Greetings from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

            Yesterday, after a pretty mellow four-hour flight from Dubai and followed by a pretty boring four-hour taxi ride, I finally made it to my destination of Hikkaduwa. Where my good friend Hannes was waiting for me. In total, it took my almost 40hours to go from San Francisco to Sri Lanka.

            Today a new word was added into my vocabulary, and it is a new word that I will never forget. The word is Tuk-Tuk, (“took-took” or “tuck-tuck”). For those of you that do not know what a Tuk-Tuk is, they are these three-wheeled taxis with the most aggressive drivers I have ever met in my life. If these guys could drive in NASCAR, I have no doubt they would win every race there is. These things are like little scooters with a covered bench in the back and with no doors. Hannes, our new English friend Jody, and I decided to go on a little adventure in search of waves. Together, the three of us headed south of Hikkaduwa, in one of these little death mobiles, towards a town whose name I cannot pronounce. What I thought was going to be a mellow 30-minute ride, turned into quite the harrowing adventure.

            First off, how more people do not die in automobile accidents is a complete mystery to me. If someone told me Sri Lanka has traffic rules, I would say they are completely lying. Driving around here is an every-man-for-themselves, winner-take-all, game of chicken. There really is no point in having painted lines in the road, because nobody stays within the lines. Normally, the Tuk-Tuks are on the bottom of this driving food chain, having to move to the shoulder to let the faster and bigger cars pass. Thankfully, our driver had a brand new Tuk-Tuk that had some zip, so we were passing all the other little death tricycles. But what really is deadly is the fact that all the roads are two lane roads. And on these roads are the craziest, most psychotic bus drivers I have ever seen. These guys drive their full-size buses, loaded with probably 50 people with reckless abandon. These buses are on a time schedule that literally makes passengers get out off without totally stopping. And when they do decide to stop, they just stop right there and block the entire road. The buses have ZERO patience for slow cars and slow Tuk-Tuks and fly into oncoming traffic in order to pass you. Let me tell you, watching one of these buses flying toward you while trying to pass a Tuk-Tuk in their lane is one of the scariest things in my life. On numerous occasions during our adventure, buses missed us by inches. Not to mention the motorcycle drivers that absolutely don’t give shit about anyone, and weave through these death dealing buses like it’s no big deal. One motorcycle actually clipped my arm as it tried to weave between us and a bus. Long story short, the waves sucked, we got some super tasty juice, hung out, played cards and headed back. By the time we arrived back, the journey felt like it took five years off my life. And tomorrow Hannes wants to get one of those death dealing buses, head south again, and check out this huge Dutch fort in the city of Galle. I can’t really say I am looking forward to it, but it should be quite the experience to say the least.

            One thing I noticed about Sri Lanka, is there are Buddha statues everywhere. These shrines hold Buddha statues ranging from 10ft to 30ft in height and are literally in every town. The biggest one I saw, is about 30ft. The statue was a gift from Japan after the big tsunami that hit here in… I think in 2006? Most of them are absolutely beautiful, and as soon as I find WIFI with enough bandwidth I will post pictures of them.

            Other than that, the food is pretty phenomenal. The fried rice, fried noodles, and curries are amazing. Sri Lanka’s national beer, Lion, is pretty shitty I am sorry to say. But their version of Coke, called Ki-ki cola is a sugary rocket fuel that is pretty tasty.

            My first in Sri Lanka consisted of a nice long yoga session, a decent surf, and tasty food. Not a bad start.

            Did I mention the water is the most beautiful shade of crystal blue I have ever seen? Pretty spectacular. Alrighty, I’m out. More updates soon! 

P.s. Bob Marley and Michael Jackson are HUGE here! who knew!?!?!

P.s.s. how the hell do you play cricket? Cricket is also HUGE here. Sri Lanka plays in the world cup final this weekend! Going to be nuts here!