Sri Lanka: Colombo, Hikkaduwa - March

I had already been in Sri Lanka 8 years ago, and during that trip, I had a memorable encounter on this beach below:

I met a German gentleman with whom I had a brief conversation. He mentioned that he had been coming to this very place for the past 30 years. It always intrigues me what people remember from such a long period of time. And when I asked him, he shared that not much had changed apart from some building appearance. Nature remained as lush and green as ever, and the locals still retained kindness and a touch of naivety.

To me, Sri Lanka appeared as a big outdoor railroad museum frozen in Victorian-era charm, nestled amidst jungles. Indeed, the majority of trains are wonderfully antiquated with a steampunk aesthetic in the tropical paradise:

This is the picture in the same place, eight years apart:

The other side of Sri Lanka is an explosion of colors. It looks like the filtered images with the maximum contrast settings. The landscape offers endless shades of green:

Now, I'd like to share a quote from "The Sketches Of Ceylon" by Ivan Pavlovich Minayev, a Russian Indologist who traveled to Sri Lanka multiple times in the 19th century. In his sketches, he captured scenes from local life that remarkably resonate with the present day:

I passed about three miles and was about to return home when a child's voice suddenly sounded behind me: "Sir! Bud temple"! A boy, about twelve years old, was volunteering to show me a Buddhist temple. He knew only these English words: "three pence". He claimed to be a local guide. I had nothing to do and followed him. We turned into the thicket and began climbing a narrow path uphill.

As soon as we started climbing the stairs, I saw a pack of naked, dirty, black boys following me. One boy was dragging a huge coconut and, dipping his dirty fingers into the cut hole, offered me a juice drink. I declined. "Sir! No three pence for a coconut", i.e., it is free! On the top of the hill, I found a small temple and a larger cell nearby.

...

Having examined the temple, I turned to the exit and wanted to leave, but I saw a youngster of about fourteen standing at the exit, holding out a dish and showing his intention not to let me quit; evidently, he was collecting money for the view.

...

When we returned to the town, I bid my guide farewell and gave him some change. Then, I saw that many other people claimed my gratitude. Dozens of hands were reaching out to me with the words: "Sir! Give! Sir! give! Sir! Three pence", etc. I remained deaf to the pitiful pleas, and the crowd, in the meantime, was arriving. Everyone was begging, even those who did not even know for what service others were asking. I soon got rid of the boys. The adults looked on in silence at this amusement and, on another occasion, would willingly have tried the same way to pick the European pocket.

The story is very amusing. You can read it in full here if you understand Russian.