Follow Me: Sri Lanka

We woke up to a spread of omelettes, toast and fresh pineapple. The hostel prepared a beautiful breakfast for us and made sure we didn’t leave without trying their hand picked Sri Lankan tea leaves. Safe to say we were feeling a bit too lucky.

When my friend had remembered the airport security had taken his aerosol deodorant, we were off into the city in search for a new bottle. As we walked, we were approached by a man who called himself Michael. He seemed genuine but his intentions were strictly business.

We walked with him for about 20 minutes and he told us all about his kids, his job and how his wife would be so happy to hear of us meeting. He explained that today was Buddha’s birthday and a huge celebration was to occur. He told us he’d point us in the direction of the festival.

So we walked with him for about another 10 minutes until he called over a tuk tuk and tried to convince us to get in. We politely declined and turned around, not only because we knew nothing about this so-called festival, but we still hadn’t gotten what we came to get - deodorant.

On our way back, we came across another man, who was much younger than Michael. We judged his look as a bit more reputable and decided to ask if he knew anything about Buddha’s birthday and the big festival, since we were quite skeptical. He told us that it was true! And the party would occur only for a couple more hours and we had to get their soon.

He then walked with us a little further and asked for pictures with us. He took several pictures and it wasn’t long before he pulled over another tuk tuk to bring us to the “festival”.

Still, having not found deodorant and wasted another hour and half of the day, we decided to quit the mission and head back to the hostel. When we arrived, we asked the receptionist about Buddha and the massive festival. Confused and dismayed, she informed us that today was certainly not Buddha’s birthday…