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| Sigiriya Rock |
After our day trip to Sigiriya Rock, we take a 4 hour bus ride the next morning from Dambulla to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. It is our last day in in this country and we spend the afternoon walking around Colombo and taking in dinner before grabbing drinks at a patio overlooking the ocean at the Galle Fort Hotel. While listening to waves gently hitting the shore, we end up doing a run through of our entire trip thus far, picking out our personal highlights and least favourite moments. And while talking about Sri Lanka in general, we both agree that there was one item in particular that deserves an honourable mention.
Sri Lanka is a country with wonderful food and a wide variety of lovely things to do and see, but one thing that was a surprise was just how wonderful the people are. The people as a whole are kind, friendly and generous in nature and you get a sense that the locals really do want and like to see foreigners in their country. I can’t count the number of times that a stranger gave up their seat for me on a crowded bus to let Vic and I sit together because we must have looked uncomfortable; or how many times someone would stop and offer us assistance. Now we can’t say that there aren’t some locals who only see dollar signs when they come across a foreigner, but I think it would be fair to say that that would be expected from any developing country.
While Sri Lanka was in the running for winning the world cup, the country was alive with people excitedly riding around, honking and waving their Sri Lankan flags. And when Sri Lanka was defeated by India in the finals, the people we talked to were very uncritical and still very proud of what their team had accomplished. And so, despite the fact that the country has suffered from a decade of civil discord and devastation from the 2004 tsunami, you have a people who are still remarkably happy and exuberant.
So with all that being said, that's a wrap for Sri Lanka folks! Stay tuned for our next destination. We had a little change in plans.
