Day 37 – Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is located off the south east coast of India and has a population of 22 million. The majority of the population is Sinhalese and 70% of the population follows the Buddhist religion. The country’s land area is 25,960 square miles. Sri Lanka is categorised as a developing nation, with 53% of the population living on less than $8.30 per day. In 2021 the government declared a major economic crisis and implemented emergency measures such as fiscal tightening and tax reforms, which helped bring inflation down from almost 70% in late 2022.

The island has over 3000 years of documented history, with human settlement dating back 125,000 years. The Portuguese colonised it in the 16th century followed by the Dutch. The British then established a colony on the island in the early 1800s and this lasted until 1948 when Sri Lanka gained independence and was then known as Ceylon. In recent decades Sri Lanka was bogged down in Civil War between the separatist ‘Tamil Tigers’ and Sri Lankan armed forces. The violence finally ended in 2009 with the defeat of the separatists.

Sri Lanka has a tropical climate, although the central highlands are much cooler. The Department of Wildlife Conservation administers 61 wildlife sanctuaries, 22 national parks, 4 nature reserves and one jungle corridor. 26.5% of its land area is legally protected for conservation.

Whilst tea, coffee, sugar and rubber remain important exports, industrialisation has also increased the importance of food processing, textiles, telecommunications and finance. The main economic sectors are tourism, tea, clothing, and rice. 99% of households have electricity and 93% of the population has access to safe drinking water.

In 2021 the government banned the use of inorganic fertilisers and pesticides. This brought about the almost immediate near-collapse of Sri Lanka’s tea industry with growing costs soaring by 1000% and yields falling to less than 50% of pre-pesticide ban levels. Later the same year, the government was forced to abandon its plans to become the world’s first entirely organic farming nation.

What we did today

Firstly, upon disembarking the ship, we were effectively abducted by an over enthusiastic rickshaw driver who unilaterally decided that we were going to visit the elephant temple and a diamond store, very much against our wishes, and in the face of our express objections! No amount of protest was successful in bringing about his capitulation and in the end we had to sit back and allow ourselves to be dragged from a pillar to post. The fact is that we only got into the rickshaw in the first place to get ourselves transported to a cashpoint and ended up being dragged half way around Colombo at considerable expense! When we finally managed to extricate ourselves from his clutches, we just about made our lunch reservation at Indiyah restaurant on time. Situated on the 23rd floor of the Cinnamon Life City of Dreams Hotel complex, the view from our table was world class.

After lunch we hailed another rickshaw (I know, I know, we are gluttons for punishment) and this time we were more vociferous in our insistence on being taken DIRECTLY to our destination of choice, with absolutely no detours! We then visited Pettah Market to experience a small slice of authentic Sri Lankan life, before moving on to the shopping mall at One Galle Face. After a restorative cup of delicious Sri Lankan tea and a good mooch around the shops, we headed out onto Galle Face Green to watch the legendary sunset and sit and enjoy the end of the England cricket match on the open air big screen, along with the locals. All in all we walked 7 miles. Everyone we had verbal exchanges with wanted to talk to Paul about the cricket (we are currently in the middle of the T20 Men’s World Championship), and one stallholder was so thrilled and incredulous that Australia got beaten by Sri Lanka, that he totally forgot he was trying to sell me some jewellery in order to give the subject a good airing with Paul!! It is 28 years since I last visited Sri Lanka and it is still a delight. We had an absolutely joyous day. ☺️