of getting dengue fever is, but the state department says it’s high and we understand infections to be 10-12x higher here per capita than Thailand. We don’t want to navigate a serious illness while here, so we are taking all the precautions we can. We brought insect repellent wipes with us, but we only have so many and we haven’t found repellent here. As a result, we have to ration when we use them. We often just put on long pants/shirts so we don’t need as much. There’s a lot of sweating going on inside and outside.

Nowhere to Walk

The road outside our condo is really more like an alleyway. It’s not even big enough for two cars to pass each other, so walking in the neighborhood isn’t an option. The main road where we buy groceries has some sidewalk, but it is still congested and there are often tuk-tuks or other cars parked on the sidewalks. This makes the only option for getting by to weave onto the street and try to avoid the traffic. 

Sunsets Soften the Whiplash

We’ve been comparing our time here to our time in Manila and in ways it feels very similar. Dave made a list today of why our stop here is a worthwhile thing. It helped. This amazing sunset helped too!

When I stop and really think about my complaints, I know they are trivial. Especially when signs of poverty are evident around every corner and right outside our windows. I guess both things can be true. This can be hard and I can be grateful at the same time.