Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Sri Lanka with Frank Dunsford
Ever wondered what makes Sri Lanka a must-visit tropical paradise? Join us as we uncover the island's secrets with our insightful guest, Frank, a native of this exotic country rich in culture, history and nature. Growing up amidst lush greenery, sunny beaches, and the cooler hill country, Frank offers an insider's perspective on Sri Lanka's unique charm. Known as the 'Hawaii for Europeans,' this destination boasts a rich tapestry of natural beauty and cultural diversity. Learn about its tallest peak, Pidurutalagala, and understand why this island’s independence from India has shaped its distinct identity, making Sri Lanka a dream for any adventurer or nature lover.
Frank takes us through the vibrant cultural mosaic of Sri Lanka, where Sinhalese, Buddhist, and European influences merge to create a unique society. From the world-famous Ceylon tea to local customs and sweetened beverages, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for the cultural richness that makes Sri Lanka so compelling.
We also explore the hidden gems waiting for travelers such as Kandy's Temple of the Tooth and the iconic Sigiriya, Sri Lanka’s ‘Lion Rock’. Frank shares his favorite spots for wildlife encounters, including the majestic elephants, and recounts the island's renowned hospitality. Whether it’s enjoying delicious Sri Lankan cuisine, finding the best scuba diving spots, or surfing at Arugam Bay, this episode is your gateway to discovering the unparalleled allure of Sri Lanka.
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Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I'm Kristen and I'm Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure.
Speaker 2:Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. Well, thank you, frank, for meeting us, and you're going to talk about Sri Lanka today, right yeah?
Speaker 1:Okay, so born and raised there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, born and raised there.
Speaker 1:And when did you move here? How long did you live in Sri Lanka?
Speaker 3:So I lived my first 24 years in Sri Lanka. So of course, there's so much more to talk about that. 24 years Still love Sri Lanka a lot, and so when I was 25 years old, I first went to Pakistan to work and then worked in Middle East for a couple of years and Bahamas six years and 2014,. We came to US Bay Area, basically.
Speaker 2:Wow Global citizen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm trying to think I'm looking at the map here. And I'm trying to think I'm looking at the map here. I always try to bring it up at the same time so I can kind of get an idea, because it's its own island.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's an island and it's actually a big island 22 million 22 million.
Speaker 3:If you live in the US, you don't know a lot about Sri Lanka, but but for Europeans, sri Lanka is their Hawaii, basically. Right, that's there. If you, if you go to UK, germany and other European countries, sri Lanka is the probably one of their most favorite destinations to travel. And it's funny that when I was doing so, I worked for KPMG over 18 years during my, say, 24-year professional life, and so I started with KPMG Sri Lanka. I used to do this hotel audit. When you do a hotel audit, you go and stay there for a couple of months. So when you talk to people, so there are some people from Europe. For them, some of them are like teachers it's cheaper to live in sri lanka, but what they do all day, like sit, sit on the beach, just uh kind of sipping their drinks, like having these, like great meals, and they're like still cheaper to be here than stay, stay back home. So, yeah, it's a cool place, wow, yeah, absolutely wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, it sounds incredible. And then curious about the weather and, like I'm just looking, I brought up images because it looks like it's. Is it mountains as well?
Speaker 3:It is. So it's a tropical country, of course, an island. So in terms of weather it's kind of very similar to Hawaii. So when you went to Maui it's very similar to Sri Lanka. And then if you drive a couple of hours then you'll get to the upcountry or hill country right and the weather changes. So in terms of like Celsius in Colombo or in the coastal area it's around, say, 30 to 35 Celsius. When you go up countries it goes down to kind of five degrees or zero. So it changes kind of rapidly. It's an awesome place. So there's a lot to be done for anybody traveling in Sri Lanka. If you do a week worth of travel, there's a ton to cover because it's not that small but it's not that big either yeah and you can.
Speaker 1:You can see everything in a week or so wow, and and how long does it take to drive around that? Can you drive around it, and is it like days or like hours?
Speaker 3:no, for sure it's days. I was gonna say for 22 million.
Speaker 1:It's got to be day yeah it's days for sure yeah, and then I was looking at so does it get? It doesn't get snow, does it?
Speaker 3:no, no snow yeah, no snow it's uh. So we, we in sri lanka, we don't have seasons like it's. It's tropical, kind of december, around december, january. It's a little chilly, but it's. It's nothing compared to kind of winter weather. Right, it's just a little chill, it's a. It's a tropical country, same weather 365 days a year, basically nice.
Speaker 2:Is there a rainy season?
Speaker 3:yes, I mean there are seasons, but it, it kind of rains always all the time it's tropical and rains always all the time it's tropical and rains always all the time. So it's a very green place. I mean you can grow anything. It's a kind of very rich country, right, Even though it's like these African countries, right, Sometimes rich countries with poor people. A rich country like naturally, we have a lot right, Surrounded by the sea and this hill country. There's so many kind of precious gems and things like that. Yeah, and so it's a rich, rich country and yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was noticing, like the mountain range, like it's a long word, pidrutalagala.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:How do you pronounce that? Pidrutalagala there we go and there's a picture. It looks beautiful and so the tallest mountain is like 8,200 feet. Yep, I know Carol's in Colorado. She's got 14 speakers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we are 50, we're like 5,000. So that's like going up to Netherlands, you know it's up to 8,000. So not quite, not quite ski places, but yeah, that's pretty high up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's almost like Africa meets Hawaii meets Sri Lanka.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah, no, no. All of that, all of that, I think yeah, it's a, it's a, maybe a it's a maybe. A mini southern part of India, right In a kind of a smaller Sri Lanka, is only only one 60th of India. India is like way too big as, and Sri Lanka is an island, but it has everything within that island. Basically.
Speaker 2:Was it ever part of India?
Speaker 3:No, it was never part of India and it's funny that as a fact, I think if you ask a Sri Lankan because we Indian Sri Lankans look very similar If you ask a Sri Lankan like are you Indian? Kind of like not in a serious manner we kind of get offended. We're like no, I'm a Sri Lankan. Like are you Indian? Kind of like not, not in a serious manner we kind of get offended. But like no, we, I'm a Sri Lankan, I'm not Indian. So we have been so proud of our culture and Sri Lanka was actually a kind of very somewhat of a wealthy country right like 30-40 years ago I think we used to be the second kind of best economy in the at one point and over the last 20, 30 years economically we have somewhat kind of gone down, not done that well compared to how we did, say, post-british leaving the country. So I think I don't know if you guys have read Sri Lanka was ruled by first Portuguese, then Dutch and then English, like British, from 1500s to 1948.
Speaker 3:Sri Lanka has maybe four major races Sinhalese is the majority, then there's Tamils, Muslims, and then there's a race called Burghers. So Burghers are basically descendants of Portuguese, dutch or English. So technically I'm a burghers. That's why I get, that's where I get my last name, dunsford, and, and apparently my great-grandfather and his brother. They came to Sri Lanka with the first railway engine early 1900s, it seems so, even though my last name is Dunsford, my mother tongue is Sinhalese. My mom is Sinhalese. From my mom's family, everybody is Sinhalese. From my dad's side, my dad's mom is also Sinhalese, sinhalese Buddhist. But my grandfather from the dad's mom is also singleist, singleist buddhist. And but my, my, my grandfather from the dad's side is actually a, is a white guy, right, so I'm oh, my goodness, oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what your your?
Speaker 3:your grandfather was white yeah, he's white, but but, but the thing, but the funny thing is, in my dad's family they're technically kind of European descendants but their mother tongue also Sinhalese. Right, it was. They kind of really they became Sinhalese like, I think, fast, not by the names, but everything else they do, right, how they talk, how they behave yeah so for me, I had to learn English, basically.
Speaker 3:So I did all my studies. Uh, single is right. Everything I learned up to say first 18 like up to first 20 years or so I studied in single is I was studying english as a subject. Right, that's one of my subjects to learn, because in sri lanka, english is a business language. Okay, yeah, so it's, it's my subjects to learn, because in Sri Lanka English is a business language. So it's very important to learn that. But I didn't get that because of my name or because of my family background, just like everyone else, I had to learn that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's really interesting. So when you're there, I know I have family, that's oh gosh. I can't remember the country, but they're Swedish and they moved there to you know South America area and then they had, like they have Swedish people. They have like different types of you know all different types. And is that like Sri Lanka, where I guess if there's the English and Portuguese and you know Indian, I'm sure come down? Is there a different, like a melting pot of different people?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a mix and I just saw the other day somebody was saying in Sri Lanka, if you go to Colombo, which used to be the capital technically, but there's a new capital named, I think 20, 25 years ago, called Kote, sri Javardhanapura, kote that's the official capital, but Kalambo is the capital like unofficial capital, like when you talk about Sri Lanka. People know Kalambo, but if you go to Kalambo you get everything right Within a mile mile. You get a, you get a Buddhist temple, christian church, hindu temple and a Muslim mosque right. So it's a real mix of everything, like even in India probably. It's somewhat separated, based based on the religions and all that Sri Lanka it's. It's then again like if you take the northern area, that's where probably that's where most Tamils live, in addition to Colombo and the Western province, and and if you go to south, it's mainly Sinhalese, with some Muslims and you're saying Sinhalese, is it Sinhalese?
Speaker 3:It's called Sinhalese, sinhalese, sinhalese.
Speaker 1:Sinhalese. Sinhalese like yeah, okay, got it and that's. Is that the language or the religion?
Speaker 3:it's the, it's actually the race. So the, the religions are like Buddhism, christianity, hinduism and Muslim right or Islam, and but the races are basically Sinhalese right and Sinhalese people speak Sinhala. They're the first people who lived in Sri Lanka, and thousands of years. And. And then everyone else in terms of like, say, tamils or Muslims. At one point they came to the country. Muslims came to the country for like, trade, like, so the Muslims are basically from from Arabic countries.
Speaker 3:Traders came to Sri Lanka and then they got married to Sinhalese people and they settled down in Sri Lanka and then Tamils just like Sinhalese, I think they were living in Sri Lanka. The Tamils in the northern area, they were living in Sri Lanka for a long time. But there's also Tamils in the hill country or country who were basically brought from India to work in the tea states. So Sri Lankan tea is the best tea in the world and they call it Ceylon tea. Sri Lanka was, I think, 1948. We changed the name. If I'm not mistaken, prior to that we were called Ceylon. That's how everyone knows the country Ceylon.
Speaker 2:Oh it's C-E-Y-L-O-N. Ceylon T. I recognize the T.
Speaker 1:So the country used to be called Ceylon.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, interesting.
Speaker 1:What year was that that they changed it?
Speaker 2:I believe it's 1948, but I need to confirm that that makes sense when you said okay, so that's a big different. Hawaii's coffee, sri lanka's tea yeah, what kind of tea kind of black tea and everything else.
Speaker 3:Right, primarily black tea, but of course we have all the variations in terms of like the green teas and the flavor tea and all that. But uh yeah, sri lankan tea like it's not because I'm saying it, it's, it's well known in the world, it's the best tea in the world yeah and is do you drink tea, uh, just straight, or do people put like sugar or milk or do anything specific with it?
Speaker 3:yeah, in sri lanka, I think, people put sugar in everything, even in a very, very unhealthy manner. Really, if you, if you go to Sri Lankan house, they'll be like if you want a tea, and if you tell them like I don't want sugar, like they'll be like why?
Speaker 2:are you sick? Are you diabetic or something? Yeah, are you diabetic?
Speaker 3:yeah, are you diabetic? Yeah, so I think Sri Lankans consume probably way too much sugar, yeah, and of course, things are changing, with people learning things and all that, like in the whole world in terms of how people eat and everything. But in Sri Lanka, like, if you take the rice consumption, right, because our staple food is rice and I think it's coming from because Sri Lanka had a kind of a still have a kind of farming economy and so rice is the staple food. But the big difference in how we eat compared to Indians, right, if you, there are still Sri Lankans who eat rice for kind of all three meals breakfast, lunch and dinner. Things are changing, of course, right, with this, with the busy lives and everything.
Speaker 3:But, uh, if you, if you take a typical sri lankan meat, it's a well-balanced meal. They say, uh, it's rice and uh, meat or fish and a couple of vegetables and some leaves and it's a very healthy, well-balanced. So sri lanka was a. If you compare that to indian meals, it's typically a roti and chicken or rice and chicken. That's it. Sri Lankan meal has way more parts to it and I think it's coming from I think Sri Lanka had a very rich culture for thousands of years. Right, we have all the spices. Right, you can grow anything in Sri Lanka. So, in addition to tea, of course we export rubber and coconut, but we also export cinnamon and all that.
Speaker 1:Tea. And tea yeah, right, I'm like now I'm curious about tea. Oh yeah, you're a big tea drinker, I'm a tea drinker. Yeah, so I'm also decaffeinated. But you know, whatever I'll do it.
Speaker 2:So for an American to go visit is it pretty easy to go. Do you need a visa? Do you know?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you do need a visa, but it's very. You can just get it online and I think it should be around $30 to $50 for 30 days. So the visa process is very straightforward. You have to travel almost a day and a half to get there, typically the way we go. So from San Francisco, we either go through Dubai or some other Middle Eastern countries or through Singapore. The last time I visited, I actually went to India. I traveled from San Francisco to Delhi and Delhi to Colombo 2020, when I went, actually 21. When I went there, I went to Singapore. So there are various ways to get there and typically it's one stop in one of these other countries and then from there you can get a flight to Colombo.
Speaker 1:Wow, and I'm assuming, are your parents still there? Do you have your siblings or family?
Speaker 3:My parents are still there, so from my family. So I have two siblings, a brother and a sister. My brother is a year younger than me, so he's in the US. Actually he's 15 minutes drive from where I live in the east of San Francisco, and so they. So I actually came here through work and through work visa and all that my brother and his family they got they actually they won the green card lottery, so it's just a total coincidence and they won it. He actually didn't want to come here, he was well settled there, but they decided to come here. My sister she lives in Australia, melbourne, australia so we are somewhat like all over the place in the world. My parents are Australian, sri Lanka and they traveled every now and then. They came to US. A couple of times they have gone to, I think, australia way more. I think maybe six times now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But they're still there.
Speaker 1:Closer, I'm assuming, to where they are, probably for Australia, a couple hours or so.
Speaker 3:No, it's actually a 10-hour flight, I believe to Melbourne. Oh, okay, so not close, yeah, but it's not bad. It's not as long as going from the US, but it's not bad as like it's not as long as going from US.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how is it like growing up, like you know in your childhood and because you have kids here in the US, so you have that as a comparison no-transcript.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm from very, very humble beginnings, for sure, but I think my parents did as hard, they worked as hard as they can work and they did really well to kind of provide us everything. I would say like we were probably a kind of lower middle class in terms of kind of finances and economically and but growing up kind of of a very, very simple life. And I was telling someone I must have played cricket one third of my life. Cricket is extremely famous as a sport in Sri Lanka. It's not a sport in the United States. It's that famous because it's famous in Sri Lanka, india, pakistan, like all the countries British were living or controlling at one point. It's kind of a British sport, also Australia.
Speaker 3:Just I think growing up I was a kind of bright student but I haven't really tried studying or working hard to get anywhere Right. So that's kind of my first maybe 20 years or so. I was just doing well in school because I was good, but I was not really studying to do what I do. But yeah, it was just a very simple life and help the parents and just a little bit about the childhood. So my parents and we privately grew up in the Western province and Colombo district, which is close to we, were very close to the kind of capital of Sri Lanka, but I was born in a city called Kuru Nagala, kuru Nagala, so I was born in 1978, lived there through 1985. And my dad had this shoe shop called Ford Shoe Hut and so he was a businessman, like we had this shop, but he was renting it so he wanted to buy his own shop. So he decided to take a foreign employment, go to a foreign country. He did that in 1985. He wanted to go to Cyprusprus, but the people who took him, like they, he ended up in lebanon in a kind of a in a kind of a now war zone and he was in trouble, like he was there for six months. I think he probably almost lost his life couple of times. Uh, somehow he came back to sri lanka. Uh, my mother was from, uh, colombo district and so with that during that time we went to Colombo and kind of we started living around where my mother's parents live and so I had to change my school and everything. That was 1986. It was not a huge change because we were young, but it was a kind of significant change in life.
Speaker 3:But my dad again went for a foreign job in 1981, 1991, when I was 13 years old. He went to Saudi Arabia and he worked there for 13 years. So he was kind of he was definitely in the picture. He was writing to us but he was coming to see us every two to three years like, and he stayed for a month or so. So we actually missed him a ton. So he went like when I was 13. He came back when I was like 25, 26, and when he came back I started going out of the country. So I kind of like missed him like all my life, except the first 13 years. It was tough without him actually right Just growing up. We looked up to him a lot Like he was our hero, right. Growing up. Then we missed him a lot and I had to grow up fast. So I was the oldest child in the family.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I had to kind of become like the person who kind of if anything happening to us in the family. I was like I had to kind of become like the person who kind of if anything happening to us in the family. I was like I had to leave it. And I'm sure and I know my mom had the toughest job right Two teenage boys and just kind of making sure we didn't get in trouble. We had a rough time with the dad but I mean he did that because we wanted money and we were doing better financially because of that. But we always I think all of us wish he didn't stay there for 13 years. He came back to live with us, maybe in five years or so.
Speaker 2:But it is yeah. So is there limited industry in there and jobs? It seems like a lot of people have left Sri Lanka, probably for, I would guess, opportunities for work. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes and no, right, I think so. In Sri Lanka the literacy is 93%. It's just like a developed country, right? So you have smart, very literate people, right? So we, you, you have, you have smart, very literate people. And so I think last 30, 40, 50 years, people, people started going to foreign countries for better money and and that has happened like way too much last probably 20, 30 years, because I think economically we have done some things as a country kind of not so smart, and so we had they say we were producing or manufacturing a lot late 1970s, early 1980s, and slowly but surely we were. We have started selling those and importing everything and which was kind of which we have realized as a country now is kind of a recipe for failure in terms of industries Agriculturally, tea rubber and coconut and spices we still have that and we do export fish.
Speaker 3:It's, of course, surrounded by sea and we are known for our tuna right like, kind of like very sushi grade, high, high grade tuna. So fishing is a significant part of the economy. Tourism is kind of the next big one, or now maybe the biggest income generator, because it's it's a beautiful place and uh, yeah, and other than that, uh, just just just a human capital is like people are super smart. Education is still free through through college education and but the college education is somewhat limited because it's kind of government run and there are so many people can get that. Uh, I mean over the last 10-15 years there are a lot of private education but uh, but, but there are the industries, like I think the textile industry has grown a lot from like uh, probably like early 2000, so that that's a, that's a significant part also yeah, wow and was curious, like what were when you were growing up you were playing cricket.
Speaker 1:The school system is it the same like elementary, middle school, high school kind of thing and then to college? How is that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, in Sri Lanka it's actually very similar to British education than United States education, but very similar. So we have, say, grade 1 through grade 10. And then there is this kind of a government-run exam called general education, general certificate of education, ordinary level. So that's the kind of first pass. So that's where kind of people decide which way they want to go, whether you want to be a doctor or engineer, an accountant or something else, right, and you do that then. So that's the first 11 years, or 10, 11 years, and then you you're going to do this thing called advanced level and that's next two years. I think that's probably very similar to, uh, maybe last two years of high school here in the US. I think, yeah, very similar to that, and that's on a two-year list. Then after that you have this advanced level examination, again a government-run examination, island-wide, and based on that you can qualify to go to a government-run university. So the top of the top will get into that.
Speaker 3:But what has happened in Sri Lanka, I think, 30, 40 years ago? Maybe 30,000 people can do that. It has not. The number has not changed. Population is so high to get to a university in Sri Lanka if you want to go to government, but what's happening? We last 10, 15 years. There are a lot of private universities years. There are a lot of private universities and there are a lot of programs like you get a foreign degree but you do the first two years in Sri Lanka. Then you either go to Malaysia, singapore, australia or US or UK to complete that.
Speaker 1:So is there in terms of what to see, what to do, I know what are the highlights of people that they see, and then what's like the hidden gems that you're like normal folks wouldn't go, but it's a gem to you know, the sri lankans.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I said that right. Yeah, so in terms of hidden gems, probably kind of everything is like these days, everything is out there right with the technology and with the internet and everything. So of course, if you go to Sri Lanka, you must do the beaches right, and in the southern part of the country there are a lot of tourist hotels and beaches and then probably like you guys don't know this, but Sri Lanka had this kind of this is not an ethnic war. Then probably like you guys don't know this, but Sri Lanka had this kind of a this is not an ethnic war but it was a terrorist organization in the country in the northern side, called LTTE, and so the tourism in the northern part was not doing well, but that was ended by the government in 2009. With that, there's so much open so there's so many places for, like, surfing, so so the beaches and the sea that's probably the the number one attraction and you have like thousands of like really tough, real good tourist hotels.
Speaker 3:And I was thinking like when we were in sri lanka 2021. I have traveled the world and I have stayed in many hotels. I travel a ton. The reality, that service you get in Sri Lanka. I've never seen anywhere People are like that nice, that kind always smile. You can't for sure get that in the US, right? People are not that kind Like if you go to a restaurant or whatever. I think Sri Lankan people are very friendly, so you get that, so that's the added thing, and then the food is really, really good. The coastal area, that's a must-do and then you must do the upcountry. There's a must-do place called Kandy, kind of a temple of tooth, we call it, and it has Lord Buddha's kind of a tooth of Lord Buddha in that temple.
Speaker 3:So it's very special, it's very beautiful and that's candy with a K right candy with a K yeah yeah, okay, cool yeah and there's a place called, called Lion Rock, and we call it Sigiriya, and I always think it should have been a wonder of the world, should be, should have been part of the seven wonders, and what is it called? Idleland Rock, s-i-g-i-r-i-y-a Okay.
Speaker 2:Is it near candy or no?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's somewhere close to candy, I found it.
Speaker 2:I just typed in Like a flat top rock.
Speaker 1:Oh. Yeah, oh, wow, that's crazy there's a city on the, or there's, it looks like exactly so so you know, there's a big castle on top of that rock, right.
Speaker 3:So, and how how people got there and so that that there are ways, but I think, in terms of engineering and all that they had hot water, they had everything, they had pools and everything on top of the ground. So, and I always think, if this was in another country, a developed country, this should have been part of Seven Wonders.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 3:It isn't that big, but it's in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2:I wonder how high that is up. Is that like a couple thousand feet? It's like way up.
Speaker 3:How do people get up there? Yeah, so still like, I mean, we did that 2018 when we went there with the kids. That's, that's a staircase. It's somewhat difficult, right? I actually had to promise my son so 2018. He was like seven years old and in the middle of the staircase he's like yeah, I don't want to go anymore. I promised him to get a set of Legos, so that's how I got here.
Speaker 2:Perfect, you got to do what you got to do.
Speaker 1:How long did it take to climb?
Speaker 2:up there. Oh, I see a picture with the stairwell. It's just all in like in just a couple hours, right, I assume, not like.
Speaker 3:No, no, it's not. It's not. I think all in it should be like two to three hours, right, you can do the whole tour. Yeah, culturally, I think, and what we had in terms of the lakes we, sri lanka, have like thousands of lakes like which is which was, which were used for agriculture, so it's just just a just just just a very rich place culturally and even like in terms of engineering and how smart people were. And if you compare that to US, us is a very young country. Sri Lanka is like thousands and thousands of years old. People are very proud of it. But maybe that's one of the problems of Sri Lanka Like people still live in that culture rather than thinking, like looking ahead, than thinking forward and all that like that. That's something I think currently people in the country are like kind of challenging. Enough of these old things like that, that king did this, this king did that, like let's look ahead then. Uh, yeah, of course it, we should be proud of it, but then let's see what we can do going forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And then what's like a typical day that you know growing up? Is it like meals-wise breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then people go to school from 8 to 3? Or you know, it's kind of standard or so, or how is it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, living and eating, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the school timing was, I think, 8 to 2, 7.30 to 2.30. It's very similar. So currently I think breakfast is probably very much similar to here. Right, it can be like bread and butter and some fruits and milk, like Sri Lankans do a lot of like, drink a lot of milk, milk tea, and that's probably kind of very similar to here. When you wake up and then the typical lunch not for a person who's going to school, but typical, typical lunch is rice with fish, meat and some vegetables. A typical student like either. You buy lunch from the school right. At one point there was a program the government was like providing food for children, like milk and eggs and things like that, and so we were. It was during when we were going to school, so that was cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you said like rice is a staple and the meat or fish it sounds like fish is probably what kind yeah, it basically has tuna and everything else like variations of tuna, basically based on the size of the fishs.
Speaker 3:Holidays, uh, valentine's day or easter you know things like that yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 3:So so sri lanka has actually probably way too many holidays because I think we have way too many cultures and religions and so the the country is 70 plus percent Buddhists, probably as a population, that's the most people in the country in terms of Buddhism. If you go to India, it's most like Hinduism, and even though Buddhism was kind of somewhat started in India and Nepal, sri Lanka currently probably the only country that has presented percentage that many Buddhists and only singly speaking country. But in terms of what we celebrate, we celebrate everything. Right. It's funny that Christmas so maybe Christians are around 10% in the country In the Christmas time, everybody shops, doing shopping, everybody has a Christmas tree in their house, right, it's that tree in their house, right, it's that.
Speaker 3:And then during, so it's uh, it's lord buddha's birthday in may, and during that poor day, I think everyone celebrate that too right in terms of, like, whatever we call it, besak lanterns, right, we just have those lanterns in front of the houses, so people just do those things. Same thing for, like, whether it's Hindu, like Diwali or Muslim holidays. So we get holidays for all that. We get there's at least one Hoya day every month, like a full moon day we get holiday for that, it's maybe US into two or 2.5 or even three number of public holidays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, lots of celebrating, right? Is there anything that's really specific to Sri Lanka, that there's nowhere else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure we don't have penguins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:We don't have penguins. In terms of the wildlife, it's definitely rich wildlife and we have lots and lots of elephants and at times, to the extent it's a, it's a, it's a trouble for people in certain areas, right, because when the elephants don't have place to live because of, maybe, development, then they'll come to villages, right, then that's a problem. We have that many elephants, right, but, but, but, but elephants are well, very well loved and well, well respected in sri lanka. And then, uh, we have all other animals in terms of like, deers, and there are, like, there are, a lot of birds and animals specific to sri lanka, and that there's a whole list of that.
Speaker 3:Sri Lankan people are very friendly, I would like to say. People are, like, smart and very literate, close to the religions and races. Right, people get very emotional when they talk about the country or their religion or race. I think I don't know if that's a South Asian thing, but we are that, uh, we are definitely not indians, right, uh, not indians for sure. Right, it's. It's a whole different country, very independent country, and, uh, that, uh, in terms of like yeah, so a beautiful place.
Speaker 3:Uh, tourism is really good in terms of places to see. Uh, there are some forts, there are a lot of mountains to climb and see for, do hiking, and all that. Beaches are beautiful. Uh, if you go to colombo, you see anything you see either in san francisco or new york in terms of buildings and malls and everything like so kind of very developed in that sense. Yeah, I'm just trying to think what are the next?
Speaker 2:thing. That's great. So let's go into our rapid fire questions now. So when you go back, is there a favorite dish that you like to have? That you must have?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's this dish called kotu Ku k-o-t-t-y. Right, it's a, it's a roti based dish, but uh, you kind of cut all the rotis and you mix that with some, say, some vegetables and a meat, and the cool thing is like it's in a, it's in a kind of a cooking thing, and people like just kind of chop it. That's how you make it and it's a kind of a delicacy in Sri Lanka People like that.
Speaker 2:And what's the meat that you eat? What's your favorite meat in there Chicken or beef?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I love beef. So for me I like beef, but people put chicken beef and anything else and then, like our curries are really good, like Sri Lankan beef or chicken or mutton or lamb or any of that Fish curry is really good. So we are known for that. We do this thing called kiri bath. So kiri bath is kind of rice but with kind of more milk, kind of more stuck together, sticky, and we make that for the kind of special locations, auspicious occasions, and there are like a bunch of sweets we make. And again, like people I think Sri Lankan people have this sweet teeth and a lot of sugar and a lot of sweet things. And speaking of sweet, things?
Speaker 2:uh, and speaking of sweet things, what are some of like your three favorite fruits that are grown there?
Speaker 3:so they have mangoes, yeah yeah, sri lanka mangoes are really, really tasty, being tropical. Uh, papaya, we have a lot of papayas. We have pineapple. Pineapples are really good. I love this thing called wood apple. So wood apple is like pineapples are like, of course, like small trees. Wood apple trees are big, like it has a shell. That's very tasty. We have real good avocados. We have jackfruit you know jack, right, so the ripe, that's real tasty. And in Sri Lanka, probably maybe almost every house in villages they have coconut trees and jack trees, right, so even people don't work they can eat, like they can eat jack and fruit, yeah, and we have a lot of bananas and we have a lot of varieties of bananas here. You see the same kind, right, the things come from Mexico, but we have a lot of varieties. Fashion fruit.
Speaker 2:Wow, everything sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what apple looks really interesting. It looks like a kind of a coconut, but I don't know how big it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not big as coconut, but it's probably one-eighth, one-fifth of a coconut, right yeah?
Speaker 1:just just like an orange or apple.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think that's why we, that's why we call it wood apple, I think, because it's the shell is like a wood yeah, I see nice does it taste like apple, or what does it taste like? No, I know it tastes much better than apple. It's a little sour, but it's based on how ripe it is. But it's tastier tastier, more than apple or an orange.
Speaker 1:Thanks.
Speaker 3:And of course I'm biased.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Okay, how does the money work there? Do you have to exchange it? Is it better to exchange once you get there? Do you just use an app or credit cards? What's the best way to spend money in Sri Lanka?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I think they have everything like in terms of credit cards and I think anything we do with money here. You have all that stuff there, Like banking system is very similar to here. Currency is rupees, Sri Lankan rupees. So for me, if I'm going there, either I would send dollars to Sri Lanka, say to my parents' bank account, and they'll withdraw that for me, or I'll carry dollars and I'll go to a money exchange or bank and exchange it.
Speaker 2:Basically, Okay, awesome. And then what's the best way to get around a car public transportation or to hire a driver?
Speaker 3:yeah, I think I think hiring a driver probably the easiest for somebody who doesn't know the country. When I, when I go to sri lanka, I always drive and uh, it's not very easy to drive somebody who's not from sri right, it's kind of, in my opinion, it's like a it's very exciting for me to drive very different from here, right, but you know how to drive there. I personally drive when I go there, but kind of getting a taxi or cab probably the easiest public transportation wise. There's a lot of government run or private-run bus services and there's always a railway and actually if you take the train or the railway to go to upcountry, it is extremely beautiful.
Speaker 3:So, people do that to see the country. Like yeah, if you take the train from Colombo to upcountry, you see almost all the beauty of the country other than the beaches of course.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, it sounds yeah. Hawaii doesn't have trains.
Speaker 1:And how long does it take to train up?
Speaker 3:It can be altogether. It can be it's based on where you want to get in and get out. But it can be a nine, 10 hour ride because, like some places, it goes like slowly, because it's just to like show people around. And then there are faster trains, also right for commuters.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:When we were in Sri Lanka last time, we did one of those trains. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:That sounds amazing, Wow. Okay, and the last question where's the closest place to surf? Is there a surfing culture there being on the water?
Speaker 3:There is. There's a big surfing culture In the southern area there's there's a lot of spots for surfing but, as I was telling you, after the kind of the war we had, the the eastern area and the northern area got opened and I think that there's a place called, I think, arugambe arugambe, and around the trimcomali area I think there are a lot of surfing, as I know, and and then that's in the southern area also. So it's a very famous for surfing and and also for scuba diving. So there are a lot of people from us or europe. They travel to sri lanka specifically for that. So here where I live, in my previous house in Clayton California, I had this neighbor. They had this Sri Lankan trip. They are like they are actually scuba diving instructors. The couple was going to Sri Lanka. Oh wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:And is it like the east side or the west side of the island better for scuba diving, or is it everywhere, all around?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's actually east side or the west side of the island better for scuba diving, or is?
Speaker 2:it everywhere, all around yeah, it's actually.
Speaker 1:It's actually east side and the southern side, okay, sweet. Yeah, I looked up arangum bay. Well, it's a-r-u-g-a-m bay yeah yeah, sleepy fishing village, southeast coast, untouched by heavy monsoons. You guys get mon monsoons. I didn't even talk about the weather.
Speaker 3:We do yeah, yeah, we do, yeah. It can rain always all the time. We don't have a shot of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it says April to October. That's the best time and the best waves are June and July.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it says. Nice, yeah, all right. Nice, yeah, all right. I have to go on a a surf world trip at one point because we don't look at surfing spots.
Speaker 3:Totally put that one yeah, you will not be disappointed. You will not be disappointed. There's a ton to be done oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for enlightening us, yeah.
