For Sri Lankan Independence Day we travelled in the armpits and elbows of our countrymen to the rural south, where we slept in the fields. I wouldn’t call it a vacation, but it was definitely an experience.

Here are a few photos from the Galle Literary Festival 2012. Click any of them to see bigger (and better). Overall I enjoyed myself and learned a few things. Some of the panels were pretentious and dull, but that’s part of the festival experience. Asking around, everyone didn’t perceive stuff the way I did, but they all perceived something, and thought about it. I think that’s the point. Galle is also looking damn beautiful. Check it out.

I’ve seen Bible Rock many times from the Kandy Road. This time we actually climbed it. Great view. The climb seems daunting, but you can take a Rs. 600 trishaw from the Mawanella town pretty far up. Eventually it gets too steep, however, and you have to walk. It’s path, then rock, then stairs, then you’re on the plateau. When you get to the end the view is pretty boss.

Went down south, and boy things have changed. Firstly, Mirissa is the new Unawatuna, Unawatuna is the new Hikkaduwa, and Hikkaduwa is, like, Mount Lavinia. There is also a thick and nasty coat of smog from Kalutara to Panadura. My poor old car overheated after the Expressway and broke down in Weligama. Met a lovely mechanic who gave me a bill for like Rs. 200, which I respectfully overpaid. Limped back up the old Galle Road, stopping every 50k to rest the car and look around.

Colombo slowly but surely spreads south. First people flocked to Hikkaduwa, making it uncool. Now Unawatuna is effectively a suburb. Next it will be Mirissa, and the meh will spread on to Hambantota before it turns around and starts affecting Kalpitiya, then round Yala to Arugam Bay.

No businesses were demolished in Unawatuna. The beach, however, has been wrecked, at least temporarily. I drove down to Unawatuna on the Southern Expressway and you can see that things are both better and worse than you’d imagine.

This is a short video of a one hour ride on the Southern Expressway, from Kottawa to Pinnaduwa, hence Colombo to Galle. It’s sped up to fit into 1:50 and set to a song by Alan Wilkis and the Kick Drums. The camera kept overheating and the video breaks, plus the editing leaves much to be desired, but I hope this gives you a rough sense of the road.

If you’ve ever flown, you’ve seen the form. Embarkation. Disembarkation. Where you’re from, where you’re going. All information they already have. In Colombo it’s something of a ritual because a lot of housemaids and foreign workers have trouble filling it out. I for one never have a pen. So everybody has to somehow co-operate, for a few minutes. That ritual is about to end.

There were almost a billion tourists in 2010 (940 million). Where did they go? This infographic shows what it would look like if every tourist took the same plane, seated by destination.

I was looking thru some photos on the Sri Lanka Tourism Facebook page and it’s like, ye gods, I live here? Sri Lanka is a beautiful island and a great tourist destination. It’s affordable, friendly, and – for the first time – safe. I remember a friend of mine went down South without a phone and a bus along that line blew up. I worried till he got back to CMB. Not anymore. Now people can just go, all around the island.