November 17, 2024 • 49 mins
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.
Map of Sri Lanka
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with
Kristen and Carol.
I'm Kristen and I'm Carol, andwe're two long-term friends with
a passion for travel andadventure.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Each episode, we interview people around the
globe to help us decide where togo next.
Well, thank you, frank, formeeting us, and you're going to
talk about Sri Lanka today,right yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, so born and raised there.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, born and raised there.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And when did you move here?
How long did you live in SriLanka?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
So I lived my first 24 years in Sri Lanka.
So of course, there's so muchmore to talk about that.
24 years Still love Sri Lanka alot, and so when I was 25 years
old, I first went to Pakistanto work and then worked in
(01:08):
Middle East for a couple ofyears and Bahamas six years and
2014,.
We came to US Bay Area,basically.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Wow Global citizen.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, and I'm trying to think I'm looking at the map
here.
And I'm trying to think I'mlooking at the map here.
I always try to bring it up atthe same time so I can kind of
get an idea, because it's itsown island.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it's an island and it's actually a big island
22 million 22 million.
If you live in the US, you don'tknow a lot about Sri Lanka, but
but for Europeans, sri Lanka istheir Hawaii, basically.
Right, that's there.
If you, if you go to UK,germany and other European
(01:51):
countries, sri Lanka is theprobably one of their most
favorite destinations to travel.
And it's funny that when I wasdoing 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.
(02:12):
When you do a hotel audit, yougo and stay there for a couple
of months.
So when you talk to people, sothere are some people from
Europe.
For them, some of them are liketeachers it's cheaper to live
in sri lanka, but what they doall day, like sit, sit on the
beach, just uh kind of sippingtheir drinks, like having these,
(02:33):
like great meals, and they'relike still cheaper to be here
than stay, stay back home.
So, yeah, it's a cool place,wow, yeah, absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, absolutely, it sounds incredible.
And then curious about theweather and, like I'm just
looking, I brought up imagesbecause it looks like it's.
Is it mountains as well?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It is.
So it's a tropical country, ofcourse, an island.
So in terms of weather it'skind of very similar to Hawaii.
So when you went to Maui it'svery similar to Sri Lanka.
And then if you drive a coupleof hours then you'll get to the
upcountry or hill country rightand the weather changes.
(03:18):
So in terms of like Celsius inColombo or in the coastal area
it's around, say, 30 to 35Celsius.
When you go up countries itgoes 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 foranybody traveling in Sri Lanka.
(03:39):
If you do a week worth oftravel, there's a ton to cover
because it's not that small butit's not that big either yeah
and you can.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You can see everything in a week or so wow,
and and how long does it take todrive around that?
Can you drive around it, and isit like days or like hours?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
no, for sure it's days.
I was gonna say for 22 million.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's got to be day yeah it's days for sure yeah,
and then I was looking at sodoes it get?
It doesn't get snow, does it?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
no, no snow yeah, no snow it's uh.
So we, we in sri lanka, wedon'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 kindof winter weather.
Right, it's just a little chill, it's a.
It's a tropical country, sameweather 365 days a year,
(04:35):
basically nice.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Is there a rainy season?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
yes, I mean there are seasons, but it, it kind of
rains always all the time it'stropical and rains always all
the time it's tropical and rainsalways all the time.
So it's a very green place.
I mean you can grow anything.
It's a kind of very richcountry, right, Even though it's
like these African countries,right, Sometimes rich countries
(05:00):
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 ofprecious gems and things like
that.
Yeah, and so it's a rich, richcountry and yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And I was noticing, like the mountain range, like
it's a long word, pidrutalagala.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
How do you pronounce that?
Pidrutalagala there we go andthere's a picture.
It looks beautiful and so thetallest mountain is like 8,200
feet.
Yep, I know Carol's in Colorado.
She's got 14 speakers.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, so we are 50, we're like 5,000.
So that's like going up toNetherlands, you know it's up to
8,000.
So not quite, not quite skiplaces, but yeah, that's pretty
high up there.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, it's almost like Africa meets Hawaii meets
Sri Lanka.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah,
no, no.
All of that, all of that, Ithink 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 ofIndia.
India is like way too big as,and Sri Lanka is an island, but
it has everything within thatisland.
(06:24):
Basically.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Was it ever part of India?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, it was never part of India and it's funny that as
a fact, I think if you ask aSri Lankan because we Indian Sri
Lankans look very similar Ifyou ask a Sri Lankan like are
you Indian?
Kind of like not in a seriousmanner we kind of get offended.
We're like no, I'm a Sri Lankan.
Like are you Indian?
Kind of like not, not in aserious manner we kind of get
offended.
But like no, we, I'm a SriLankan, I'm not Indian.
(06:48):
So we have been so proud of ourculture and Sri Lanka was
actually a kind of very somewhatof a wealthy country right like
30-40 years ago I think we usedto be the second kind of best
economy in the at one point andover the last 20, 30 years
economically we have somewhatkind of gone down, not done that
(07:11):
well compared to how we did,say, post-british leaving the
country.
So I think I don't know if youguys have read Sri Lanka was
ruled by first Portuguese, thenDutch and then English, like
British, from 1500s to 1948.
(07:32):
Sri Lanka has maybe four majorraces Sinhalese is the majority,
then there's Tamils, Muslims,and then there's a race called
Burghers.
So Burghers are basicallydescendants of Portuguese, dutch
or English.
So technically I'm a burghers.
That's why I get, that's whereI get my last name, dunsford,
(07:58):
and, and apparently mygreat-grandfather and his
brother.
They came to Sri Lanka with thefirst railway engine early
1900s, it seems so, even thoughmy last name is Dunsford, my
mother tongue is Sinhalese.
My mom is Sinhalese.
From my mom's family, everybodyis Sinhalese.
(08:18):
From my dad's side, my dad'smom is also Sinhalese, sinhalese
Buddhist.
But my grandfather from thedad's mom is also singleist,
singleist buddhist.
And but my, my, my grandfatherfrom the dad's side is actually
a, is a white guy, right, so I'moh, my goodness, oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So what your your?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
your grandfather was white yeah, he's white, but but,
but the thing, but the funnything is, in my dad's family
they're technically kind ofEuropean descendants but their
mother tongue also Sinhalese.
Right, it was.
They kind of really they becameSinhalese like, I think, fast,
not by the names, but everythingelse they do, right, how they
(08:58):
talk, how they behave yeah sofor me, I had to learn English,
basically.
So I did all my studies.
Uh, single is right.
Everything I learned up to sayfirst 18 like up to first 20
years or so I studied in singleis I was studying english as a
(09:19):
subject.
Right, that's one of mysubjects to learn, because in
sri lanka, english is a businesslanguage.
Okay, yeah, so it's, it's mysubjects to learn, because in
Sri Lanka English is a businesslanguage.
So it's very important to learnthat.
But I didn't get that becauseof my name or because of my
family background, just likeeveryone else, I had to learn
that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Wow, that's really interesting.
So when you're there, I know Ihave family, that's oh gosh.
I can't remember the country,but they're Swedish and they
moved there to you know SouthAmerica area and then they had,
(09:57):
like they have Swedish people.
They have like different typesof you know all different types.
And is that like Sri Lanka,where I guess if there's the
English and Portuguese and youknow Indian, I'm sure come down?
Is there a different, like amelting pot of different people?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
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 capitaltechnically, but there's a new
capital named, I think 20, 25years ago, called Kote, sri
Javardhanapura, kote that's theofficial capital, but Kalambo is
(10:35):
the capital like unofficialcapital, like when you talk
about Sri Lanka.
People know Kalambo, but if yougo to Kalambo you get
everything right Within a milemile.
You get a, you get a Buddhisttemple, christian church, hindu
temple and a Muslim mosque right.
So it's a real mix ofeverything, like even in India
(10:56):
probably.
It's somewhat separated, basedbased on the religions and all
that Sri Lanka it's.
It's then again like if youtake the northern area, that's
where probably that's where mostTamils live, in addition to
Colombo and the Western province, and and if you go to south,
it's mainly Sinhalese, with someMuslims and you're saying
(11:17):
Sinhalese, is it Sinhalese?
It's called Sinhalese, sinhalese, sinhalese.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Sinhalese.
Sinhalese like yeah, okay, gotit and that's.
Is that the language or thereligion?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
it's the, it's actually the race.
So the, the religions are likeBuddhism, christianity, hinduism
and Muslim right or Islam, andbut the races are basically
Sinhalese right and Sinhalesepeople speak Sinhala.
They're the first people wholived in Sri Lanka, and
thousands of years.
(11:51):
And.
And then everyone else in termsof like, say, tamils or Muslims
.
At one point they came to thecountry.
Muslims came to the country forlike, trade, like, so the
Muslims are basically from fromArabic countries.
Traders came to Sri Lanka andthen they got married to
Sinhalese people and theysettled down in Sri Lanka and
(12:12):
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 thehill country or country who were
basically brought from India towork in the tea states.
So Sri Lankan tea is the besttea in the world and they call
(12:35):
it Ceylon tea.
Sri Lanka was, I think, 1948.
We changed the name.
If I'm not mistaken, prior tothat we were called Ceylon.
That's how everyone knows thecountry Ceylon.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Oh it's C-E-Y-L-O-N.
Ceylon T.
I recognize the T.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the country used to be called Ceylon.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Oh, okay, interesting .
Speaker 1 (13:00):
What year was that that they changed it?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
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'stea yeah, what kind of tea kind
of black tea and everything else.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right, primarily black tea, but of course we have
all the variations in terms oflike the green teas and the
flavor tea and all that.
But uh yeah, sri lankan tealike it's not because I'm saying
it, it's, it's well known inthe world, it's the best tea in
the world yeah and is do youdrink tea, uh, just straight, or
do people put like sugar ormilk or do anything specific
(13:39):
with it?
yeah, in sri lanka, I think,people put sugar in everything,
even in a very, very unhealthymanner.
Really, if you, if you go toSri Lankan house, they'll be
like if you want a tea, and ifyou tell them like I don't want
sugar, like they'll be like why?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
are you sick?
Are you diabetic or something?
Yeah, are you diabetic?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
yeah, are you diabetic?
Yeah, so I think Sri Lankansconsume 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 andeverything.
But in Sri Lanka, like, if youtake the rice consumption, right
, because our staple food isrice and I think it's coming
from because Sri Lanka had akind of a still have a kind of
(14:25):
farming economy and so rice isthe staple food.
But the big difference in howwe eat compared to Indians,
right, if you, there are stillSri Lankans who eat rice for
kind of all three mealsbreakfast, lunch and dinner.
Things are changing, of course,right, with this, with the busy
lives and everything.
(14:46):
But, uh, if you, if you take atypical 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 andit's a very healthy,
well-balanced.
So sri lanka was a.
If you compare that to indianmeals, it's typically a roti and
chicken or rice and chicken.
(15:06):
That's it.
Sri Lankan meal has way moreparts to it and I think it's
coming from I think Sri Lankahad a very rich culture for
thousands of years.
Right, we have all the spices.
Right, you can grow anything inSri Lanka.
So, in addition to tea, ofcourse we export rubber and
coconut, but we also exportcinnamon and all that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Tea.
And tea yeah, right, I'm likenow I'm curious about tea.
Oh yeah, you're a big teadrinker, I'm a tea drinker.
Yeah, so I'm also decaffeinated.
But you know, whatever I'll doit.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So for an American to go visit is it pretty easy to
go.
Do you need a visa?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, so you do need a visa, but it's very.
You can just get it online andI think it should be around $30
to $50 for 30 days.
So the visa process is verystraightforward.
You have to travel almost a dayand a half to get there,
typically the way we go.
So from San Francisco, weeither go through Dubai or some
(16:16):
other Middle Eastern countriesor through Singapore.
The last time I visited, Iactually went to India.
I traveled from San Franciscoto Delhi and Delhi to Colombo
2020, when I went, actually 21.
When I went there, I went toSingapore.
So there are various ways toget there and typically it's one
(16:37):
stop in one of these othercountries and then from there
you can get a flight to Colombo.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Wow, and I'm assuming , are your parents still there?
Do you have your siblings orfamily?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
My parents are still there, so from my family.
So I have two siblings, abrother and a sister.
My brother is a year youngerthan me, so he's in the US.
Actually he's 15 minutes drivefrom where I live in the east of
San Francisco, and so they.
So I actually came here throughwork and through work visa and
(17:12):
all that my brother and hisfamily 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 comehere, he was well settled there
, but they decided to come here.
My sister she lives inAustralia, melbourne, australia
so we are somewhat like all overthe place in the world.
(17:33):
My parents are Australian, sriLanka and they traveled every
now and then.
They came to US.
A couple of times they havegone to, I think, australia way
more.
I think maybe six times now.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
But they're still there.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Closer, I'm assuming, to where they are, probably for
Australia, a couple hours or so.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
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 fromthe US, but it's not bad as like
it's not as long as going fromUS.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so how is it like growing up, like you know
in your childhood and becauseyou have kids here in the US, so
you have that as a comparisonno-transcript.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, so I'm from very, very humble beginnings,
for sure, but I think my parentsdid as hard, they worked as
hard as they can work and theydid really well to kind of
provide us everything.
I would say like we wereprobably a kind of lower middle
class in terms of kind offinances and economically and
(18:40):
but growing up kind of of a very, very simple life.
And I was telling someone Imust have played cricket one
third of my life.
Cricket is extremely famous asa sport in Sri Lanka.
It's not a sport in the UnitedStates.
It's that famous because it'sfamous in Sri Lanka, india,
pakistan, like all the countriesBritish were living or
(19:02):
controlling at one point.
It's kind of a British sport,also Australia.
Just I think growing up I was akind of bright student but I
haven't really tried studying orworking hard to get anywhere
Right.
So that's kind of my firstmaybe 20 years or so.
I was just doing well in schoolbecause I was good, but I was
(19:24):
not really studying to do what Ido.
But yeah, it was just a verysimple life and help the parents
and just a little bit about thechildhood.
So my parents and we privatelygrew up in the Western province
and Colombo district, which isclose to we, were very close to
(19:46):
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 shopcalled Ford Shoe Hut and so he
(20:08):
was a businessman, like we hadthis shop, but he was renting it
so he wanted to buy his ownshop.
So he decided to take a foreignemployment, 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 inlebanon in a kind of a in a kind
(20:29):
of a now war zone and he was introuble, like he was there for
six months.
I think he probably almost losthis life couple of times.
Uh, somehow he came back to srilanka.
Uh, my mother was from, uh,colombo district and so with
that during that time we went toColombo and kind of we started
living around where my mother'sparents live and so I had to
(20:52):
change my school and everything.
That was 1986.
It was not a huge changebecause we were young, but it
was a kind of significant changein life.
But my dad again went for aforeign job in 1981, 1991, when
I was 13 years old.
He went to Saudi Arabia and heworked there for 13 years.
(21:14):
So he was kind of he wasdefinitely in the picture.
He was writing to us but he wascoming to see us every two to
three years like, and he stayedfor 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
(21:35):
started going out of the country.
So I kind of like missed himlike all my life, except the
first 13 years.
It was tough without himactually right Just growing up.
We looked up to him a lot Likehe was our hero, right.
Growing up.
Then we missed him a lot and Ihad to grow up fast.
So I was the oldest child inthe family.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I had to kind of become like the person who kind
of if anything happening to usin the family.
I was like I had to kind ofbecome like the person who kind
of if anything happening to usin the family.
I was like I had to leave it.
And I'm sure and I know my momhad the toughest job right Two
teenage boys and just kind ofmaking sure we didn't get in
trouble.
We had a rough time with thedad but I mean he did that
(22:24):
because we wanted money and wewere doing better financially
because of that.
But we always I think all of uswish he didn't stay there for
13 years.
He came back to live with us,maybe in five years or so.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
But it is yeah.
So is there limited industry inthere and jobs?
It seems like a lot of peoplehave left Sri Lanka, probably
for, I would guess,opportunities for work.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yes and no, right, I think so.
In Sri Lanka the literacy is93%.
It's just like a developedcountry, right?
So you have smart, veryliterate people, right?
So we, you, you have, you havesmart, very literate people.
And so I think last 30, 40, 50years, people, people started
(23:12):
going to foreign countries forbetter money and and that has
happened like way too much lastprobably 20, 30 years, because I
think economically we have donesome things as a country kind
of not so smart, and so we hadthey say we were producing or
manufacturing a lot late 1970s,early 1980s, and slowly but
(23:37):
surely we were.
We have started selling thoseand importing everything and
which was kind of which we haverealized as a country now is
kind of a recipe for failure interms of industries
Agriculturally, tea rubber andcoconut and spices we still have
that and we do export fish.
(23:59):
It's, of course, surrounded bysea and we are known for our
tuna right like, kind of likevery sushi grade, high, high
grade tuna.
So fishing is a significantpart of the economy.
Tourism is kind of the next bigone, or now maybe the biggest
income generator, because it'sit's a beautiful place and uh,
(24:23):
yeah, and other than that, uh,just just just a human capital
is like people are super smart.
Education is still free throughthrough college education and
but the college education issomewhat limited because it's
kind of government run and thereare so many people can get that
.
Uh, I mean over the last 10-15years there are a lot of private
education but uh, but, butthere are the industries, like I
(24:45):
think the textile industry hasgrown a lot from like uh,
probably like early 2000, sothat that's a, that's a
significant part also yeah, wowand was curious, like what were
when you were growing up youwere playing cricket.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The school system is it the same like elementary,
middle school, high school kindof thing and then to college?
How is that?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, in Sri Lanka it's actually very similar to
British education than UnitedStates education, but very
similar.
So we have, say, grade 1through grade 10.
And then there is this kind ofa government-run exam called
general education, generalcertificate of education,
(25:32):
ordinary level.
So that's the kind of firstpass.
So that's where kind of peopledecide which way they want to go
, whether you want to be adoctor 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 thingcalled advanced level and that's
(25:56):
next two years.
I think that's probably verysimilar to, uh, maybe last two
years of high school here in theUS.
I think, yeah, very similar tothat, and that's on a two-year
list.
Then after that you have thisadvanced level examination,
again a government-runexamination, island-wide, and
based on that you can qualify togo to a government-run
(26:16):
university.
So the top of the top will getinto that.
But what has happened in SriLanka, 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 toa university in Sri Lanka if
(26:36):
you want to go to government,but what's happening?
We last 10, 15 years.
There are a lot of privateuniversities years.
There are a lot of privateuniversities and there are a lot
of programs like you get aforeign 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 (26:57):
So is there in terms of what to see, what to do, I
know what are the highlights ofpeople that they see, and then
what's like the hidden gems thatyou're like normal folks
wouldn't go, but it's a gem toyou know, the sri lankans.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I don't know if I said that right.
Yeah, so in terms of hiddengems, probably kind of
everything is like these days,everything is out there right
with the technology and with theinternet and everything.
So of course, if you go to SriLanka, you must do the beaches
right, and in the southern partof the country there are a lot
of tourist hotels and beachesand then probably like you guys
(27:40):
don't know this, but Sri Lankahad this kind of this is not an
ethnic war.
Then probably like you guysdon't know this, but Sri Lanka
had this kind of a this is notan ethnic war but it was a
terrorist organization in thecountry in the northern side,
called LTTE, and so the tourismin the northern part was not
doing well, but that was endedby the government in 2009.
With that, there's so much openso there's so many places for,
(28:03):
like, surfing, so so the beachesand the sea that's probably the
the number one attraction andyou have like thousands of like
really tough, real good touristhotels.
And I was thinking like when wewere in sri lanka 2021.
I have traveled the world and Ihave stayed in many hotels.
I travel a ton.
The reality, that service youget in Sri Lanka.
(28:25):
I've never seen anywhere Peopleare like that nice, that kind
always smile.
You can't for sure get that inthe US, right?
People are not that kind Likeif you go to a restaurant or
whatever.
I think Sri Lankan people arevery friendly, so you get that,
so that's the added thing, andthen the food is really, really
good.
The coastal area, that's amust-do and then you must do the
(28:50):
upcountry.
There's a must-do place calledKandy, kind of a temple of tooth
, we call it, and it has LordBuddha's kind of a tooth of Lord
Buddha in that temple.
So it's very special, it's verybeautiful and that's candy with
a K right candy with a K yeahyeah, okay, cool yeah and
(29:11):
there's a place called, calledLion Rock, and we call it
Sigiriya, and I always think itshould have been a wonder of the
world, should be, should havebeen part of the seven wonders,
and what is it called?
Idleland Rock, s-i-g-i-r-i-y-aOkay.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Is it near candy or no?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah, it's somewhere close to candy, I found it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I just typed in Like a flat top rock.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Oh.
Yeah, oh, wow, that's crazythere's a city on the, or
there's, it looks like exactlyso so you know, there's a big
castle on top of that rock,right.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
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 ofthe ground.
So, and I always think, if thiswas in another country, a
developed country, this shouldhave been part of Seven Wonders.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
It isn't that big, but it's in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I wonder how high that is up.
Is that like a couple thousandfeet?
It's like way up.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
How do people get up there?
Yeah, so still like, I mean, wedid 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 myson so 2018.
He was like seven years old andin the middle of the staircase
he's like yeah, I don't want togo anymore.
I promised him to get a set ofLegos, so that's how I got here.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Perfect, you got to do what you got to do.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
How long did it take to climb?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
up there.
Oh, I see a picture with thestairwell.
It's just all in like in just acouple hours, right, I assume,
not like.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
No, no, it's not.
It's not.
I think all in it should belike two to three hours, right,
you can do the whole tour.
Yeah, culturally, I think, andwhat we had in terms of the
lakes we, sri lanka, have likethousands of lakes like which is
which was, which were used foragriculture, so it's just just a
just just just a very richplace culturally and even like
(31:20):
in terms of engineering and howsmart people were.
And if you compare that to US,us is a very young country.
Sri Lanka is like thousands andthousands of years old.
People are very proud of it.
But maybe that's one of theproblems of Sri Lanka Like
(31:40):
people still live in thatculture rather than thinking,
like looking ahead, thanthinking forward and all that
like that.
That's something I thinkcurrently people in the country
are like kind of challenging.
Enough of these old things likethat, that king did this, this
king did that, like let's lookahead then.
Uh, yeah, of course it, weshould be proud of it, but then
(32:00):
let's see what we can do goingforward.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Absolutely.
And then what's like a typicalday 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 ofstandard or so, or how is it?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yeah, living and eating, you know.
Yeah, I think the school timingwas, I think, 8 to 2, 7.30 to
2.30.
It's very similar.
So currently I think breakfastis probably very much similar to
here.
Right, it can be like bread andbutter and some fruits and milk
(32:41):
, like Sri Lankans do a lot oflike, drink a lot of milk, milk
tea, and that's probably kind ofvery similar to here.
When you wake up and then thetypical lunch not for a person
who's going to school, buttypical, typical lunch is rice
with fish, meat and somevegetables.
A typical student like either.
(33:02):
You buy lunch from the schoolright.
At one point there was aprogram 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 weregoing to school, so that was
cool.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah, and then you said like rice is a staple and
the meat or fish it sounds likefish is probably what kind yeah,
it basically has tuna andeverything else like variations
of tuna, basically based on thesize of the fishs.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Holidays, uh, valentine's day or easter you
know things like that yeah,exactly right.
(34:00):
So so sri lanka has actuallyprobably way too many holidays
because I think we have way toomany cultures and religions and
so the the country is 70 pluspercent Buddhists, probably as a
population, that's the mostpeople in the country in terms
of Buddhism.
If you go to India, it's mostlike Hinduism, and even though
(34:25):
Buddhism was kind of somewhatstarted in India and Nepal, sri
Lanka currently probably theonly country that has presented
percentage that many Buddhistsand only singly speaking country
.
But in terms of what wecelebrate, we celebrate
everything.
Right.
It's funny that Christmas somaybe Christians are around 10%
(34:46):
in the country In the Christmastime, everybody shops, doing
shopping, everybody has aChristmas tree in their house,
right, it's that tree in theirhouse, right, it's that.
And then during, so it's uh,it's lord buddha's birthday in
may, and during that poor day, Ithink everyone celebrate that
too right in terms of, like,whatever we call it, besak
(35:06):
lanterns, right, we just havethose lanterns in front of the
houses, so people just do thosethings.
Same thing for, like, whetherit's Hindu, like Diwali or
Muslim holidays.
So we get holidays for all that.
We get there's at least oneHoya day every month, like a
full moon day we get holiday forthat, it's maybe US into two or
(35:26):
2.5 or even three number ofpublic holidays.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, wow, lots of celebrating, right?
Is there anything that's reallyspecific to Sri Lanka, that
there's nowhere else?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah, for sure we don't have penguins.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
We don't have penguins.
In terms of the wildlife, it'sdefinitely rich wildlife and we
have lots and lots of elephantsand at times, to the extent it's
a, it's a, it's a trouble forpeople in certain areas, right,
because when the elephants don'thave place to live because of,
maybe, development, then they'llcome to villages, right, then
(36:08):
that's a problem.
We have that many elephants,right, but, but, but, but
elephants are well, very wellloved and well, well respected
in sri lanka.
And then, uh, we have all otheranimals in terms of like, deers
, and there are, like, there are, a lot of birds and animals
specific to sri lanka, and thatthere's a whole list of that.
(36:32):
Sri Lankan people are veryfriendly, I would like to say.
People are, like, smart andvery literate, close to the
religions and races.
Right, people get veryemotional when they talk about
the country or their religion orrace.
I think I don't know if that'sa South Asian thing, but we are
that, uh, we are definitely notindians, right, uh, not indians
(36:54):
for sure.
Right, it's.
It's a whole different country,very independent country, and,
uh, that, uh, in terms of likeyeah, so a beautiful place.
Uh, tourism is really good interms of places to see.
Uh, there are some forts, thereare a lot of mountains to climb
and see for, do hiking, and allthat.
(37:16):
Beaches are beautiful.
Uh, if you go to colombo, yousee anything you see either in
san francisco or new york interms of buildings and malls and
everything like so kind of verydeveloped in that sense.
Yeah, I'm just trying to thinkwhat are the next?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
thing.
That's great.
So let's go into our rapid firequestions now.
So when you go back, is there afavorite dish that you like to
have?
That you must have?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, so there's this dish called kotu Ku k-o-t-t-y.
Right, it's a, it's a rotibased dish, but uh, you kind of
cut all the rotis and you mixthat with some, say, some
vegetables and a meat, and thecool thing is like it's in a,
(38:11):
it's in a kind of a cookingthing, and people like just kind
of chop it.
That's how you make it and it'sa kind of a delicacy in Sri
Lanka People like that.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And what's the meat that you eat?
What's your favorite meat inthere Chicken or beef?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, so I love beef.
So for me I like beef, butpeople put chicken beef and
anything else and then, like ourcurries are really good, like
Sri Lankan beef or chicken ormutton or lamb or any of that
Fish curry is really good.
So we are known for that.
We do this thing called kiribath.
(38:49):
So kiri bath is kind of ricebut with kind of more milk, kind
of more stuck together, sticky,and we make that for the kind
of special locations, auspiciousoccasions, and there are like a
bunch of sweets we make.
And again, like people I thinkSri Lankan people have this
sweet teeth and a lot of sugarand a lot of sweet things.
(39:12):
And speaking of sweet, things?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
uh, and speaking of sweet things, what are some of
like your three favorite fruitsthat are grown there?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
so they have mangoes, yeah yeah, sri lanka mangoes
are really, really tasty, beingtropical.
Uh, papaya, we have a lot ofpapayas.
We have pineapple.
Pineapples are really good.
I love this thing called woodapple.
So wood apple is likepineapples are like, of course,
like small trees.
Wood apple trees are big, likeit has a shell.
(39:39):
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, probablymaybe almost every house in
villages they have coconut treesand jack trees, right, so even
people don't work they can eat,like they can eat jack and fruit
(40:00):
, yeah, and we have a lot ofbananas 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 (40:16):
Wow, everything sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Yeah, and what apple looks really interesting.
It looks like a kind of acoconut, but I don't know how
big it is.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, it's not big as coconut, but it's probably
one-eighth, one-fifth of acoconut, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
just just like an orange or apple.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
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 ittaste like apple, or what does
it taste like?
No, I know it tastes muchbetter than apple.
It's a little sour, but it'sbased on how ripe it is.
But it's tastier tastier, morethan apple or an orange.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
And of course I'm biased.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, of course.
Okay, how does the money workthere?
Do you have to exchange it?
Is it better to exchange onceyou get there?
Do you just use an app orcredit cards?
What's the best way to spendmoney in Sri Lanka?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, so I think they have everything like in terms
of credit cards and I thinkanything we do with money here.
You have all that stuff there,Like banking system is very
similar to here.
Currency is rupees, Sri Lankanrupees.
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'llcarry dollars and I'll go to a
(41:46):
money exchange or bank andexchange it.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Basically, Okay, awesome.
And then what's the best way toget around a car public
transportation or to hire adriver?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
yeah, I think I think hiring a driver probably the
easiest for somebody who doesn'tknow the country.
When I, when I go to sri lanka,I always drive and uh, it's not
very easy to drive somebodywho's not from sri right, it's
kind of, in my opinion, it'slike a it's very exciting for me
to drive very different fromhere, right, but you know how to
(42:19):
drive there.
I personally drive when I gothere, but kind of getting a
taxi or cab probably the easiestpublic transportation wise.
There's a lot of government runor private-run bus services and
there's always a railway andactually if you take the train
or the railway to go toupcountry, it is extremely
(42:42):
beautiful.
So, people do that to see thecountry.
Like yeah, if you take thetrain from Colombo to upcountry,
you see almost all the beautyof the country other than the
beaches of course.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Oh wow, it sounds yeah.
Hawaii doesn't have trains.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
And how long does it take to train up?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
It can be altogether.
It can be it's based on whereyou want to get in and get out.
But it can be a nine, 10 hourride because, like some places,
it goes like slowly, becauseit's just to like show people
around.
And then there are fastertrains, also right for commuters
.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
When we were in Sri Lanka last time, we did one of
those trains.
It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
That sounds amazing, Wow.
Okay, and the last questionwhere's the closest place to
surf?
Is there a surfing culturethere being on the water?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
There is.
There's a big surfing cultureIn the southern area there's
there's a lot of spots forsurfing but, as I was telling
you, after the kind of the warwe had, the the eastern area and
the northern area got openedand I think that there's a place
called, I think, arugambearugambe, and around the
(43:51):
trimcomali area I think thereare a lot of surfing, as I know,
and and then that's in thesouthern area also.
So it's a very famous forsurfing and and also for scuba
diving.
So there are a lot of peoplefrom us or europe.
They travel to sri lankaspecifically for that.
So here where I live, in myprevious house in Clayton
(44:13):
California, I had this neighbor.
They had this Sri Lankan trip.
They are like they are actuallyscuba diving instructors.
The couple was going to SriLanka.
Oh wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And is it like the east side or the west side of
the island better for scubadiving, or is it everywhere, all
around?
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, it's actually east side or the west side of
the island better for scubadiving, or is?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
it everywhere, all around yeah, it's actually.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
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 yeahyeah, sleepy fishing village,
southeast coast, untouched byheavy monsoons.
You guys get mon monsoons.
I didn't even talk about theweather.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
We do yeah, yeah, we do, yeah.
It can rain always all the time.
We don't have a shot of that.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, it says April to October.
That's the best time and thebest waves are June and July.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, that's what it says.
Nice, yeah, all right.
Nice, yeah, all right.
I have to go on a a surf worldtrip at one point because we
don't look at surfing spots.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Totally put that one yeah, you will not be
disappointed.
You will not be disappointed.
There's a ton to be done oh mygosh.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, thank you so much for enlightening us, yeah.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with
Kristen and Carol.
I'm Kristen and I'm Carol, andwe're two long-term friends with
a passion for travel andadventure.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Each episode, we interview people around the
globe to help us decide where togo next.
Well, thank you, frank, formeeting us, and you're going to
talk about Sri Lanka today,right yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, so born and raised there.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, born and raised there.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And when did you move here?
How long did you live in SriLanka?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
So I lived my first 24 years in Sri Lanka.
So of course, there's so muchmore to talk about that.
24 years Still love Sri Lanka alot, and so when I was 25 years
old, I first went to Pakistanto work and then worked in
(01:08):
Middle East for a couple ofyears and Bahamas six years and
2014,.
We came to US Bay Area,basically.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Wow Global citizen.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, and I'm trying to think I'm looking at the map
here.
And I'm trying to think I'mlooking at the map here.
I always try to bring it up atthe same time so I can kind of
get an idea, because it's itsown island.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it's an island and it's actually a big island
22 million 22 million.
If you live in the US, you don'tknow a lot about Sri Lanka, but
but for Europeans, sri Lanka istheir Hawaii, basically.
Right, that's there.
If you, if you go to UK,germany and other European
(01:51):
countries, sri Lanka is theprobably one of their most
favorite destinations to travel.
And it's funny that when I wasdoing 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.
(02:12):
When you do a hotel audit, yougo and stay there for a couple
of months.
So when you talk to people, sothere are some people from
Europe.
For them, some of them are liketeachers it's cheaper to live
in sri lanka, but what they doall day, like sit, sit on the
beach, just uh kind of sippingtheir drinks, like having these,
(02:33):
like great meals, and they'relike still cheaper to be here
than stay, stay back home.
So, yeah, it's a cool place,wow, yeah, absolutely wow.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, absolutely, it sounds incredible.
And then curious about theweather and, like I'm just
looking, I brought up imagesbecause it looks like it's.
Is it mountains as well?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It is.
So it's a tropical country, ofcourse, an island.
So in terms of weather it'skind of very similar to Hawaii.
So when you went to Maui it'svery similar to Sri Lanka.
And then if you drive a coupleof hours then you'll get to the
upcountry or hill country rightand the weather changes.
(03:18):
So in terms of like Celsius inColombo or in the coastal area
it's around, say, 30 to 35Celsius.
When you go up countries itgoes 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 foranybody traveling in Sri Lanka.
(03:39):
If you do a week worth oftravel, there's a ton to cover
because it's not that small butit's not that big either yeah
and you can.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You can see everything in a week or so wow,
and and how long does it take todrive around that?
Can you drive around it, and isit like days or like hours?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
no, for sure it's days.
I was gonna say for 22 million.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's got to be day yeah it's days for sure yeah,
and then I was looking at sodoes it get?
It doesn't get snow, does it?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
no, no snow yeah, no snow it's uh.
So we, we in sri lanka, wedon'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 kindof winter weather.
Right, it's just a little chill, it's a.
It's a tropical country, sameweather 365 days a year,
(04:35):
basically nice.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Is there a rainy season?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
yes, I mean there are seasons, but it, it kind of
rains always all the time it'stropical and rains always all
the time it's tropical and rainsalways all the time.
So it's a very green place.
I mean you can grow anything.
It's a kind of very richcountry, right, Even though it's
like these African countries,right, Sometimes rich countries
(05:00):
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 ofprecious gems and things like
that.
Yeah, and so it's a rich, richcountry and yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And I was noticing, like the mountain range, like
it's a long word, pidrutalagala.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
How do you pronounce that?
Pidrutalagala there we go andthere's a picture.
It looks beautiful and so thetallest mountain is like 8,200
feet.
Yep, I know Carol's in Colorado.
She's got 14 speakers.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, so we are 50, we're like 5,000.
So that's like going up toNetherlands, you know it's up to
8,000.
So not quite, not quite skiplaces, but yeah, that's pretty
high up there.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, it's almost like Africa meets Hawaii meets
Sri Lanka.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah,
no, no.
All of that, all of that, Ithink 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 ofIndia.
India is like way too big as,and Sri Lanka is an island, but
it has everything within thatisland.
(06:24):
Basically.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Was it ever part of India?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, it was never part of India and it's funny that as
a fact, I think if you ask aSri Lankan because we Indian Sri
Lankans look very similar Ifyou ask a Sri Lankan like are
you Indian?
Kind of like not in a seriousmanner we kind of get offended.
We're like no, I'm a Sri Lankan.
Like are you Indian?
Kind of like not, not in aserious manner we kind of get
offended.
But like no, we, I'm a SriLankan, I'm not Indian.
(06:48):
So we have been so proud of ourculture and Sri Lanka was
actually a kind of very somewhatof a wealthy country right like
30-40 years ago I think we usedto be the second kind of best
economy in the at one point andover the last 20, 30 years
economically we have somewhatkind of gone down, not done that
(07:11):
well compared to how we did,say, post-british leaving the
country.
So I think I don't know if youguys have read Sri Lanka was
ruled by first Portuguese, thenDutch and then English, like
British, from 1500s to 1948.
(07:32):
Sri Lanka has maybe four majorraces Sinhalese is the majority,
then there's Tamils, Muslims,and then there's a race called
Burghers.
So Burghers are basicallydescendants of Portuguese, dutch
or English.
So technically I'm a burghers.
That's why I get, that's whereI get my last name, dunsford,
(07:58):
and, and apparently mygreat-grandfather and his
brother.
They came to Sri Lanka with thefirst railway engine early
1900s, it seems so, even thoughmy last name is Dunsford, my
mother tongue is Sinhalese.
My mom is Sinhalese.
From my mom's family, everybodyis Sinhalese.
(08:18):
From my dad's side, my dad'smom is also Sinhalese, sinhalese
Buddhist.
But my grandfather from thedad's mom is also singleist,
singleist buddhist.
And but my, my, my grandfatherfrom the dad's side is actually
a, is a white guy, right, so I'moh, my goodness, oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So what your your?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
your grandfather was white yeah, he's white, but but,
but the thing, but the funnything is, in my dad's family
they're technically kind ofEuropean descendants but their
mother tongue also Sinhalese.
Right, it was.
They kind of really they becameSinhalese like, I think, fast,
not by the names, but everythingelse they do, right, how they
(08:58):
talk, how they behave yeah sofor me, I had to learn English,
basically.
So I did all my studies.
Uh, single is right.
Everything I learned up to sayfirst 18 like up to first 20
years or so I studied in singleis I was studying english as a
(09:19):
subject.
Right, that's one of mysubjects to learn, because in
sri lanka, english is a businesslanguage.
Okay, yeah, so it's, it's mysubjects to learn, because in
Sri Lanka English is a businesslanguage.
So it's very important to learnthat.
But I didn't get that becauseof my name or because of my
family background, just likeeveryone else, I had to learn
that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Wow, that's really interesting.
So when you're there, I know Ihave family, that's oh gosh.
I can't remember the country,but they're Swedish and they
moved there to you know SouthAmerica area and then they had,
(09:57):
like they have Swedish people.
They have like different typesof you know all different types.
And is that like Sri Lanka,where I guess if there's the
English and Portuguese and youknow Indian, I'm sure come down?
Is there a different, like amelting pot of different people?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
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 capitaltechnically, but there's a new
capital named, I think 20, 25years ago, called Kote, sri
Javardhanapura, kote that's theofficial capital, but Kalambo is
(10:35):
the capital like unofficialcapital, like when you talk
about Sri Lanka.
People know Kalambo, but if yougo to Kalambo you get
everything right Within a milemile.
You get a, you get a Buddhisttemple, christian church, hindu
temple and a Muslim mosque right.
So it's a real mix ofeverything, like even in India
(10:56):
probably.
It's somewhat separated, basedbased on the religions and all
that Sri Lanka it's.
It's then again like if youtake the northern area, that's
where probably that's where mostTamils live, in addition to
Colombo and the Western province, and and if you go to south,
it's mainly Sinhalese, with someMuslims and you're saying
(11:17):
Sinhalese, is it Sinhalese?
It's called Sinhalese, sinhalese, sinhalese.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Sinhalese.
Sinhalese like yeah, okay, gotit and that's.
Is that the language or thereligion?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
it's the, it's actually the race.
So the, the religions are likeBuddhism, christianity, hinduism
and Muslim right or Islam, andbut the races are basically
Sinhalese right and Sinhalesepeople speak Sinhala.
They're the first people wholived in Sri Lanka, and
thousands of years.
(11:51):
And.
And then everyone else in termsof like, say, tamils or Muslims
.
At one point they came to thecountry.
Muslims came to the country forlike, trade, like, so the
Muslims are basically from fromArabic countries.
Traders came to Sri Lanka andthen they got married to
Sinhalese people and theysettled down in Sri Lanka and
(12:12):
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 thehill country or country who were
basically brought from India towork in the tea states.
So Sri Lankan tea is the besttea in the world and they call
(12:35):
it Ceylon tea.
Sri Lanka was, I think, 1948.
We changed the name.
If I'm not mistaken, prior tothat we were called Ceylon.
That's how everyone knows thecountry Ceylon.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Oh it's C-E-Y-L-O-N.
Ceylon T.
I recognize the T.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the country used to be called Ceylon.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Oh, okay, interesting .
Speaker 1 (13:00):
What year was that that they changed it?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
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'stea yeah, what kind of tea kind
of black tea and everything else.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right, primarily black tea, but of course we have
all the variations in terms oflike the green teas and the
flavor tea and all that.
But uh yeah, sri lankan tealike it's not because I'm saying
it, it's, it's well known inthe world, it's the best tea in
the world yeah and is do youdrink tea, uh, just straight, or
do people put like sugar ormilk or do anything specific
(13:39):
with it?
yeah, in sri lanka, I think,people put sugar in everything,
even in a very, very unhealthymanner.
Really, if you, if you go toSri Lankan house, they'll be
like if you want a tea, and ifyou tell them like I don't want
sugar, like they'll be like why?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
are you sick?
Are you diabetic or something?
Yeah, are you diabetic?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
yeah, are you diabetic?
Yeah, so I think Sri Lankansconsume 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 andeverything.
But in Sri Lanka, like, if youtake the rice consumption, right
, because our staple food isrice and I think it's coming
from because Sri Lanka had akind of a still have a kind of
(14:25):
farming economy and so rice isthe staple food.
But the big difference in howwe eat compared to Indians,
right, if you, there are stillSri Lankans who eat rice for
kind of all three mealsbreakfast, lunch and dinner.
Things are changing, of course,right, with this, with the busy
lives and everything.
(14:46):
But, uh, if you, if you take atypical 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 andit's a very healthy,
well-balanced.
So sri lanka was a.
If you compare that to indianmeals, it's typically a roti and
chicken or rice and chicken.
(15:06):
That's it.
Sri Lankan meal has way moreparts to it and I think it's
coming from I think Sri Lankahad a very rich culture for
thousands of years.
Right, we have all the spices.
Right, you can grow anything inSri Lanka.
So, in addition to tea, ofcourse we export rubber and
coconut, but we also exportcinnamon and all that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Tea.
And tea yeah, right, I'm likenow I'm curious about tea.
Oh yeah, you're a big teadrinker, I'm a tea drinker.
Yeah, so I'm also decaffeinated.
But you know, whatever I'll doit.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So for an American to go visit is it pretty easy to
go.
Do you need a visa?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, so you do need a visa, but it's very.
You can just get it online andI think it should be around $30
to $50 for 30 days.
So the visa process is verystraightforward.
You have to travel almost a dayand a half to get there,
typically the way we go.
So from San Francisco, weeither go through Dubai or some
(16:16):
other Middle Eastern countriesor through Singapore.
The last time I visited, Iactually went to India.
I traveled from San Franciscoto Delhi and Delhi to Colombo
2020, when I went, actually 21.
When I went there, I went toSingapore.
So there are various ways toget there and typically it's one
(16:37):
stop in one of these othercountries and then from there
you can get a flight to Colombo.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Wow, and I'm assuming , are your parents still there?
Do you have your siblings orfamily?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
My parents are still there, so from my family.
So I have two siblings, abrother and a sister.
My brother is a year youngerthan me, so he's in the US.
Actually he's 15 minutes drivefrom where I live in the east of
San Francisco, and so they.
So I actually came here throughwork and through work visa and
(17:12):
all that my brother and hisfamily 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 comehere, he was well settled there
, but they decided to come here.
My sister she lives inAustralia, melbourne, australia
so we are somewhat like all overthe place in the world.
(17:33):
My parents are Australian, sriLanka and they traveled every
now and then.
They came to US.
A couple of times they havegone to, I think, australia way
more.
I think maybe six times now.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
But they're still there.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Closer, I'm assuming, to where they are, probably for
Australia, a couple hours or so.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
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 fromthe US, but it's not bad as like
it's not as long as going fromUS.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so how is it like growing up, like you know
in your childhood and becauseyou have kids here in the US, so
you have that as a comparisonno-transcript.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, so I'm from very, very humble beginnings,
for sure, but I think my parentsdid as hard, they worked as
hard as they can work and theydid really well to kind of
provide us everything.
I would say like we wereprobably a kind of lower middle
class in terms of kind offinances and economically and
(18:40):
but growing up kind of of a very, very simple life.
And I was telling someone Imust have played cricket one
third of my life.
Cricket is extremely famous asa sport in Sri Lanka.
It's not a sport in the UnitedStates.
It's that famous because it'sfamous in Sri Lanka, india,
pakistan, like all the countriesBritish were living or
(19:02):
controlling at one point.
It's kind of a British sport,also Australia.
Just I think growing up I was akind of bright student but I
haven't really tried studying orworking hard to get anywhere
Right.
So that's kind of my firstmaybe 20 years or so.
I was just doing well in schoolbecause I was good, but I was
(19:24):
not really studying to do what Ido.
But yeah, it was just a verysimple life and help the parents
and just a little bit about thechildhood.
So my parents and we privatelygrew up in the Western province
and Colombo district, which isclose to we, were very close to
(19:46):
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 shopcalled Ford Shoe Hut and so he
(20:08):
was a businessman, like we hadthis shop, but he was renting it
so he wanted to buy his ownshop.
So he decided to take a foreignemployment, 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 inlebanon in a kind of a in a kind
(20:29):
of a now war zone and he was introuble, like he was there for
six months.
I think he probably almost losthis life couple of times.
Uh, somehow he came back to srilanka.
Uh, my mother was from, uh,colombo district and so with
that during that time we went toColombo and kind of we started
living around where my mother'sparents live and so I had to
(20:52):
change my school and everything.
That was 1986.
It was not a huge changebecause we were young, but it
was a kind of significant changein life.
But my dad again went for aforeign job in 1981, 1991, when
I was 13 years old.
He went to Saudi Arabia and heworked there for 13 years.
(21:14):
So he was kind of he wasdefinitely in the picture.
He was writing to us but he wascoming to see us every two to
three years like, and he stayedfor 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
(21:35):
started going out of the country.
So I kind of like missed himlike all my life, except the
first 13 years.
It was tough without himactually right Just growing up.
We looked up to him a lot Likehe was our hero, right.
Growing up.
Then we missed him a lot and Ihad to grow up fast.
So I was the oldest child inthe family.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I had to kind of become like the person who kind
of if anything happening to usin the family.
I was like I had to kind ofbecome like the person who kind
of if anything happening to usin the family.
I was like I had to leave it.
And I'm sure and I know my momhad the toughest job right Two
teenage boys and just kind ofmaking sure we didn't get in
trouble.
We had a rough time with thedad but I mean he did that
(22:24):
because we wanted money and wewere doing better financially
because of that.
But we always I think all of uswish he didn't stay there for
13 years.
He came back to live with us,maybe in five years or so.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
But it is yeah.
So is there limited industry inthere and jobs?
It seems like a lot of peoplehave left Sri Lanka, probably
for, I would guess,opportunities for work.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yes and no, right, I think so.
In Sri Lanka the literacy is93%.
It's just like a developedcountry, right?
So you have smart, veryliterate people, right?
So we, you, you have, you havesmart, very literate people.
And so I think last 30, 40, 50years, people, people started
(23:12):
going to foreign countries forbetter money and and that has
happened like way too much lastprobably 20, 30 years, because I
think economically we have donesome things as a country kind
of not so smart, and so we hadthey say we were producing or
manufacturing a lot late 1970s,early 1980s, and slowly but
(23:37):
surely we were.
We have started selling thoseand importing everything and
which was kind of which we haverealized as a country now is
kind of a recipe for failure interms of industries
Agriculturally, tea rubber andcoconut and spices we still have
that and we do export fish.
(23:59):
It's, of course, surrounded bysea and we are known for our
tuna right like, kind of likevery sushi grade, high, high
grade tuna.
So fishing is a significantpart of the economy.
Tourism is kind of the next bigone, or now maybe the biggest
income generator, because it'sit's a beautiful place and uh,
(24:23):
yeah, and other than that, uh,just just just a human capital
is like people are super smart.
Education is still free throughthrough college education and
but the college education issomewhat limited because it's
kind of government run and thereare so many people can get that
.
Uh, I mean over the last 10-15years there are a lot of private
education but uh, but, butthere are the industries, like I
(24:45):
think the textile industry hasgrown a lot from like uh,
probably like early 2000, sothat that's a, that's a
significant part also yeah, wowand was curious, like what were
when you were growing up youwere playing cricket.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The school system is it the same like elementary,
middle school, high school kindof thing and then to college?
How is that?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, in Sri Lanka it's actually very similar to
British education than UnitedStates education, but very
similar.
So we have, say, grade 1through grade 10.
And then there is this kind ofa government-run exam called
general education, generalcertificate of education,
(25:32):
ordinary level.
So that's the kind of firstpass.
So that's where kind of peopledecide which way they want to go
, whether you want to be adoctor 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 thingcalled advanced level and that's
(25:56):
next two years.
I think that's probably verysimilar to, uh, maybe last two
years of high school here in theUS.
I think, yeah, very similar tothat, and that's on a two-year
list.
Then after that you have thisadvanced level examination,
again a government-runexamination, island-wide, and
based on that you can qualify togo to a government-run
(26:16):
university.
So the top of the top will getinto that.
But what has happened in SriLanka, 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 toa university in Sri Lanka if
(26:36):
you want to go to government,but what's happening?
We last 10, 15 years.
There are a lot of privateuniversities years.
There are a lot of privateuniversities and there are a lot
of programs like you get aforeign 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 (26:57):
So is there in terms of what to see, what to do, I
know what are the highlights ofpeople that they see, and then
what's like the hidden gems thatyou're like normal folks
wouldn't go, but it's a gem toyou know, the sri lankans.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I don't know if I said that right.
Yeah, so in terms of hiddengems, probably kind of
everything is like these days,everything is out there right
with the technology and with theinternet and everything.
So of course, if you go to SriLanka, you must do the beaches
right, and in the southern partof the country there are a lot
of tourist hotels and beachesand then probably like you guys
(27:40):
don't know this, but Sri Lankahad this kind of this is not an
ethnic war.
Then probably like you guysdon't know this, but Sri Lanka
had this kind of a this is notan ethnic war but it was a
terrorist organization in thecountry in the northern side,
called LTTE, and so the tourismin the northern part was not
doing well, but that was endedby the government in 2009.
With that, there's so much openso there's so many places for,
(28:03):
like, surfing, so so the beachesand the sea that's probably the
the number one attraction andyou have like thousands of like
really tough, real good touristhotels.
And I was thinking like when wewere in sri lanka 2021.
I have traveled the world and Ihave stayed in many hotels.
I travel a ton.
The reality, that service youget in Sri Lanka.
(28:25):
I've never seen anywhere Peopleare like that nice, that kind
always smile.
You can't for sure get that inthe US, right?
People are not that kind Likeif you go to a restaurant or
whatever.
I think Sri Lankan people arevery friendly, so you get that,
so that's the added thing, andthen the food is really, really
good.
The coastal area, that's amust-do and then you must do the
(28:50):
upcountry.
There's a must-do place calledKandy, kind of a temple of tooth
, we call it, and it has LordBuddha's kind of a tooth of Lord
Buddha in that temple.
So it's very special, it's verybeautiful and that's candy with
a K right candy with a K yeahyeah, okay, cool yeah and
(29:11):
there's a place called, calledLion Rock, and we call it
Sigiriya, and I always think itshould have been a wonder of the
world, should be, should havebeen part of the seven wonders,
and what is it called?
Idleland Rock, s-i-g-i-r-i-y-aOkay.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Is it near candy or no?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah, it's somewhere close to candy, I found it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I just typed in Like a flat top rock.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Oh.
Yeah, oh, wow, that's crazythere's a city on the, or
there's, it looks like exactlyso so you know, there's a big
castle on top of that rock,right.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
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 ofthe ground.
So, and I always think, if thiswas in another country, a
developed country, this shouldhave been part of Seven Wonders.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
It isn't that big, but it's in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I wonder how high that is up.
Is that like a couple thousandfeet?
It's like way up.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
How do people get up there?
Yeah, so still like, I mean, wedid 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 myson so 2018.
He was like seven years old andin the middle of the staircase
he's like yeah, I don't want togo anymore.
I promised him to get a set ofLegos, so that's how I got here.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Perfect, you got to do what you got to do.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
How long did it take to climb?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
up there.
Oh, I see a picture with thestairwell.
It's just all in like in just acouple hours, right, I assume,
not like.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
No, no, it's not.
It's not.
I think all in it should belike two to three hours, right,
you can do the whole tour.
Yeah, culturally, I think, andwhat we had in terms of the
lakes we, sri lanka, have likethousands of lakes like which is
which was, which were used foragriculture, so it's just just a
just just just a very richplace culturally and even like
(31:20):
in terms of engineering and howsmart people were.
And if you compare that to US,us is a very young country.
Sri Lanka is like thousands andthousands of years old.
People are very proud of it.
But maybe that's one of theproblems of Sri Lanka Like
(31:40):
people still live in thatculture rather than thinking,
like looking ahead, thanthinking forward and all that
like that.
That's something I thinkcurrently people in the country
are like kind of challenging.
Enough of these old things likethat, that king did this, this
king did that, like let's lookahead then.
Uh, yeah, of course it, weshould be proud of it, but then
(32:00):
let's see what we can do goingforward.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Absolutely.
And then what's like a typicalday 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 ofstandard or so, or how is it?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yeah, living and eating, you know.
Yeah, I think the school timingwas, I think, 8 to 2, 7.30 to
2.30.
It's very similar.
So currently I think breakfastis probably very much similar to
here.
Right, it can be like bread andbutter and some fruits and milk
(32:41):
, like Sri Lankans do a lot oflike, drink a lot of milk, milk
tea, and that's probably kind ofvery similar to here.
When you wake up and then thetypical lunch not for a person
who's going to school, buttypical, typical lunch is rice
with fish, meat and somevegetables.
A typical student like either.
(33:02):
You buy lunch from the schoolright.
At one point there was aprogram 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 weregoing to school, so that was
cool.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah, and then you said like rice is a staple and
the meat or fish it sounds likefish is probably what kind yeah,
it basically has tuna andeverything else like variations
of tuna, basically based on thesize of the fishs.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Holidays, uh, valentine's day or easter you
know things like that yeah,exactly right.
(34:00):
So so sri lanka has actuallyprobably way too many holidays
because I think we have way toomany cultures and religions and
so the the country is 70 pluspercent Buddhists, probably as a
population, that's the mostpeople in the country in terms
of Buddhism.
If you go to India, it's mostlike Hinduism, and even though
(34:25):
Buddhism was kind of somewhatstarted in India and Nepal, sri
Lanka currently probably theonly country that has presented
percentage that many Buddhistsand only singly speaking country
.
But in terms of what wecelebrate, we celebrate
everything.
Right.
It's funny that Christmas somaybe Christians are around 10%
(34:46):
in the country In the Christmastime, everybody shops, doing
shopping, everybody has aChristmas tree in their house,
right, it's that tree in theirhouse, right, it's that.
And then during, so it's uh,it's lord buddha's birthday in
may, and during that poor day, Ithink everyone celebrate that
too right in terms of, like,whatever we call it, besak
(35:06):
lanterns, right, we just havethose lanterns in front of the
houses, so people just do thosethings.
Same thing for, like, whetherit's Hindu, like Diwali or
Muslim holidays.
So we get holidays for all that.
We get there's at least oneHoya day every month, like a
full moon day we get holiday forthat, it's maybe US into two or
(35:26):
2.5 or even three number ofpublic holidays.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, wow, lots of celebrating, right?
Is there anything that's reallyspecific to Sri Lanka, that
there's nowhere else?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah, for sure we don't have penguins.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
We don't have penguins.
In terms of the wildlife, it'sdefinitely rich wildlife and we
have lots and lots of elephantsand at times, to the extent it's
a, it's a, it's a trouble forpeople in certain areas, right,
because when the elephants don'thave place to live because of,
maybe, development, then they'llcome to villages, right, then
(36:08):
that's a problem.
We have that many elephants,right, but, but, but, but
elephants are well, very wellloved and well, well respected
in sri lanka.
And then, uh, we have all otheranimals in terms of like, deers
, and there are, like, there are, a lot of birds and animals
specific to sri lanka, and thatthere's a whole list of that.
(36:32):
Sri Lankan people are veryfriendly, I would like to say.
People are, like, smart andvery literate, close to the
religions and races.
Right, people get veryemotional when they talk about
the country or their religion orrace.
I think I don't know if that'sa South Asian thing, but we are
that, uh, we are definitely notindians, right, uh, not indians
(36:54):
for sure.
Right, it's.
It's a whole different country,very independent country, and,
uh, that, uh, in terms of likeyeah, so a beautiful place.
Uh, tourism is really good interms of places to see.
Uh, there are some forts, thereare a lot of mountains to climb
and see for, do hiking, and allthat.
(37:16):
Beaches are beautiful.
Uh, if you go to colombo, yousee anything you see either in
san francisco or new york interms of buildings and malls and
everything like so kind of verydeveloped in that sense.
Yeah, I'm just trying to thinkwhat are the next?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
thing.
That's great.
So let's go into our rapid firequestions now.
So when you go back, is there afavorite dish that you like to
have?
That you must have?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, so there's this dish called kotu Ku k-o-t-t-y.
Right, it's a, it's a rotibased dish, but uh, you kind of
cut all the rotis and you mixthat with some, say, some
vegetables and a meat, and thecool thing is like it's in a,
(38:11):
it's in a kind of a cookingthing, and people like just kind
of chop it.
That's how you make it and it'sa kind of a delicacy in Sri
Lanka People like that.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And what's the meat that you eat?
What's your favorite meat inthere Chicken or beef?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, so I love beef.
So for me I like beef, butpeople put chicken beef and
anything else and then, like ourcurries are really good, like
Sri Lankan beef or chicken ormutton or lamb or any of that
Fish curry is really good.
So we are known for that.
We do this thing called kiribath.
(38:49):
So kiri bath is kind of ricebut with kind of more milk, kind
of more stuck together, sticky,and we make that for the kind
of special locations, auspiciousoccasions, and there are like a
bunch of sweets we make.
And again, like people I thinkSri Lankan people have this
sweet teeth and a lot of sugarand a lot of sweet things.
(39:12):
And speaking of sweet, things?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
uh, and speaking of sweet things, what are some of
like your three favorite fruitsthat are grown there?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
so they have mangoes, yeah yeah, sri lanka mangoes
are really, really tasty, beingtropical.
Uh, papaya, we have a lot ofpapayas.
We have pineapple.
Pineapples are really good.
I love this thing called woodapple.
So wood apple is likepineapples are like, of course,
like small trees.
Wood apple trees are big, likeit has a shell.
(39:39):
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, probablymaybe almost every house in
villages they have coconut treesand jack trees, right, so even
people don't work they can eat,like they can eat jack and fruit
(40:00):
, yeah, and we have a lot ofbananas 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 (40:16):
Wow, everything sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Yeah, and what apple looks really interesting.
It looks like a kind of acoconut, but I don't know how
big it is.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, it's not big as coconut, but it's probably
one-eighth, one-fifth of acoconut, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
just just like an orange or apple.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
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 ittaste like apple, or what does
it taste like?
No, I know it tastes muchbetter than apple.
It's a little sour, but it'sbased on how ripe it is.
But it's tastier tastier, morethan apple or an orange.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
And of course I'm biased.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, of course.
Okay, how does the money workthere?
Do you have to exchange it?
Is it better to exchange onceyou get there?
Do you just use an app orcredit cards?
What's the best way to spendmoney in Sri Lanka?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, so I think they have everything like in terms
of credit cards and I thinkanything we do with money here.
You have all that stuff there,Like banking system is very
similar to here.
Currency is rupees, Sri Lankanrupees.
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'llcarry dollars and I'll go to a
(41:46):
money exchange or bank andexchange it.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Basically, Okay, awesome.
And then what's the best way toget around a car public
transportation or to hire adriver?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
yeah, I think I think hiring a driver probably the
easiest for somebody who doesn'tknow the country.
When I, when I go to sri lanka,I always drive and uh, it's not
very easy to drive somebodywho's not from sri right, it's
kind of, in my opinion, it'slike a it's very exciting for me
to drive very different fromhere, right, but you know how to
(42:19):
drive there.
I personally drive when I gothere, but kind of getting a
taxi or cab probably the easiestpublic transportation wise.
There's a lot of government runor private-run bus services and
there's always a railway andactually if you take the train
or the railway to go toupcountry, it is extremely
(42:42):
beautiful.
So, people do that to see thecountry.
Like yeah, if you take thetrain from Colombo to upcountry,
you see almost all the beautyof the country other than the
beaches of course.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Oh wow, it sounds yeah.
Hawaii doesn't have trains.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
And how long does it take to train up?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
It can be altogether.
It can be it's based on whereyou want to get in and get out.
But it can be a nine, 10 hourride because, like some places,
it goes like slowly, becauseit's just to like show people
around.
And then there are fastertrains, also right for commuters
.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
When we were in Sri Lanka last time, we did one of
those trains.
It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
That sounds amazing, Wow.
Okay, and the last questionwhere's the closest place to
surf?
Is there a surfing culturethere being on the water?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
There is.
There's a big surfing cultureIn the southern area there's
there's a lot of spots forsurfing but, as I was telling
you, after the kind of the warwe had, the the eastern area and
the northern area got openedand I think that there's a place
called, I think, arugambearugambe, and around the
(43:51):
trimcomali area I think thereare a lot of surfing, as I know,
and and then that's in thesouthern area also.
So it's a very famous forsurfing and and also for scuba
diving.
So there are a lot of peoplefrom us or europe.
They travel to sri lankaspecifically for that.
So here where I live, in myprevious house in Clayton
(44:13):
California, I had this neighbor.
They had this Sri Lankan trip.
They are like they are actuallyscuba diving instructors.
The couple was going to SriLanka.
Oh wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And is it like the east side or the west side of
the island better for scubadiving, or is it everywhere, all
around?
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, it's actually east side or the west side of
the island better for scubadiving, or is?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
it everywhere, all around yeah, it's actually.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
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 yeahyeah, sleepy fishing village,
southeast coast, untouched byheavy monsoons.
You guys get mon monsoons.
I didn't even talk about theweather.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
We do yeah, yeah, we do, yeah.
It can rain always all the time.
We don't have a shot of that.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, it says April to October.
That's the best time and thebest waves are June and July.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, that's what it says.
Nice, yeah, all right.
Nice, yeah, all right.
I have to go on a a surf worldtrip at one point because we
don't look at surfing spots.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Totally put that one yeah, you will not be
disappointed.
You will not be disappointed.
There's a ton to be done oh mygosh.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, thank you so much for enlightening us, yeah.
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