The past ten days were an interesting first-time experience for us managing a peak tourist season. We met people from United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Belgium and China. Some became closer to us than others. Some had interesting stories to tell us. Some were more curious than others to learn about Sri Lankan culture and our way of life.
It fascinates me how we choose to open up to complete strangers sometimes, with a level of trust that we don't even show to non-strangers and how sometimes interesting friendships develop. For example, although I am a very suspicious introvert, I find myself more open to talking to strangers while I travel. It's not the case when I am in familiar surroundings with not-so-strangers. It's also interesting how different people get more or less out of the same situation by the level of openness and curiosity they choose to display.
The highlight of our ten days and a good example of guests making the most of a situation is perhaps the story that follows.
We had a documentary photographer and his wife who were on a "pilgrimage" across several Asian countries capturing various Buddhist traditions and festivals. I think it was a fortunate coincidence that they decided to stay with us. Communication was a bit of a challenge since we didn't speak Chinese and their English wasn't too fluent. However, by the end of ten days, they considered us as an adopted family and we considered them the same.
They relaxed in the mornings doing a bit of cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping for food, playing the guitar (extremely well) and getting in touch with their families on Skype. By evening time, they left to the city with their camera equipment to cover the festival. For a couple of days, we observed them with interest and they did the same with us. We tried to anticipate their needs and made them as comfortable as we could. The turning point of our relationship was a piece of tofu. Yes, a piece of cold, white, raw tofu. One afternoon, my mother offered them a small piece of home-made tofu. To our surprise, their faces lit up and the wife hugged my mother and exclaimed “Thank you, Mom!”. I suppose they never expected to receive tofu from a Sri Lankan family or they probably missed tofu dearly since they had been traveling for 4 months. Shortly afterwards, they invited us to a grand home-made Chinese vegetarian dinner. It was the best Chinese vegetarian meal I had eaten in a long time. The tofu was cooked in an authentic Szechuan style (called Mapo Tofu).
The hosts were invited for a dinner by the guests
One night they called us at 1:00 am for an emergency. My brother and I went to investigate and found that they have not been able to go to the toilet for nearly an hour because there was a big (harmless) spider on the shower curtain. My brother relocated the spider to the woods and everyone was happy. My mother was able to answer them on questions related to Buddhist traditions, she let them borrow books from her library, took them to a temple nearby and taught the wife how to wear a sari. My father showed them around our garden and helped them to carry their photography equipment to the river for a photo shoot. My brother took them around in his tuk tuk and gave them new local fruits to sample. We had more meals together. Talked about travels, cultures and family backgrounds - even if they weren't in perfect English.
The photo shoot at "Ritigala" - said to be the last Kandyan King's bathing spot
After what seemed like more than ten days, we parted. There were some tears and promises to improve on English speaking skills, keep in touch and to meet again. We also gave them a parting gift that included a book and a rubber spider.
Not every guest encounter turns out like this, but this one was certainly interesting.
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