Sri Lanka

After a brief stopover in Istanbul, my trip has continued to Colombo, Sri Lanka.  One of those little highlights along the way was a brief stopover in Male, in the Maldives - Sri Lanka's ocean playground neighbour.  As a series of Atolls rising a meter or two out of the Indian Ocean, the Maldives are both unusual and spectacular.  While today these sandbars and reefs host luxurious playgrounds of westerners flying in to bulk up on their vitamin D, when Global Warming hits hard they'll simply be a set of "live-aboard" dive resorts where future travelers can snorkel above the once opulent ocean hotels.  

It's a hop to Colombo, the primary city of Sri Lanka and sort of its capital (that's actually an adjacent little area to Colombo - a suburb as it were.  Metropolitan Colombo is home to 5.8M people, and all of Sri Lanka today thrives having settled their 30 year domestic war less than a decade ago.  Like all areas in the region, it's a mix of people, religions and language. While Sri Lanka is primarily Buddhist, the city of Colombo is primarily Muslim for example. Colonized at numerous points in its history, we also recognize Sri Lanka by the name Ceylon as that was its label under British colonial rule for 300+ years, and not formally changed until the 1970's, well after its independence from the U.K. 

 

The name itself ironically is a Portuguese twist on what the locals called it. Colombo can seem like a memory of Thailand, more than it's closer cousin India, perhaps due to the rules forbidding littering - it's a very clean city.  

A mix of colonial and modern architecture illustrates the wealth here.  Vast areas are being torn down and rebuilt to be taller and modern, but always with government supplied housing for those displaced.  Socially Sri Lanka has a safety net too that seems to limit the street homeless and begging found in so many places too.  Healthcare is provided and the whole country gives off an air of being on the right track. That seems consistent for what it's worth - rarely have I encountered as warm and sincere group of people. Everyone I've come across here is engaging and interesting with great English. It's the third language everywhere by the way - again pushed by the government as a tool to ensure education and business relevancy.  

Sri Lanka has been eye-opening to me as I'd expected a more tropical Nepal but its an enigma of success, grace and Indian Ocean hospitality.  I'll be back soon - hopefully to see the elephant orphanages next time.