With my articles about the people in Ghana and in Taiwan, I started with showing the difference through Hofstede between my country and theirs. However I don’t think in case of Sri Lanka this will really capture the story I want to tell about Sri Lankan people. If you are still interested you can make your own comparison here.
To explain how people are in Sri Lanka this just deserves some of my experiences during my time in Sri Lanka as an example. As of course in every country you will meet good people and you will meet some bad people. But I can give you already the overall conclusion. People in Sri Lanka are amazing and this is why:
People are amazingly friendly
As a Dutch person you are on your own in your own country. People are direct and don’t care about you. How different is Sri Lanka on this matter.
In Colombo an older guy left the mosque and came to greet us. He was interested where we were coming from and what we thought of Sri Lanka so far. He also wished us all the best during our travel. No request for money or any offering of his travel services what you sometimes see in other countries. He is just a person who wants to have a short chat with you and hope that you are doing fine.
And this didn’t only happen once, this happened several times in Sri Lanka. When my girlfriend was wearing her saree (traditional Sri Lankan dress) in a temple, she only got happy faces and children and women who kept telling her how beautiful she looks like in that saree.
When we were waiting for the bus, the children opposite the bus stop offered us tea, coffee and wanted to show us around their house. So they could practice their English. I can give you loads of examples, but people are really willing to help you out. I can’t thank enough some of the best hosts I ever had with an accommodation that helped us out in the best way during our trip.
Most of the time people are being honest to you
How often do you have not in a country that you are having this negotiation with someone on the street because he is offering his products for a price that is just insane? Of course, still don’t trust tuk tuk drivers in Sri Lanka and their prices. Instead download pick me or worst case make use of their meter. Also don’t trust the first person that offers you a ride for a good price.
However most of the time people are being really honest. Buying fruit on markets, people never gave us tourist prices but always the local prices. Our driver to Sigiriya offered us a ride the next day to Nuware Eliya for a lower price than the market price.
Bus times and where to take the bus, most of the time the information that locals can give you on this is correct. If they don’t know the answer they will call or ask someone else till they know the answer for you.
As always there are some bad people in this mix. While some of the buses are government buses, and they need to give you a ticket with a price, you know you will pay a fair price. However if this isn’t the case they try to charge more. We had one time we took a bus back and the ticket man charged us more than the same journey we took in the morning.
Obviously we didn’t want to pay the overpriced amount and gave him the exact amount we spend in the morning. Instead he became angry, teared up the money and threw it back at us. Of course this is an exception. But still always do your own research as well.
People are extremely helpful
Most of the people just want to help you as best as they can. Our first host gave us already the best tip of the whole journey to download pick me and use that when we need a tuk tuk ride. This app saved us loads of money and time on negotiation with other tuk tuk drivers.
In Colombo we were searching for a saree shop. We asked some people on a street and someone guided us to two different shops and wanted to bring us to more shops till we founded the right shop. He didn’t want to have anything in return for this. He was just extremely helpful.
Another example would be how some of the tourist attractions work. For example the tea factory we visited. You will get a free tour with explanation and free tea tasting. At this point you can just leave. Of course we wanted to buy something from their shop to support them, but you don’t have to and you will not be forced at any point. The same was the case in a spice garden where we got a free massage.
Conclusion
I can continue this list for way longer. But I think it is clear that in traveling perspective, Sri Lanka has one of the best people I have ever met. They are so helpful and friendly to travelers. I sincerely hope that if this country will ever get more tourists that this will not change the attitude of the local people. But so far this country is amazing with their people!
