How many people on their travel list will stay in Sri Lanka forever?
It has the reputation of "jewel kingdom", "pearl in the Indian Ocean", "teardrop of God", etc., and in the local language Sinhala, Sri Lanka also means bright and rich, sacred and beautiful.
△ Sri Lanka, Sigiriya Rock/Unsplah
The locals use the most poetic part of the language to praise the land under their feet, and this country has captured two heavyweight fans with its own appearance and soul.
Legend has it that Marco Polo traveled the world and said it was the most beautiful island he thought was.
△ The most beautiful island / Pexels
Mark Twain, who circled around the equator, ascended to colony after colony, solemnly documenting and denouncing the evils of imperialism. But when he came to Sri Lanka, the writer, known for his poignant satire, also had a rare lyricism:
"Dizzying breath, unknown floral fragrance, sudden downpour, sudden sunshine, and joy..."
It seems that all the words related to mystery and beauty are appropriate to describe this country.
But that's about it.
△ Where does this railway in Sri Lanka lead? /Pixabay
In today's society, whether it is beauty, or beauty, beauty, it needs marketing momentum.
Without the blessing of cultural IP, even the beautiful scenery is lonely and nameless; the hotels and beaches that have been artificially shaped into personalities and Internet celebrities can always attract tourists from all over the world.
Sri Lanka is clearly more like the former, with numerous travel sites describing it as a place where "there are many possibilities to be tapped", beautiful but haunting, lacking some of the appeal that makes to do list a reality.
Until last year, lonely planet named Sri Lanka the best country to travel in the world, a horrific bombing attack shattered the calm.
Whether active or passive, Sri Lanka may have come to reclaim its sense of existence from the eyes of the people of the world.
"It has everything except snow"
Mark Twain's "Quaquaker" for Sri Lanka has the second half:
"Deep in the jungles and in the midst of the mountains, there are ancient ruins and dilapidated temples, remnants of dynasties and conquered peoples that were once flourishing—a place that cannot be considered a perfect East without that mysterious and ancient color."
△ Buddha statue in the temple / Pixabay
△ Evening at the Temple of the Tooth Relic / Courtesy of the author
Sri Lanka does have a kind of "sparrow is small, all the organs are complete". In this land that is not yet large in Chongqing, you can find 8 World Heritage Sites -
Four ancient cities. As the capital of different dynasties in Sri Lanka's history, behind each of its broken walls, there is an endless glorious and bloody past.
Time has buried the great deeds of the kings, but here "the oldest hospital in the world", "the earliest tree planted by mankind in history", "the irrigation reservoir of the 5th century AD", and "the ruins of the garden city" all record the evidence of the civilization of the ancient city.
△ Remains of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa / Pixabay
An ancient castle. Built by the Portuguese in 1588 and later remodeled and expanded by Dutch and British colonists, the complex history has created the multicultural fusion of Galle today.
The busyness of the important port cities of the Great Navigation Era has ceased to exist, replaced by a European-style petty bourgeois life.
After continuing to visit the remaining Buddhist temple and two nature reserves, you can only count on this treasure land to hit a card.
△ Galle Fort at sunset / Figureworm creative
Like many island nations, Sri Lanka has a centrally high and low surrounding landscape.
Driving along a two-lane road, in less than a week, you can cross the biodiversity-preserved rainforest, hike through the endless plains, come to the delicate sandy beaches, the sea, and find a few exotic baobab trees.
Elephants in the sanctuary /Pixabay
The herd of elephants paces gracefully through the bushes, taking you to the Safari site in an instant; the professional butler service of the hotel waiter recreates the English manor houses of the last centuries.
The setting sun pierced through the clean air, giving a pious light to everyone who came to the Temple of the Tooth Tooth Barefoot, holding flowers and oil lamps, and when it was darker, the gust of wind startled the crows, and the whole of Kandy became hitchcock set again.
Even on the southern beach of Unawatuna, you can smell a hippie paradise.
In the 1970s, rebellious and bohemian youths in Europe and the United States took a fancy to this stretch of sandy beach far from the city, traveled thousands of miles here to set up tents, rent fishermen's cabins, and settle down ever since.
△ Hippie Paradise/Weibo
To this day, this small fishing village looks different from other places in Sri Lanka .
The biggest use of the beach is to provide comfortable beds for sunbathers, girls in bohemian dresses and boys with dirty braids walking quickly past you, allowing the concentration of alcohol and music in the night air to rise rapidly.
△ Unawatuna's Night/Figureworm Creative
The Ambuluwawa Tower, towering high in central Sri Lanka, may better reflect the composition of the country's temperament.
The wonderful idea of combining Buddhist stupas, Hindu Shiva temples, Muslim mosques, and Christian churches has made this tower built in the 13th century a crazy postmodern temperament, which is highly sought after by ins netizens.
△ Ambuluwawa tower/Instagram
Indeed, as Mark Twain said, "There is everything here except snow."
When I came to Sri Lanka, I found that the raiders were all deceitful
On the streets of Sri Lanka, in addition to the friendly locals unique to the "Smile Country", you can often see these two faces:
A calm face, as if a Westerner who has lived here for a long time; a cautious face, nervously switching mobile phone maps or raiders Chinese.
First of all, its similar customs and customs with India have dissuaded a large number of domestic tourists. Talk to the locals in curry-flavored English for two days, watch them say yes, smile and shake their heads, and there will be a lot of question marks for big and small children.
△ Sri Lankan kid / Pixababy
The most taboo thing about Sri Lanka travel is to follow the strategy and complete each project as a KPI - because in the end, you may find that you have not done a good job.
Chartered cars around the island, lazy local drivers, late is a common thing.
I heard that the more you go inland, the more you can see the rare primeval forest landscape. But in fact, you will be in the driver's big brother Fujiwara Takumi-style drift mountain climbing skills, dizzy with Venus.
△ Tuk tuk/Pixababy on mountain paths
You're so hungry that you look at the menu with seriously super-savvy words, order randomly, but accidentally order a charcoal bomb of fried cake + fried rice.
At the legendary end of the world in the Horton Plains, the rocks are full of tired Chinese and foreign aunts who have been exhausted after hiking for 6 kilometers, but it is just another noisy corner of the earth.
△ Horton Plains "End of the World" "Seller Show"/Figureworm Creative
△ Horton Plains "The End of the World" "Buyer Show" / Author provided
The "swindling" of the Tissa National Park safari is a beautiful and athletic leopard that may not be able to see it all by luck, and most tourists can only watch the buffalo and chickens from afar.
(The chicken here is Sri Lanka's national bird, the black-tailed proto-chicken, and it does have unparalleled beauty among chickens, but you still doubt life — the thought of crossing most of Asia, getting up at 3 a.m., and rushing all night just to see a chicken?) ）
△ Black-tailed proto-chicken /Wikipedia
There is also the train in Sri Lanka, the most famous train, which was filmed in Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
If you catch the tourist season, it is no different from the peak subway in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou. There are always domineering passengers who seize the golden position at the door of the train, and you can't even get on the train.
△ slammed sweat for him /Unsplash
But then, the late driver feels guilty and may take you to a private recommended spot that is unlikely to appear on the raiders. When you are motion sick, you see the roadside stall stop, two dollars and a large golden coconut can instantly cure dizziness.
The night you finished buying the fried cake and rice bowl, when you looked up, you saw the most "bright" starry sky you had ever seen. When the sea of clouds at the end of the world dissipates and the cliffs appear, you will suddenly have a resonance with the namer.
△ Or meet interesting locals /Unsplash
The blows in the raiders are all fake, but Sri Lanka will compensate you in its own unique way.
Western backpackers who choose to put down the raiders and pack a bag may be more likely to integrate into the local area. Science fiction writer Arthur Clarke decided to spend the rest of his life in Sri Lanka because he suddenly fell in love with the sea.
△ Who wouldn't love the sea / Pixabay
As for the locals, they live in a unique beauty, but also have a heavy history and destiny that they must carry forward.
Sri Lankan sophistication, you deserve it
Calm and beautiful is not the whole picture of Sri Lanka, life is never endless, but the reality in the water and fire also makes Sri Lankans know how to take care of their exquisite life.
People from different races and beliefs lived here, and the historical means of divide and rule by the British colonists magnified the contradictions between local ethnic groups.
It is said that in the 1960s, Lee Kuan Yew visited Colombo and exclaimed that Singapore would build a city like this.
△ Streets of Colombo / Pixababy
But then Sri Lanka's civil war broke out in the 1980s, and it was only in 2009 that srilapidated, until last year's bombing, which was also a recurrence of historical problems.
It can be said that most Sri Lankans today live with this part of their memories.
The civil war cost the sri Lankan people dearly, but 10 years later, according to 2018 statistics, they still created the second largest per capita GDP in South Asia (more than $4,100), three times that of Cambodia, 2 times that of India, 1.5 times that of the Philippines, and 1.8 times that of Vietnam.
△ Sri Lankan gem processor/figure worm creativity
Many visitors to Sri Lanka and adjacent India find that the former is much cleaner and more decent than the latter.
Sri Lanka's GDP comes from services including tourism, so people here know the importance of protecting the environment, plants and animals.
△ Sri Lankan cozy monkey / Pixababy
The ancient kingdom built on this land in the 3rd century BC proposed the concept of animal sanctuaries. Thousands of years later, monkeys are also part of the daily life of the Sri Lankan people.
The most famous tea plantation here will be like the Hollywood sign of Los Angeles, with its snow-white brand name in the tea bush.
The introduction of tea, which was originally only a substitute for the failure of coffee cultivation, was able to be cultivated into one of the world's three major black teas in the hands of British plantation owners and local professionals.
△ Sri Lanka Tea Field /Pixababy
In terms of world popularity, Sri Lanka's tea brands are more excellent than China, which is also a tea country, and some of its domestic brand chain tea bars, in addition to tea drinks, take-away, also provide Western-style light meal dine-in, no worse than tea.
Geoffrey Bawa, known as the "Light of Sri Lanka", was born as a lawyer and switched to architecture at the age of 30.
Bawa is adept at combining the unique tropical environment of the local area with the aesthetics of modern architecture, combining traditional modern lifestyles and bringing scenery into the building.
△ Bawa designed Kandalama Heritage Hotel / Tu worm creative
In addition to leaving Sri Lanka with unique design and good reputation hotels, attracting architectural fans from all over the world to punch in, Bawa also influenced the style of local houses.
It is said that the house + pool is the "bawa standard", if you choose to stay in a family hotel, you can see the hosts diligently cleaning the pool every morning, maintaining the beautiful space they borrowed from nature.
△ Lin Qingxia also stayed in a hotel designed by Bawa/Weibo
Worldwide, Sri Lanka is not a rich country, but its inhabitants enjoy free health care and education.
Children begin 13 years of primary and secondary education from the age of 6, and students admitted to public universities are also able to attend free of charge. As a result, Sri Lanka has achieved a non-illiteracy rate of 92 per cent. With the popularization of education and culture, one day, the flames of war will be extinguished, and the exquisite life of man and nature will continue.
△ Local girl reading / Pixababy
Resources
[1] Justice is just a beautiful lie in the world, Liang Wendao, 2019
[2] Jeffrey Bawa, Spotlight, 2019
[3] The much-hyped Sri Lankan Train: Is the difference between a "buyer show" and a "seller show"? , Sri Lanka Chick, 2018
[4] Rich second generation, lifelong unmarried, gay, resigned all over Europe and the United States... This mixed-race Ceylonese, he is known as the "Light of Sri Lanka", Sri Lanka Chick, 2017
[5] Hippie tales: Sri Lankan beaches were once dried with naked flesh, like dried fish? , Sri Lanka Chick, 2016
【Welcome to today's topic to leave a message to discuss】
What is your impression of Sri Lanka?
Doug
After looking at the menu of the influencer restaurant, I wanted to tear it up
The whole world is grabbing cans, except for Chinese
Every Chinese foodie who sees roasted wheat will reveal the filling
Edit | Second uncle
Typography | Gloria
The cover image is from unsplash
For business cooperation, please add: Tortoise_Li
Please indicate the nine-line + cooperation matters
For other collaborations please hook up with veteran artist Chujanfung