Tuk-Tuk Riders

Where was I?

It's odd, I've been out of Sri Lanka for a couple of days now and need to put myself in the right mood to depict it accurately. So lets start with some photos:

Finally today (imagine it's 3rd of March), before departing for Hong Kong, I was able to exit the hotel and explore Colombo. Apart from a spot of shopping, Helga and I went tuk-tuk riding!

Tuk-tuks are the three-wheeled vehicles also known as rickshaws that most people hire for quick transport around the city. These (not)cars can sneak into any space, their drivers don't hear anything so don' have to obey any road rules, usually don't have any lights at night so don't have to obey any road rules and aren't probably considered real vehicles so they don't obey any road rules! So mayhem on the road!!

Have a look at Helga and me, enjoying a tuk-tuk ride (note I've called her a different name in order to confuse you and thus protect her real identity!)

Anyway, not to make you think that Sri Lanka is all paradise - notice the army with their guns, the tuk-tuk drivers all talk about cricket and try to rip of the tourists!

(Though blending in as non-Sri Lnkan locals, we get them back and argue and bargain and damn if we don't get our 46cent discount!) And why the hell not?!

And I've found another Ganesh god - this one made of tuk-tuk parts?

Knowing that there is or was a conflict in Sri Lanka I tried to ask what it was about and so I asked a non-threatening Sri Lankan girl what the conflict was about?

"The war is over now." she replied. Yes but what WAS it about.

"It's finished!" she insisted.

OK so I wasn't game to ask her again.

I tried again later with another person. And got exactly the same reply - "War is over!"

Maybe that's what they teach them as a standard reply for curious tourists?

On another (last in Sri Lanka) ride we had a tuk-tuk driver who talked about cricket almost our entire ride - in anticipation of the Australia vs Sri Lanka game the following day. He was exclaiming wildly and I was a bit worried about getting to B in one piece (though Helga was just lounging in the tuk-tuk beside me having had 200% more experience in the fine art of tuk-tuk riding). He was very excited about cricket! I couldn't understand a word he was saying but since neither could Helga, I assume the problem was with English, not my lack (and continuously resistant to any acquisition!) of cricket-speak. Almost at our destination he mentioned too -

"I am Tamil, from north!" Finally! A someone who could explain the conflict to a curious tourist. "Oh GREAT!" I said and then noticed he was missing some front teeth and I was a bit worried about how he lost them - probably in a fight with an Australian about cricket...

"Good luck with the cricket tomorrow! Hope you win!" I chickened out about the war that is over...

If you thought you were going to learn something - go to wikipedia...

I recommend a nice elephant ginger beer (called EGB, really! and with an elephant on the bottle) and a drink to all the Tamils, cricketers and tuk-tuk drivers!
On to HK!!