10 things to know before going to Sri Lanka

• Riding elephants is not cool. Not cool at all. 

If you think about it a little it's pretty obvious that riding any wild animals is just wrong, nothing else. But when you hear about a place like Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, which claims to take care about elephants in need it sounds quite good, right? An organization, that helps wild animals in trouble and you can support them by visiting and paying for entrance. I wasn't very interested in seeing elephants, especially not elsewhere than in a national park, where they live freely and happily, but I googled it after the girl we stayed with told us about it. 

It's one of the biggest tourist attraction in Sri Lanka, which has an unnecessary breeding programme, the elephants are chained, beaten and I don't even wanna know what else they do to these poor creatures just for the pretty pictures tourists come to take there. 

When you travel, you should also think. Not just about the memories and pictures you wanna have, but about the consequences your actions can have. Supporting such a place is not all right, and the more people realize, the more stop going there, and wouldn't it be wonderful if the only place where you could find wild animals was actually in the wild? Of course, when you go to a national park you have no guarantee that you actually see the animals you wanna see, but if you do I'm sure it's much more worth it than to see unhappy unfree animals. You can always visit a Zoo in your home country if you're interested in that. 

You can find more information here and here, and tips for national parks here. 

• Clothing

We were asked to wear trousers or skirts that cover our knees in the little village we volunteered in because it's the way locals dress. I didn't see anyone with shorts or a short skirt in the whole month. I didn't even think to wear my usual summer clothes and I took just one pair of shorts for bathing in the river, I was quite surprised when I went to Ella and noticed that rarely anybody respected that. I thought it's a bit unrespectful to their culture, but on the other hand, I would also don't want someone to take off his veil just because it's not part of the Czech culture, complete nonsense of course, so I don't really know why I had this thought when it's kinda the same thing. 

It's a personal decision, I personally liked the idea to adapt to a different culture, but I'm not saying wearing your usual clothes is wrong. I just think it's worth mentioning and worth thinking about it before going to Sri Lanka. I'd be actually interested in your opinion because I don't really know what to think about it.

• Don't freak out because of mosquito bites 

In Sri Lanka, you can get the Dengue fever which is carried by mosquitoes. There is no vaccination so the only thing you can do is avoid the bites. Might sound easy, but these beasts simply love my blood and no matter where or with whom I am I always get loads of them. I'm also a bit paranoid and hypochondriac so I used repellents. After a couple of days, I found a couple of mosquito bites on my leg even though I used the stinky repellent. My hypochondriac part started googling immediately, what are the symptoms, how bad it is, when do you know, what to do... After two hours I was so sure I got it, I was just freaking out inside my head. 

You should never google these things because it simply drives you crazy. After I stopped I calmed down a bit and didn't think about it much the next days. I got many more mosquito bites during the next weeks and nothing happened to me. 

I don't wanna say you can't get Dengue fever in Sri Lanka, on Google it seemed like every second traveler had to deal with it, but freaking out doesn't help, there's nothing you can do about it when you get bitten and it doesn't cause death mostly. 

• You have to repeat yourself a lot

"No thank you I'm really full, I can't eat more"

"Really, I can't, I'm sorry, it's delicious"

"I'm still really full, I will literally explode if I eat more"

"No thank you, I don't need a tuk-tuk"

"I really wanna take the bus" 

"Yes I know it takes longer"

"Yes I'm still sure I wanna take the bus"

"I really don't want a tuk-tuk, thank you"

These situations became completely normal for me, so just don't be surprised if someone asks you the same thing over and over again. 

• Be patient, no stress in Sri Lanka

Sometimes you have to wait a lot, people there are very relaxed, it's not very common to see someone in a hurry. They even walk a lot slower than I'm used to haha. 

I really enjoyed that lifestyle. 

I enjoyed it a little less when I was in a restaurant and after forty minutes of starving they brought only the food of my friend who ordered the same, but as I told myself there, just don't get stressed about it, you will probably not starve and I'd appreciate a bit of that spirit in my everyday life. 

• Don't worry about bus timetables 

I really like to know how and when I get from place A to place B, in advance. In Sri Lanka I didn't see a timetable once, I looked for them the first day, didn't find anything useful and soon found out that it simply isn't necessary. I don't know if because of luck, magic or whatever- but we always got where we wanted to go without knowing when a bus departs. 

• Bus drivers stop to have breakfast, lunch, dinner

It's normal to stop during these times of the day for about 20 minutes. First I didn't understand why, also because the driver never turned off the engine, and when I found out that the driver and the man selling the tickets are just having a break for food... The thought of this in my country made me laugh many times. 

The bad thing is, that it's pretty hot on the bus and loud Sri Lankan music always playing (but you can spend the break outside the bus if you want of course) 

• "Shaking" the head means actually yes

Not the typical shaking, but the kind of head movement I do when I'm annoyed and do it with saying "okay if it is really necessary I will do it". I hope you know what I mean, at least a bit. You can imagine my confusion when I got this reaction when I asked for a bus ticket or for a pen. After a week I found out it actually means yes. 

• Trash everywhere 

Sri Lanka is such a beautiful country, but the tons of trash everywhere... It's awful, it's completely normal to throw out some trash out of the bus window or into your garden. I just hope the situation changes before the island will be full of it. 

The funny thing- in every more touristic area you can find signs like "no trash" "no plastic, be fantastic", but it's definitely more the locals, who would need more information about this problem. 

• Don't take white clothes

At least if you don't stay in hotels with washing machines. We washed our clothes by hands, there's a lot of dust on the roads and I think you can imagine how the poor white t-shirts looked after the whole month. Not even my mom managed to get out some of the stains and you know how good moms are at it. 

What do you think about the clothing?