Sri Lanka: Beautiful island in need of democracy.

The contradictions of Sri Lanka are a beautiful country with warm friendly people, a good health service but human rights problems caused by lack of democracy. 

Two weeks biking around Sri Lanka gives one a year’s worth of beautiful views and experiences. By the end of the holiday I was also aware of the darker side of Sri Lanka which relates to its political history and way the government has evaded questions about the military end to the civil war. I wrote about the journey every day on my blog and this is a post travel reflection.

I was on a biking holiday organized by Exodus and we had a lovely route that took us over the central and western part of the island. There were 14 of us from Australia (6), Ireland (4), UK(3) and one Canadian. We biked around 70 km a day, doing 102 km on one day. Being a cyclist really opens up a country, everywhere children shouted out to us. Our tea stops were in small cafes where they rarely see white people. Bananas fuelled my cycling, bought in the small shops with at least seven different varieties. I feasted on the ripe pineapples and water melons.

Sri Lankans are warm, open people, very welcoming. They also eat wonderful food.  Their main dish is so- called “rice and curry”, this dull name does not capture the feast one has of rice and about six other dishes of spiced spinach,  dahl, beetroot,  jackfruit, aubergine, ladies fingers, fish.  Every cook prepares the dishes in their own way and for me the spices were a treat.

Buddhism is very visible, we saw the ancient vast white stupas at Polonnaruwa, exuding a quietude that I appreciated. As we biked towards the south we saw many small temples beside the road with a seated Buddha. We often saw monks walking along with their begging bowls; many Sri Lankan families send a son to be a monk, and they they are celibate and study the scriptures. But we also saw the Buddhists enjoying a Hindu festival and worshipping Hindu gods enthusiastically. The festival had an Indian exuberance with crowds pressing forward to have their offerings blessed under garish pictures of the Hindu gods. huge Temple elephants, devotees carrying fire, colourful dancers and drummers were all part of the festival . Sri Lanka has a 10% Muslim population and I saw mosques in the commercial areas such as Colombo and Galle. People spoke disparagingly about the Muslims saying that Sri Lanka would have 100% literacy rates if it were not for the Muslims. They apparently drop out of school early to help in the family business. Nobody seemed to be asking what should we do to keep these kids in education. Christianity is a minority religion and I saw only few churches, in Colombo and Galle. However the Dutch reformed church in Galle was a vast building with a huge pulpit and organ, clearly built by colonists who thought they were in for a long stay but they only lasted for about 100 years before being displaced by the Brits.

I enjoyed comparing India and Sri Lanka, having visited India regularly over the last 38 years and Sri Lanka twice about 30 years ago. Sri Lanka is visibly better off and appears to have less inequality. The absence of beggars in Sri Lanka is very noticeable. The Sri Lankans have a health and social security system.  The health service is free to everyone at the point of care, there are small divisional hospitals in villages which are staffed by two doctors, patients needing operations are transferred in ambulances and do not have to pay for their treatment or drugs.  Another important difference is that this system works, India has a free government health service but is often non-functional. I also experienced the health service myself, I was bitten by a dog in a temple in Kandy and needed rabies booster jabs.  I had immediate helpful advice from my doctor friend Indira so I attended the base hospital in Nuwara Eliya for a rabies booster jab. It was a Saturday night, quiet in the casualty and I was quickly seen by a young doctor, bobble hatted because of the cool temperatures in Nuwara Eliya. who put me on the rabies injection protocol., I was given my rabies card with clear instructions about when I needed my next injection. The base hospitals are giving 250 courses of rabies injections per month. The vaccine was Indian made, in an Indian hospital the protocol might have been available but the vaccine would not be stocked and would have to purchased outside. The success of the Sri Lankan system are also visible in the statistics, Sri Lankans are more likely than Indians to survive childhood, their women are less likely to die giving birth and they live longer( 71 vs 64) , Sri Lankan also ranks above India in the world hunger rankings.

I was invited to Sri Lanka to speak at a dermatology conference , Sri Lanka still has a significant leprosy problem with over 2000 new cases being diagnosed each year, despite its better health system.  The new cases rates have been stable for the last 20 years leprosy will be a problem in Sri Lanka for a long time yet.

Surprisingly, Sri Lanka’s IT  is not as advanced as India’s, mobile phones arrived later on the island and through Indian technology. There are no call centres yet.;although they could do very well in this sector because many people are well educated and speak English.

We also experienced the plight of the tea pickers through the personal story of the bright intelligent young woman who was showing us around tea factory. She had hoped to go to university but had not got good enough grades in her A levels, retaking was not an option. Her mother was sick and she had younger siblings, so at 18 she had to start as a tea picker and pick 16 kg of tea leaves a day. It is a precarious life, they are only paid for what they pick and are permanent labourers employed on casual conditions. It seemed very difficult to escape being a tea picker. I also suspect that many of the families are in debt. It felt a very Asian scenario of limited opportunity and the needs of the family trumping everything.

I read Gordon Weiss's book “The Cage” about the civil war and the last days of the Tamil fight when the Tigers and thousands of civilians were stranded in the Nandikadal lagoon with the Sri Lankan army bombarding them.  This was a war crime but the current government has avoided censure. Both Canada and UK had questioned whether Sri Lanka should host the commonwealth Heads of government meeting (COHOGM) in Nov 2013 because of the genocide in 2009, but the meeting is going ahead. Weiss notes the absence of journalistic freedom in Sri Lanka., this is a striking contrast with India with its  lively opposition and a active media.  I could see this, few people read newspapers despite the high literacy rate, the news papers that are available all support the government.

In Sri Lanka the absence of concern for human rights has also mirrors the absence of democracy. There is no effective opposition so the president and his family rule and enrich themselves. In the presidents home area there were huge billboards with his portrait and that of his son and brother celebrating his achievements and reminding us of the ability running in the family.  When someone in power demands a place for a party it has to be surrendered.

I was sorry that I did not go up to Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil area, especially as I had discovered a tomb-stone there with my Dutch family name “Mom” in 1982. Stacey, a Canadian girl in our group had been there and had seen both the war destruction and the active rebuilding programme. She visited a hospital filled with people with post traumatic stress disorder. Because the government has not acknowledged the tragedies that occurred recently and because journalism is so weak there I fear that the resentments of the Tamils and others will grow and that there will again be racial strife.  There seemed to be no equivalent of the South African Peace and Reconciliation commission, and yet for a like that are very important for acknowledging wrongs and moving forward. The Uk Ngo Freedom from Torture have also reported that Tamils who returned after the war were being totorured even in 2012.

I also read a novel about the civil war, “Mosquito “ by Roma Tearne, it is a love story between an older writer and a young girl who has artistic talent. The war tears them apart, he is tortured by Singhalas and then Tamils,  but eventually they are reunited. The novel celebrates the power of love to overcome problems and also the importance of art. The author is also an artist and the novel is full of beautiful images. It was good to have a fictional contrast to the serious Weiss report.

The scenery in Sri Lanka is beautiful. The paddy fields were full of ripe paddy, with palm trees everywhere. The scenery also changed quite rapidly which is nice for a cyclist. On the day we biked up to NuwaraEliya we started in lush green paddy fields and half way through the morning the scenery changed to tea bushes and pine trees. On our descent from Ella we biked through the hills and then came down to the flat plains with huge lakes. The bird life is also spectacular , flashes of iridescent blue as kingfishers dived for lunch, spoonbill cranes and other waders in the paddy fields.

So I left Sri Lanka having enjoyed the holiday, I loved the scenery and the people. I would be happily return to bird-spot and snorkel and continue searching for the perfect rice and curry. But it also reminded me of how important democracy and human rights are and how important it is to protect them.

Diana Lockwood

Aug 2013

1.  India vs Sri Lanka statsDying under 5 12 versus 61/10 000; the maternal mortality rate is 35 vs 200 /10 000 compared with India.

2. The CageGordon Weiss.  Vintage 2011

3.The Mosquito Roma Tearne Harper Perennial 2007

4. http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/out_of_the_silence/5980

day 12 Aug 16 Galle and Colombo

Lovely waking in the beach hotel to the sound of waves and to not have a 6 am wake up call. I went back to Galle to wander the streets and walk around the bastion ramparts. Then we went back to Colombo. It is a gentler city than the other Asian cities, without the huge crush of people in Mumbai nor the traffic jams of Delhi. I wandered around Colombo, there was a huge Hindu temple with a facade packed with gods. The festival we had seen earlier in the week was also being celebrated here with dishes of fruit being offered. Just down the road was the Anglican Church. They advertise their Friday night  miracle session from 5 till 7every week, I wonder what their miracle success rate is?.  There were about 50 people there with their arms aloft singing and chanting, being lead by a smooth voiced evangelical man at the front.

This has been a great holiday. I have enjoyed the contrasts of Sri Lanka. Biking was also a great way to see the country and I enjoyed the tea stops in the villages and talking to people then. The Sri Lankans are very warm and welcoming, extraordinarily nice people. We also had a great guide, Suresh who delighted in fixing things and did everything he could to ensure that we enjoyed ourselves and appreciated his country. I was last in Sri Lanka 30 years ago and it has developed hugely with better roads and communications. It is interesting to compare Sri Lanka and India,  the former has a visibly better health and education system. But Sri Lanka suffers from having less political debate and no effective opposition.  Rajajpaksa the current president is busy trying to deify himself. I read Gordon Weiss's book “The Cage” about the civil war and the last days of the Tamil fight when thousands of civilians were stranded in the Nandikadal lagoon with the Sri Lankan army bombarding them.  This was a war crime but the current government has avoided censure. Both Canada and Australia had questioned whether Sri Lanka should host the commonwealth Heads of government meeting (COHOGM) in Nov 2013 because of the genocide in 2009, but the meeting is going ahead. Weiss notes the absence of journalistic freedom in Sri Lanka., this is a huge contrast with India with its  lively opposition and a active media.

I was sorry that I did not go up to Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil area, especially as I had discovered a tomb-stone there with my Dutch family name “Mom” in 1982. Stacey, a Canadian girl in our group had been there and had seen both the war destruction and the active rebuilding programme. She visited a hospital filled with people with post traumatic stress disorder. The effects of 30 years of civil war will take many years to ameliorate.

On my last morning I met my Sri Lankan friend Indira Kahawita for breakfast. she has lived most of her adult life through a  civil war, the first serious Tamil riots were in 1977 when she was at school. She was relieved to see the end of the war. She lamented the absence of an effective opposition. She also commented on how well Sri Lankans do when they are abroad and hoped that this could be replicated back in Sri Lanka. Many people are learning Tamil as part of the peace process and her daughter speaks it easily. Maybe these measures will help.

We were a companionable group, we gelled and everybody talked easily and supported each other in different ways. The Ozzies were fit and good at enjoying themselves. There was a group of fast cyclists who raced ahead. I was happy in the slow group, savouring the landscape and taking photos. 

This holiday has been interesting, challenging and refreshing and I have returned with a love of beetroot curry a Sri Lankan specialty.

day 11 Aug 15 Old Dutch fort, Galle and Sri Lankan dogs

Another morning of fine biking along small roads and through the forest and besides fields. We stopped for tea next to a school where a huge mural had been made of the Bhuddist way of life including touching one's parents' feet. The teachers in the group were envious of this example of discipline.

We spent the rest of the day in Galle where  one can still fell the Portuguese , Dutch and British colonial influences with Dutch street names such as Leyn Baan (Line Street) and there is a huge sea wall bastion now 600 yrs old and withstood the tsunami in 2002 unlike the new town.   The town is an enjoyable eccentric mix of old and new with trendy art galleries alongside red tiled houses and vast maritime warehouses.  I went into the  Dutch reform church  and the pastor must have felt very important preaching from his vast pulpit but there are but no Dutch gravestones after 1720. On the central square was  a delapidated magistatrates court which looked like a museum but is still in use and 300 cases had been heard there  3 days ago. Next door a lawyer sat in her office typing on an old type writer. The  town museum was ancient and filled with antique junk and  had a new jewelry store at the back for shopping deprived museum goers tired of the old stuff .  We also stopped at a quaint reading room  which had 150 paying members and English books and magazines run by a very elderly man and a young girl reading Harry Potter.  We escaped from the afternoon heat with excellent coffee in a trendy cafe. The coffee in Sri Lanka has been execrable, clearly quality only counts if tea is being drunk. We then took a local bus back to our hotel. The driver behaved as though training for Grand Prix and needed all the help he could from the the flashing Bhuddist and three Hindu gods above the dashboard. I hope they are keeping his next reincarnation away.

Since my encounter with the dog I have been following news stories about dogs. Sri Lanka has 2.2 million dogs and there is awareness of the rabies problem with an article in todays paper. The minster of health has promised  the eradicate rabies by 2015. This will be impossible since many of the dogs are strays and in dreadful condition. There is also a Bhuddist reluctance to cull dogs. The campaign will run into similar problems as other eradication campaigns such as leprosy. Leprosy has been eliminated as a public health problem here which mean that they have over 2000 news cases annually and have done so for the last 20 years.

Better just enjoy my last night on the beach and stop worrying about rabies

day 10 Aug 14 Elephants and riding to the south coast

Beautiful,early morning daylight on the paddy field at the hotel. We then biked down to the south coast. After going through a very lush arête the landscape changed to be dry and dusty with trees bent over by the wind and huge cacti beside the road. We stopped for tea at a roadside stall, the owner has to re-roof the palm leaves very two years. I asked him what he would like most and his wish was for the elephants to stop trampling on his crops. The area is a reserve for elephants and the elephants and humans do not coexist happily. We also passed through another village which was the district centre for curd making and there were stacks of earthen ware bowls with curd outside each house. It is striking how the villages specialise in different products.

Our day ended at a beach hotel with swimming in the sea and seeing the fishermen pull their boats up the beach. Eleven men per boat and singing as they heaved the boats up.

Sri Lanka takes ribbon development to new heights. The houses are alongside every road and obscure the villages. This suggest that people feel quite safe in their houses and do not need the protection of a village. There is a vast amount of trade occurring along the roads, with stalls selling local produce every 100 yards, the goods range from tamarind to cotton wool and are region specific. The houses on the south coast are a step up in size and design and the nearest town, Mataram, even has a multi-storey bank. It feels very different to the small houses we have seen out in the rural areas.

The president is from this area and his image is everywhere, in one cafe he gazed down from the wall together with pictures of his son and brother, just to emphasise the family abilities.

The press is also very regulated and criticism of the government is not permitted. I have seen very few newspapers anyway , only in the big cities and on the south coast.

day 9 Aug 13 Tissa Temples and Lagoons

We biked back to the temple along sandy roads, stopping for a breakfast snack at a tiny roadside cafe run by two women who cooked hoppers (dosa-like bowls made from baked rice flour) which are delicious with some sambal. Cooked these on an earthensove which must be difficult to use when it is raining. The two year old daughter was terrified of our white skins and clung to her mother's skirts.

I then had my second vist to the hospital for my rabies jab. It was midday and the hospital had long queues of patiently waiting people. We managed to see the receiving doctor quickly and where then directed to the outpatient nurse who approved my rabies jab, then to the injection area, again not a separate room. The nurse spoke little English but had an anti rabies vaccine (Arvada) register and said that they gave 250 courses per month. The vaccine comes from India and I came away with the package insert to study.

I had a quiet afternoon swimming and reading by the pool. The hotel has created its own rice paddy as part of its garden. And it attracted Herons, waders and ducks.

The Sri Lankan roads are reasonable for biking, in quite good condition, better than the Indian or Nepali roads. The buses are kings of the road in the smaller areas with frequent bus stops. When the bus comes past the cyclist just has to jump into the gutter. There are also lots of tuk tuks, many bright red. One had its cloth roof labelled "bullet proof" another "Mission possible". Maybe they could feature in the next James Bond film.

Day 8 aug 12 hills to coast 102 km

Another day of dramatic changes in the scenery. We started in the hills and pine trees and biked down past a huge waterfall attributed to Ravanna. Then down to the plain. Here the cicadeas started up again and paddy fields replaced the tea bushes. We then came to a much drier scrub-like area but then came to lagoons as we approached the coast. At the end of our ride we had a long detour though villages on a sandy road. But this attractive detour was at 95 km and my appreciation of village life was being set against the pleasure of getting into a swimming pool. I was biking with the Irish girl and it was the first time she had done 100 km.

The countryside was also far more Buddhist with white diagonals and saffron clad monks with their begging bowls on the road , some only about 10 yrs old.

We went to a Hindu Pooja that is held for a fortnight every year at a Buddhist temple close by. It was a magical event. We bought a plate of fruit on our way in, with eight different fruits nicely arranged. We mingled with the crowds end went to a Hindu temple where the priest received the fruit and then handed half of it back to be shared. Then we had wrist threads tied on by a Shiite priest . The dancing girls were starting, and everyone was watching the temple elephants plod around . There were thousands of people there and it had a very festive, lighthearted air. It was an amazing mix of Buddhism and Hinduism. This needs to be promoted because ther are a new group of Buddhist fundamentalists who want everyone to be Bhuddist and they were responsible for the sacking of the mosque in Colombo last week. I have also noticed how people speak very dismissively about the Muslims. The taxi drivers claim that Sri Lnak would have a 100% literacy rate were it not for the Muslims pulling them down. At least the Buddhists and Hindus mingle.

day 6 Aug 10 Kandy to Nuwara Eliya

Another beautiful ride starting at the lakeside in Kandy. The university buildings are on the edge of Kandy in spacious grounds. We climbed up through rolling countryside. After we had climbed above 100m the vegetation changed quite abruptly and tea bushes replaced paddy fields and deodar pine trees stood in lines beside the road. Nuwayar Eliya is at 1800m and feels cool and damp. At the hotel we were welcomed with hot soup and we huddled round the log fire. Mist hangs around the mountain tops.

I had my own drama that day. I had been attacked by a dog in a monastery in Kandy. I was left with deep grazes and three large bruises. So I called my friend Inita in Colombo and she advised me to go to the government hospital in Nura Eliya. I went to the casualty and was seen by an SHO . He had clearly seen many dog bites and put me on the rabies protocol. I was given my injections by the nurse and a card for my next dose of vaccine. It was all very efficient and clean. I did notice the lack of privacy. I did tell my story and show my bites to an open room . But I was impressed by the efficiency and it was free. Pictures of common snakes adorned the walls of the casualty. I suspect that dog and snake bites are as common as fractured hips in the UK. I had not expected to experience the Sri Lankan health system myself. Fortunately the damage is quite superficial and now I look as though I am modelling bruises and am biking along happily. The mosque in Nuwar Eliya was also covered in green and blues LEDs to celebrate Eid.

I have been surprised at the number of dogs in Sri Lanka. Every home seems to have one. They are not the best kept creatures and I am keeping well clear of them.

Day 5 Aug 9 Kandy

A rest day in Kandy and Buddhism dominates here. I went to the world museum of Buddhism and put the Sri Lankan monuments I had seen into a larger context. There were also excellent displays about Buddhism in other countries and I have seen the different forms in Nepal, Indian, China, Indonesia  and S Korea. They are all influenced strongly by local customs. In the evening I went to the ceremony of the opening of the Buddha's tooth. The temple was packed with devotees. I carried a flower offering to remember Laura and was barely able to put it at the front . There was also excellent Kandyan drumming. In the morning I had visited the British cemetery which has just been restored. It has about 120 graves of colonists who died in the 19 century in Kandy from fever, cholera, snake bite, elephant crushing. There were so many who died young.

I have been comparing Sri Lanka and India it is strikingly cleaner, richer and better organised than India. There are no beggars, our guides advised us that here the beggars were genuine unlike India! The children look well fed and one does not experience starving children being thrust at one. The caste system does not operate amongst the Singhalese and I wonder whether this makes them feel that their country belongs to them. I also sense that there is less inequality here. The effects of the universal health care system are visible. Sri Lankans stay in school until they are 18 years old and many people speak good English. However IT technology and services seems far less developed here, although mobile phones are ubiquitous  since Tata from India provided a sea cable. Sri Lanka does not seem to have taken the opportunities for developing the It sector. Here are also few newspapers being read. So now I am aware of the plus points of Sri Lanka. I have seen only a few references to the Tamil conflict. 

Day 4 aug 8 to Kandy

I was woken by the rustling of the leaves around the ecolodge. We then had a fine morning ride. The countryside was lusher and richer than before. The houses in the trees were larger and the bright pink paint salesman had been very successful recently. At small town there was a commemorative clock tower opened to celebrate the opening of a garment factory 20 years ago. In another town we saw an extraordinary road widening scheme, the front 10 feet of the shops had just been bulldozed away leaving bare walls. The shopkeepers were restating their shops further back. I have seen this 15 years ago in Hyderabad and it amazed me then.

In the evening we heard the Kandyian drummers beating away complex rhythms and then fire swallowing. I wandered the town with an Ozzie couple, Helen and William  farmers from WA. They had never been in a mosque so we went into the main red and white one. The Muslims were just breaking their Ramadan fast so we were plied the dates and rice pudding. The Imman spoke excellent English and was so welcoming and explaining how Allah was everywhere. We found a point of contact because the Ozzies  supplied meat to the middle east. We then went on to a Hindu temple and saw incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesh. Here the fat priest was taking coconuts from the devotees. There was also a Buddhist temple there with a Buddha statue and bodhi tree. Here the priest blessed us and tied white threads round our wrists. It was amazing to have such direct experience of all three major religions . The Muslims were the most cerebral and giving.

More Buddhism tomorrow. 

Sri lanka day 3: aug 7 to Nalanda

This holiday is not for lie-a-beds...

We are called at 6 and are on our bikes by 7. It is the best way to cope with the heat. Today we had a fine 20 k morning ride alongside a canal shaded by mature trees. The green vista is punctuated with irridescent flashes of blue as a kingfisher catches his lunch.

I passed a divisional hospital in a village. Sri Lankans have free universal health care with free drugs. The small hospitals have 2 docs and manage only simple cases. All serious cases are transferred by ambulance to the base hospitals who also treat TB! And leprosy. It seems good provision. I am sure I shall have many questions for my colleague Indira when I see her in Colombo in 10 days' time.
We had a very tough and dirty bit of biking across a new road.

We ended the day at a beautiful eco hotel (Jims farm) deep in the jungle. Fabulous wooden interior and balconies. I felt ashamed of disturbing the beauty when I hung my laundry out, including a day-glo bike shirt

We also visited a spice garden and saw pepper creepers and a cocaine tree. We also tested the ayuvedic hair removing cream on Irish Niall's hairy leg. It worked a treat so he should go even faster tomorrow.

Sri lanka day 2: Polonnaruwa

Another morning of fine riding along small roads through the lush landscape. There are banana trees everywhere.The rice is ripe and waves in the breeze. We biked through a national reserve and saw fresh elephant dung and a dead viper. I wished Chris Ofili had been there making pictures. I also remembered what a problem snake bites are for Sri Lankan farmers.

We also biked along a main road which was hot and exhausting. I did not bike after lunch. In the afternoon when the temp had dropped to 31 we went round the 13c Polonnaruwa ruins. There is a vast stupa that exudes quietude and I walked around it. There was a beautiful evening light on the Buddha's face. At another group of buddhas one is reclining ready to depart this world.

Sri Lankan food is a veggie treat, the beetroot curries are a new delight. Suresh exhorts us to do maximum damage on the buffets.

Sri Lanka Day 1: 5th August

This year's cycling holiday is around Sri Lanka, conveniently starting the day after I had spoken at a dermatology congress. There are 13 in the group, 6 Aussies, 4 Irish, 3 UK and one Canadian There are 3 farming couples and 4 teachers so I hope for expert assessment of cows. I was also pleasantly surprised to meet Niall, an Irish teacher who was on last years trip to Cuba Our Sri Lankan guide Suresh is portly but also able to bike fast. I had a fine new mountain bike which is perfect for jumping off the road away from buses.

We rode the 25 k to Sigiriya as our starter. The rock arises up out of the flat plains. Ahead of was a party of schoolgirls in pristine whit uniforms who climbed up vertiginous ladders easily and undramatically. On the top one felt like a king surveying the landscape. Later we biked to a Buddhist temple and ascended the many steps to see Buddhas reclining deep in caves. There was a soft evening light as we biked back on small roads that took us through the lush countryside. A great start to the holiday.