“I believe in god, I have a wife and two children , if I treat you bad today , god will treat me bad forever”
Both taxi drivers in Sri Lanka said this before starting the journey , our first Buddhist, the second Hindu. I still haven’t made up my mind as to whether they truly believed this or if it was just driver driver.
God(s) it would seem, are very important to the people of Sri Lanka, I’ve always considered myself an agnostic atheist and upon entering a temple yesterday, it has made me even more atheist. Temples are strange places for outsiders, OOT sculptures and decoration, people touch the statues as if they are ‘god’ herself. Cat and I followed suit as we were completely ignorant to the protocol, though I did my best not to point or have feet towards Buddha.
Just like going through the poor areas, any ventures to religious places seem voyeuristic and somewhat disrespectful. Though, the locals welcome us westerners with open arms.
It may be that we visit less religious places going forward, just like anywhere in life, you learn most from the people you meet, rather than the places. For instance our tuk tuk driver who works 530am – 10pm, 365 days a year, he is a nice guy and far friendlier than the taxi drivers, he didn’t use the aforementioned quote but maybe he didn’t need to as he didn’t drive like a loon!
All in all Sri Lanka is an awesome beautiful place. Can’t wait to see what the next two weeks brings!
