'Travel' the word conjures up so many different thoughts, your imagination goes a little crazy.....for me it means exploration, experiences, self knowledge and gaining a new outlook on life.
It is great to be able to travel freely, moving on when the time feels right, staying where you want, making new friends, new travel companions, sharing adventures and capturing moments in your heart and head. Though sometimes amongst all this fun it can be hard. The endless battle of being on your guard against possible thieves, rip off merchants, hunting for a place to stay, finding a meal that you hope wont leave you toilet hopping for the next 24 hours etc etc. Its hard meeting fabulous new friends that inevitably you have to leave as your paths are going different directions. Of course thoughts of home, family and friends that i miss greatly, sometimes if it was possible i would pop home for a day or two to give and receive some warm hugs! I have the occasional moment of why am i doing this? why am i here? this is not fun..i want to go home!!! They are very rare but when they do they erupt like a volcano, slowly building and exploding into a well of emotions that need to be looked at, pulled apart and put back together positively. This all came to light about a week ago....
Excited and exhilarated about crossing the sea to Sri Lanka i was in good spirits, like a child bubbling before Christmas day. I was also in great company, a trio once more, i had Ant by my side and John a friend who i had met in Tibet, Nepal and was now reunited with once again. Together we were going on an adventure to the teardrop of India, the country where i had been told was the best of the best of India. What more could i ask for> The sandy beaches were waiting, the surf and of course the sun....
Leaving our cocoon of Pondicherry we bussed it to Chennai, bartered with a taxi to the airport arriving eight hours before our scheduled flight! Our check in was at 4am.....but arriving horrendously early saved us on a nights accomodation and trying to find some means of transport at stupid o'clock, so we settled ourselves in the airport chairs as best as we could and tried to catch some sleep. Predictably it wasn't the most comfortable of places....i was even quoted by John as saying "I am so tired it hurts!" as i sat up bended myself into another contorted state before falling into another fitful sleep! Oh the joys! Check in when it eventually came round was an easy affair, the flight good and soon we were on new soil having our passports stamped with a thirty day visa. Wahey here we come!
Coming out of the airport we were first greeted with touts trying to charge the earth and then the sight of an army guy sat behind his bunker, fully armed with a loaded machine gun! Ahhh! The army is on a heavy guard after the recent bombings, but to all those worrying please don't as i am not going to go to any dodgy areas. However as John and i were chatting to the guard, John pointed out that it 'might be best' if i moved....i was standing in front of that loaded gun.....think i should pay a 'little' more attention! So we then boarded a hot and sweaty bus, got dropped off where we thought we wanted to be and had another well needed smoke before establishing a price with a tuk tuk driver.
After explaining where we wanted to go, not finding it, driving around for about an hour, going in an out of hotels we soon realised that our oh so helpful diver was actually a con man trying to earn commision, in turn bumping up the prices of the rooms and sometimes getting us turned away. So we decided we had to ditch this cowboy, we offered him double the amount we had agreed on for his 'help' but he wasn't very happy about this and an arguement was soon on the menu of the day for us three very very tired travellers. It was quite intimidating and i thought at one point he was going to hit Ant and then possibly run us over with the tuk tuk, so we ran off an hid in an internet shop! Eventually after ringing around for ages and possibly calling a brothel (there was lots of heavy breathing!) we found a place, a nice slightly over our budget hotel. Lovely, air-con, shower and tv!
It seemed all sorted...until we went to leave and they handed us the bill, it was DOUBLE!!! We were going to have to shell out 30 quid each for two nights (when that can last me for three days for everything you may see how annoyed i was!). AGAIN another battle of wills ensued, the so called managed wouldn't budge an inch, considering we had checked several times before signing for the room we were being well and truly 'done'. We had no choice in the end but to pay, i felt really cheated and disheartened but there was no other solution so we had to bite the bullet. I left feeling very cross indeed, hands right under the armpits in a mini strop!
So off to the beaches we left, Hikkaduwa was our next port of all. Arriving we found a nice CHEAP place to stay, settled in and then Ant and i went in search of the sea. It was wonderful to walk in the sand, dip our toes in the sea, a small piece of heaven after the last couple of days .........but i was to get conned for the third time in the space of 48 hrs.....seriously i must have rip me off tattooed on my head! A local guy came over and started chatting to us, offering us anything we wanted basically, he told me he could get cheap fags so i bartered with him and we agreed on a price. Walking down the beach with him he told us to sit on the steps whilst he went to get them and he would be back in five.... needless to say the rest of the story went a little bit like this....
'he came back with my imaginary fags, i opened the imaginary packets, smoked an imaginary fag, breathing out imaginary smoke...' brilliant! So my cheap fags didn't end up so cheap after all! Not a brilliant start to Sri Lanka at all, in fact at this point i declared that i hated the place....it had been hassle from the moment we touched down.
The thing is when these things happen you just have to ride with it, take the rough with the smooth, ride the storm life goes on as the sayings go......! I am pleased to say that things have definatly improved... Ant John and i have been here for two weeks now, enjoying the sun, sipping beers, trying the surf.... i attempted body boarding but i wasn't very good, i spent most of the time half drowning and getting very familiar with the seabed! I had a beautiful purple bruise on my arm to prove it! Now Ant and i are very settled here it feels a bit like home, work in the morning.... (we are volunteering at a turtle hatchery -that's another story!) but with the luxury of the beach in the afternoon.
So all in all i survived the epidemic on money rip offs, even though i know its quite a negative story i thought it would be good to share it so that you can see the ideology of travelling isn't all what it seems to be sometimes. It still has its ups and downs...mainly ups though i must admit! So with lessons still being learned the journey continues......i have turtles to massage!
