Chinese New Year in Sri Lanka

Just a small portion of the total dumplings

This past week was the start of Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. It's somewhat remarkable to see what happens in China during this time. It's considered to be the largest annual migration of people, which obviously makes sense because China has so many people, but still. So many small businesses will close their doors for about a week as people return to their hometown for the holiday. Cities with millions of people normally can look like ghost towns. Last year I got to experience what it was like to celebrate with a Chinese family. New Year's Eve as I guess you would call it is all about making a ton of dumplings and eating it with your direct family. The next day is an even bigger meal with the extended family. Kids put on their new clothes to welcome in spring and set off little firecrackers. Also, the only TV show playing for several days is a big variety show put on by the Chinese governments. The performances can be pop songs or small skits with themes about family and country.

This year, I journeyed to my 25th country: Sri Lanka. It was only for about 4 full days so it was a little short to get a real feel for the country. I only got to visit Colombo and Galle, two of the major cities to see. On one hand, I would like to see other cities in the country that are not beach destinations, like Kandy, but on the other hand my experience in Colombo in particular was a little underwhelming, so I think I would prefer just traveling to a new country.

Most of my uneasiness with being in Sri Lanka stems with this focus on making money. Anqi and I were walking in a park and a Sri Lankan man walked up to us and introduced himself as the head gardener. I'm not very good at saying no, as anyone who's familiar with my experiences in NYC can attest to, so I walked along with him as he pointed out these various types of trees and showed us some fruit bats. For a while we kept saying we needed to return to our driver showing us around  but he kept insisting we have to see the next tree, the next location. Finally, when enough was enough and we said we were leaving, he held out his hand for a tip. I figured this would be coming, so I had readied some money and when I gave it to him, he looked at me and told me to give more. I've traveled across many countries in Asia and so many people say "People of Country X are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet." It irks me because as you travel you see how there are good and bad people in all countries. No country has exclusively friendly or rude people. And having traveled and lived in different Asian countries, I'm used to local shop owners trying to get me to come in and buy their merchandise because I'm white. I know there's a foreigner price and a local price. But I have never seen people come up and talk to you and then expect compensation for that. Why should I pay for that? Our tuk tuk driver took us to many temples and places around Colombo, and taught me about life in Sri Lanka that I was curious about, so I gave him a nice tip. That first full day in Sri Lanka cast a shadow over the rest of my time there and I became more distrustful of people. Were they helping me because they're friendly or because they expected some money out of it?

Now that I got that little rant out of my system, the rest of my time was pretty enjoyable. The train ride to Galle was hot and crowded but that's Asia. I thought it was pretty cool to see these men walking through the cars selling little oranges, fried shrimp and snacks out of these huge boxes. They had a stash somewhere because as they ran out, they'd be back again with a full box. The picture I have on the right is when many had already gotten off, so you just need to imagine these guys pushing their way through some very crowded train cars.










Once we got to Galle, we went to a nice beach area nearby called Unawatuna and the hotel was pretty cool. It had a little sea wall so you could get right up to the water and chill on a beach chair overlooking it.

Some things I learned and noticed while in Sri Lanka. The majority of the country is Buddhist, but there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians as well. It seems like most tourists coming to Sri Lanka are Russian. It's illegal to be in a photo with your back facing a statue of Buddha. Having just come from China, and even Indonesia, it was amazing to see how few people smoked. Our tuk tuk driver would point out various buildings under construction and say, "China government." I know Chinese foreign investment plays a big part in developing economies and that was very clear to see in Colombo. Also, Sri Lankan style curry and rotti are delicious.

So it was a short visit, and I wish I could have had enough time to see more of the country. I'm also bummed I couldn't decided on a cool souvenir to bring home for my budding museum collection. Sri Lanka is known for its gemstones as well as tea but also some cool wood and stone carvings. There's also apparently a budding industry for elephant dung paper, but I didn't see that in any of the souvenir stores I went to. Maybe I'll be back there again one day to give the country a second chance.

Ayubowan