- I found the people very diverse, not so much in race and physical appearance, but more in a cultural and religious sense: the Muslims and their mosques, the Sinhalese worshipping large Buddha statues and the Tamils
visiting Hindu temples. These identities are very strong and they didn't seem to mix that much socially.
- The Tamils and Sinhalese have each their own distinct language and alphabet, but English is widely spoken as well, albeit with many expressions that I was not familiar with: hotel = teashop-restaurant; uncle/aunty = how children address adults; naught = zero; country? = which country do you come from?
- We found the food pretty monotonous in most hotels and restaurants: usually rice and curry (the main national dish) and some Chinese dishes. But then we sometimes had "poppers" in the morning, a look-alike Biryani and very nice "devilled" fish (deep-fried). Delicious fresh fruit was often given for desert, such as papaya, pineapple and watermelon.
- Most foreign visitors seemed to travel around the country in private vans with driver. Public transportation is there (bus and train), but is less comfortable than in other Asian countries and not so frequent to many of
the sights. All the hotels therefore provide "drivers" quarters, often for free. Also, most hotels would offer us half or full board.
- Cricket is not only the No. 1 sport in Sri Lanka, it seemed that people were quite infatuated with it as we often saw people (men mostly) play the game on any open space around the country or watch an official match on TV with spellbound interest.
- Sri Lanka is a major producer of precious and semi-precious stones. You can witness this by the large number of "gem-shops" located in most towns and some villages. Willing shop-keepers always want you to just see their beautiful stones...
- For the first time on our trip did we have to provide tips for waiters and hotel staff, as this certainly is a custom on the Indian sub-continent. By the way, we ended up spending about US$ 65/day for the three of us, all in, mainly spent on hotel, food and transportation. This compares to $ 38/day in Burma.
