While all of my photos from Sri Lanka aren’t quite ready to go just yet, I thought you might like a little glimpse at some of my favourite shots. Favourites either because of the associated memories, or the quality of the shot. Enjoy, and don’t worry, there are definitely more to come!
Sri Lanka
Sounds of Sri Lanka
Lonely Planet suggests that Sri Lanka will leave you with several distinct auditory memories. What they fail to mention is the extent to which the unique sounds of the country will pervade absolutely every moment of your time there.
Ice Cream Man: Five toots of his comical clown horn and you’ll instantly begin to salivate for something cold and sweet. Scanning the streets left and right you see him. Most often on foot, sometimes on a bike, a cooler slung over one arm and a box of cones across the other.
The Dogs: There are ‘wild’ dogs absolutely everywhere in Sri Lanka. Go to the beach and a pack of 15 will stalk you. Walk up the main street in town and you’ll have to carefully hop across their bodies as they lay sleeping on the sunny sidewalks. It’s basically a guarantee that any guesthouse you stay in will have at least one dog who likes to howl from around 4:30am until dawn.
Kottu Rotti Maker: A standard dinner, if you’re not eating the even more standard rice and curries, is kottu rotti. It’s basically fried rice, but instead of rice they use chopped up rotti (round flat bread). The chopping of the rotti creates a rapid succession of thunderous banging that can be heard in any restaurant at dinner hour.
Salesmen: Hop on board a bus or train and a never ending line of salesmen will walk through the aisles selling you anything from rug hooks to water, from colouring books to little dahl cakes. Straining to be heard over the Bollywood-esque music in the background these men yell out about their wares. Sounding like auctioneers, their rapid-fire of words blurs together all of the consonants.
Three-Wheeler: Call them what you will- tuk-tuks, rickshaws or as the locals do, three-wheelers. Either way there is no denying that their engines have a very distinctive hum to them. Well, actually more of an obtrusive rumble than a hum.
Birds: If you’re lucky enough to find yourself staying away from all of the loud noises, you will find yourself listening to an absolute symphony of birdsong. The country’s wealth of species mean that at any single moment you could be listening to 10 or more songs at a time.
Bread Van: The single most obtrusive, annoying sound in all of Sri Lanka, the bread van. Depending where you are it is either a van or a tuk tuk, but the products it carries are always the same- bread and various other fresh baked good. And when is the demand for fresh bread the highest? That’s right, the morning. So sometime between 5 and 6 am you are guaranteed to be woken up by the bread van’s song. “What does it sound like?” you might find yourself asking. Well, you remember the sound of the default Nokia ringtones circa 2002? Tinny, electronic noises that could hardly be considered music, yup, that’s the bread van. Oh but don’t worry you’ll be lucky enough to hear a variety of tunes during your travels. It’s a Small World, Fur Elise, Happy Birthday and my personal favourite, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. At Talalla Surf Camp many of us gave up on setting an alarm as the obnoxious sound of Fur Elise was guaranteed to be waking us up at 5:45am regardless.
The Great Gallivant 