This is no cave

[Zanza]

He probably has five hungry children and his wife died last year of a curable disease.

[Savonarola]

I never had a "Guide" that was that aggressive, but I had several who tried to get me to go to various stores.  When I was in Thebes I got suckered into going to one where the propietor sold "Valuable antiques."  One of the "Macedonian" coins he showed me had an owl on it and "Athen" clearly written out in Greek letters.

[The Brain]

What a colorful culture.

[Monoriu]

As expected, Sri Lankan food was crap.  I usually try the local stuff wherever I go, but I was warned that wouldn't work in Sri Lanka.  We brought tons of our own food there.  Only things they did well were tea and papaya.  Yes, the tea was good.  It was one of the places on earth where the question "tea or coffee?" was redundent. 

[Pat]

Yep, lankese food wasn't nearly as good as indian food, which was strange, as otherwise they're very culturally similar. I wouldn't call it crap though. I'd even say it was quite good, at least not much worse than anywhere else. They had some nice fish dishes for example, and anyway if you don't like the domestic food there's plenty of international cuisine to be found, at least in Colombo.

[Pat]

Speaking of international cuisine...

We made the mistake of buying a guide book to Sri Lanka written before the tsunami. So we asked a tuktuk-driver to take us to a Bavarian restaurant we had found in the guide book, and he told us it had been destroyed in the tsunami and was never re-opened, but he knew another place he could take us. We didn't believe him - after all Colombo was on the side of Sri Lanka facing *away* from the tsunami! Surely he wanted to take us somewhere else to get a commission. So we turned him down and asked another tuktuk-driver nearby, and he told us the same thing. We thought maybe he was friends with the other driver and he had overheard or conversation or something. So we went to a third driver and he told us the same thing, so we reluctantly accepted to be taken somewhere else.

It wasn't until later we learned that the tsunami had been so powerful as to actually even destroy the coast line of the island facing away from it. Quite remarkable, really.

[Martinus]

This is why I never travel outside the euro zone.

[Zanza]

This is why I never travel outside the euro zone.

Boring.

[Pat]

This is why I never travel outside the euro zone.

Rich western countries are pretty much all alike. Much more interesting to travel in poor countries. You never know what to expect.

[Martinus]

For the record, one thing that has always puzzled me is why in the world anyone, say from Europe, would travel to a place like Sri Lanka for holidays? I mean, I get it from Mono since he is in the general area anyway. But why spend 30 hours on a plane to go to a dangerous place, with unhygienic food and some weird architecture?

I mean, I know it is cool to see new stuff, but you can see new stuff pretty much everywhere, and you do not need to travel to the end of the world to do so.

[Martinus]

You never know what to expect.

That could be the thing. I hate that. "You never know what to expect" is my definition of hell.

[Pat]

Me and my friend was travelling through India, and we decided to go to Sri Lanka for a week, since it was close. Took an hour or two from Goa. Nothing like 30 hours going from Sweden to India or Sri Lanka. 

And you don't really see a whole lot of new stuff by going to another liberal western democracy at about the same level of wealth, nor do you really learn a whole lot. The language is different, some of the brands in the shops are different... but most things are about the same. A plane ticket to Asia will only cost you a few hundred dollars more than a plane ticket to a mediterranean destination. Once there, you can live for a king for almost no money at all. In India, I had great chicken tikka masala for €1. Yes, €1. This was at a restaurant for tourists by the beach. And it tasted great. You get four, five, ten times your moneys worth. In the end, you'll probably end up spending *less* money going to the more exotic place!

Frankly, the only reason to go the mediterranean resorts is if you're reluctant to bring children on long flights. Otherwise you're just stupid paying five or ten times as much for worse food and worse service. At a boring destination, where you can see... what, exactly? Once you've seen one mediterranean resort, you've seen them all. I suppose I don't like them for the same reason you (seem) to like them: they're predictable and you know what to expect

But really the best part about the poor world is that most people are genuinely friendly and helpful. You get positively surprised more than you get negatively surprised (at least that is my experience)

[Octavian]

For the record, one thing that has always puzzled me is why in the world anyone, say from Europe, would travel to a place like Sri Lanka for holidays? I mean, I get it from Mono since he is in the general area anyway. But why spend 30 hours on a plane to go to a dangerous place, with unhygienic food and some weird architecture?

I mean, I know it is cool to see new stuff, but you can see new stuff pretty much everywhere, and you do not need to travel to the end of the world to do so.

They come for the adventure but stay for the POW sex slaves!

[The Larch]

This is why I never travel outside the euro zone.

So Britain and Scandinavia get left out of your schedule? 

[Neil]

This is why I never travel outside the euro zone.

I found the eurozone somewhat more run down than what I was used to in North America.