The coast so far has been busy! We loved the surf spots, the beaches, the food and the hustle, and when talking to people at home it’s been hard to reconcile what we have done so far into a mere ten days.
Tangalle was our last coastal spot for a few weeks. From here we will venture into hill country and the worlds of ancient civilizations, tea plantations and of course, elephants. We wanted our final days on the coast to be relaxing, and we splashed out on some slightly nicer accommodation with the main attraction being a gorgeous pool! Cinnibar Resort is located right on a wild beach with a beautiful restaurant on the sand. Although the resort had many tree houses, our room was on the ground level, with the most comfortable bed and sheets (it’s the little things!) and an outdoor shower. It was open to the elements, so we kept the mosquito net very well sealed around the bed, and Josh worked on his centipede phobia with a few small ones we encountered in the bathroom!
Unfortunately, our time in Tangalle was dominated by the Sea Urchin saga… for those who haven’t yet heard, an encounter with a couple of sea urchins during a swim resulted in the first test of our travel insurance! The prickly spines of these creatures have backwards hooks so once they are stuck in your digits they are very hard to remove. After having a good dig with a needle and tweezers (unsuccessfully, the spines just got even deeper) the amazing team at the hotel foraged us a local plant to help. The sap of this plant is supposed to dissolve the spine so the body then expels it naturally. After 24 hours, only one of our spines had dissolved, and swelling was starting. So we made the decision to visit the local hospital and have the spines removed under local anesthetic. Our experience in the hospital was amazing, it was much faster than any medical experience I have had in New Zealand, and we felt very well looked after. Now fingers crossed our insurance accepts the claim, although it only came to about $80 NZD which is pretty cheap if you ask me.
Outside of the hospital visit, we spent lots of time in Tangalle just relaxing, reading and swimming in the pool. We got some much needed washing done, and used this as some time to recuperate before the next leg of our trip. We didn’t eat in the resort restaurant at all due to our budget, but instead found a few places down the road that were a bit more cheap and cheerful, still with ocean views!!
Tangalle did spur a number of conversations about how we want to travel, and how our travel impacts the communities we are visiting. To be honest, it’s something that has been occupying quite a lot of my brain space. I would recommend having a read of this instagram page and watching this Tik Tok video (no account needed) which has impacted my thinking.
It is such a privilege being able to travel on the other side of the world. A privilege that the majority of people on this planet do not have. I want to try my best to move through this trip in a way that is helpful and not harmful. It is easy to see why and how travel has been described as ‘modern day colonialism’ in a country like Sri Lanka which has a very rapidly developing tourism industry. Examples include Tuk Tuks that won’t take locals anymore due to price inflation from carrying rich tourists, cafes where only western food is served, displacement of local communities for the building of resort towns, and locals moving to destinations such as surf towns for work which consequently removes young people from schools and communities.
On a personal level, it has been fascinating to look at the variety of experiences we have had so far, and how much the quality of these experiences is dictated by how much (or how little) they are catered for tourists. For us, all of our best restaurants have by far been little places where we walk in and there’s no menu and we eat what we are given! The nicest places we have stayed have been guesthouses in local homes, where you might need to use google translate to communicate but you know you are directly supporting a local family. Even in the surf towns, we loved visiting the side of the road shops for stuffed roti or fresh hoppers from a local grandma. I don’t want to sound like I am up on a high horse here (just this morning I bought a flat white for the same price as I would in NZ - yikes), just wanted to share something that is really on my mind at the moment.
I think Tangalle made this very obvious, as we felt like we had been a little bubble in the area around our resort. After we visited the hospital (in the main town), we went to a local market that was just next door. Here we had some amazing interactions with incredible people and ate some delicious (and cheap!) food. It made us ponder what our experience would have been if we had stayed in the main town, as opposed to our resort on the beach.
So, the question I wanted to ask myself was, “How am I going to travel for a year and ensure I am helping and not harming the communities I visit?”
Some ideas I have so far are:
- When visiting places that are more developed or upmarket (some local places are obviously local places), ask about their ownership! Is it locally owned, or foreign investment?
- Try to (mostly) travel and eat the way the locals travel and eat. We are able bodied and have no dietary restrictions or medical issues, and we have the greatest gift of all - time. There is nothing stopping us jumping on a local bus or taking the time to drive further out of town to eat where the locals are eating. Not only does this benefit our experience in my opinion, it ensures we’re not contributing to gross over inflation for tourists that exclude locals.
- Respect local customs. Do our research on things like what is appropriate to wear or not wear in different settings, learn some of the language and the history, understand the customs associated with religious sites and get clued up on different cultures present in the country.
- Support locals outside of mainstream tourism by spending time and money off the well trodden tourist trail. This will require research, planning and preparation, so we’ll need to make time for this.
If anyone else has any other ideas or thoughts on this I would love to have a discussion in the comments, as I know there are many avid travellers reading this blog!!! I want to reiterate that this is not about judging anyone else’s travel or holiday decisions, it’s my personal experience and something that’s important to me and my values, especially seeing as we are travelling for an extended period of time. It’s also something we’re not going to get right every time, and I’m sure you’ll still see the fancy flat whites on my Instagram from time to time.