Sri Lanka: An Eyeopener

We all have preconceived notions about various persons or places. To my mind, Sri Lanka was one of those places that Western tourists find fascinating for the cultural quaintness but otherwise like any other Indian town in the southern part of the country. It was vaguely on my to do list, mostly because a friend of mine was posted there but I had no sense of urgency about going there.

This May I was supposed to be going to Leh for a week (my room mate and I had been planning the trip since February) but the Gods had other ideas. At the last moment our trip got cancelled due to some unforeseen mishap in my room mate's office. Weirdly enough, around the same time, another friend's trip to Thailand got cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. So there we were, two girls itching to get out of Delhi without any clue where to go.

After a series of discussions and hectic planning, we hit on Sri Lanka as a viable destination for a short trip within our budget and time constraints. My friend in Colombo was enormously helpful. She took care of hotel bookings.

We landed in Colombo at 2am. It was raining outside and we couldn't locate the driver who was supposed to pick us up and take us to the Taj Samudra. We located a post office and used the phone to call the driver (my friend had helpfully texted his cell number). Then followed a bizarre conversation with me trying desperately in English to explain to the guy (whose English was extremely limited) that we had arrived and were waiting for him. The driver: "You come at 2?" Me: "Yes, we are outside the airport"; Driver: "Outside? Me inside airport. You come at 2?" Me: We are standing at the Arrival." This went for a few minutes...finally my friend had a brainwave and said, "Mention that we'r waiting at the Post office." The moment I mentioned post office he brightened and said "I coming," and sure enough, the car and glided in 5 mins.

We were finally on our way to the hotel. Night time Sri Lanka looked quite quaint with a charming old world feel to it. Suddenly, we were flagged down by a couple of army guys with AK 47s slung across. Both our hearts started beating faster and our throats were dry as the driver buzzed down the window. Surprisingly enough, the army guy very politely wished the driver good morning and asked something in Sinhalese (presumambly about us). The driver said something back and I heard the phrase Indian High Commission!! I had no clue what was going on. The army guy then very politely asked me for my passport as well as Sarita. I was freaking out a bit because while I have an Indian passport, Sarita's is American. If the driver was trying to pass us off as Indian high Commission staff, it might be a bit difficult to explain how one of us had an American passport!! The check went off without a hitch and we breathed a sigh of relief! I asked the driver why he mentioned the High commission. He said otherwise they might want to check our bags. Then he launched into a mini history of LTTE and its attacks.

From the airport to the hotel, it was a 45 min ride. But we were stopped by the army some 10-12 times. Each time the same story was repeated, each time we were let go with a quick check of our passports. while it was very scary to have guys with AK 47s slung on their back stopping us very few minutes, they were extremely polite and courteous in their behaviour towards us and the driver. We were quite impressed.