A month before Diwali, we were considering options for a vacation. I was keen to travel to a state or union territory within India that I have not been to. It is my desire to travel to each state and UT of India, at least for a day. I have visited 30 out of 36 states/UTs. So I was insisting on one of Laddakh, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Arunachal, Nagaland or Mizoram. But the travel agent convinced us to go to Sri Lanka and we also thought that on the occasion of Diwali, let us go to the place where it all started.
It was an extremely hectic trip covering a different city every single day. We went to Kandy, Sigiriya/Dambulla, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Galle, Bentota, and Colombo. We had taken a car for the week but we also took a train from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. We went into mountains as well as beaches. Fantastic sites. But I am not writing this block to talk about the places we visited. I am sure there are enough sites to describe those sites. I had also published photographs and descriptions on my instagram page which you can see, if interested.
There were aspects of this vacation other than the sites themselves which made it special and that is what I want to focus on.
First, everyone we met, we could instantly felt that we could trust them. In most tourist places, whether in India or abroad, one is always worrying about someone stealing your money/documents, or trying to cheat you. In Sri Lanka, there were multiple occasions where we trusted complete strangers (because we felt we could) and it worked. There was a place where we climbed the hill only to be told that we needed to buy the ticket at the bottom of the hill. A young boy offered to help by going down the hill, buy the tickets and come back and hand them over to us. We later tipped him for the service. But he could have run away with our money.
The second aspect that we really liked was how most people were law abiding. Imagine a 2-lane road. There is a slow moving vehicle in front of you and our driver is slowly driving behind it. When we asked our driver why he doesn't overtake the vehicle, he pointed out that there was solid line in the middle and he will overtake when there is broken line in the middle. And it wasn't just him. Most vehicles were following the traffic rules to the last dot. Only in Colombo we found a bit of chaos but even there it was much less than the traffic chaos anywhere in India. In various sites we visited, we never saw anyone breaking the queue.
Third, there was really no fights or loud arguments that we experienced throughout this week. In fact, we had a minor accident where a vehicle hit our car from behind. It was just a touch which broke one of the lights and there was a small dent. The two drivers shook hands, and agreed that our driver would get the car repaired in one of the repair shop in Colombo and he will pay for the bill. They called up the garage and confirmed the deal with him. They also exchanged photographs of all the documents, etc. But no raising of voice. Extremely polite conversations.
Fourth, once a deal has been finalized, they wouldn't demand extra, any tips, or come up with any excuse to charge more. When we were at Galle Fort area, we hired an auto to take us all over the Fort area. The deal was that he will spend one hour with us and show us all the places. But, of course, as typical tourists, we needed to click lots of pictures at every point, and that took longer than expected. Finally, when he dropped us back to our car, I asked him if we had gone to the entry point. He said that was the point where we had started, but if I forgot to take the pictures, he would take us there again. So went again, took pictures and came back. So overall, almost 2 hours and more travel than agreed upon. But when we asked him how much extra we could pay him, his answer was, "zero." He was like a bit extra time and a bit extra distance does not mean that he should charge more from the tourists.
Fifth, the number of people who thanked us for visiting "Sri Lanka" was fairly high. Yes, there were usual thanks for staying in a hotel, or eating in a restaurant, but an unusually large number of people thanked not just for providing business to them, but for visiting their country. It showed how much pride they took in their country and how much they value tourism.
Sixth, when we traveled through the hills, we never felt that there was a haphazard development. In almost all hill stations I have been to in India, you find that they are a concrete jungle. But the hills we drove through had a completely green cover, no ugly unplanned buildings. Beautiful nature.
Seventh, the road infrastructure everywhere was excellent. We drove about 1000 KMs and never found a pothole or a broken road. (Colombo had a few rough patches.) The hotels even in small towns were excellent.
Eighth ,the country is very clean. We stopped by at several beaches between Galle and Colombo, and we never found any trash on the sand. There was no graffiti on any building. No Gutka peaks.
After the trip, I realized one thing. We have higher mountains, we have grand temples, we have better of everything that we could see in Sri Lanka. And yet, the tourism is not just about sight-seeing. It is about the overall experience, it is about stay, travel, interaction with locals, shopping and everything else combined. And in this overall sense, the experience in Sri Lanka was absolutely amazing.
If we want tourism to flourish in India, we need to focus on "Ease of tourists" just like we earlier focused on "Ease of doing business." In many parts of India, even the simple act of hiring a taxi can be so difficult.
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