Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Sigirya. A town in the middle of the jungle of Sri Lanka. No car noise, no exhaust fumes, no crowds. Only nature.

This is one of the places I was most looking forward to just arriving here. Not fully planned the whole day and thinking about how, when and where to go next. On the first evening a few backpackers and I went out in the jeep and were able to observe a large elephant family from nearby. Although I have problems with zoos for animal rights reasons (and partly with safaris), I was generally satisfied with this way of observing the animals. It seemed like most of the time the animals weren't interested in us watching them. Nevertheless, you can unfortunately also find the capitalist exploitation of 'wildlife experiences' here, where elephants in chains carry dubious tourists around all day just so they can take a quick photo.

I met a small group of holidaymakers: Hinke from the Netherlands, Fraser from England and Leonie from Germany with whom I would spend the days in Sri Lanka. A super fun group that was just perfect to fool around with.

I spent a lot of time lying in the hammock in the comfortable hostel and reading my book "The Big Trip", which is about a young woman who hikes the PCT to deal with some kind of identity crisis, or desperately tried to continue filling out my crossword puzzle book.

Hinke and I went hiking and made competitions out of everything. "I bet I can throw the coconut further!" Or “I bet you can’t walk down the mountain and back up again in 5 minutes!”. She won the coconut and I won the running :D We went to cool off in one of the many lakes after asking locals if there were crocodiles in there. Still, I've never swum with such a thrill. But the cooling down was fantastic! After we saw elephant footprints in the adjacent swamp, we gave chase and got pretty lost in the swamp, so we ended up on private property. To be more precise, on an organic farm, we saw the employees with canisters on their backs spraying the plants. We didn't know if they were spraying fungicides, herbicides, pesticides or just water, but it still looked noticeable. On the way back, a local man took us with him in his ox-cart and we flew back and forth in the jerking wagon. In the evening we climbed Pidurangala Rock with the others and watched the breathtaking sunset together.

The next day we rented probably the worst bikes in Sri Lanka and rode through the accessible jungle, went swimming and continued mischief.

After the others set off on a safari, I cycled to a remote, half-dry lake. After almost running over a 1.5 meter long varan, fishermen on the lake waved to me and I chatted to them and asked if I could fish. Less than two minutes later I was standing in the muddy water with my clothes on and tried my best to set the nets and catch fish. After two hours and two fish that I accidentally let escape, I said goodbye and went further into the dry area to collect and eat the lotus seeds (they taste a little like chestnuts). After I sank thigh-deep in the mud, my flip flops broke and I made my way back to the bike barefoot past the water buffalo and pelicans.

Later I had probably the most fun dinner yet. Our dahl was served with white, untoasted bread and when we asked for more the waiter looked at us for 10 seconds as if the world no longer understood. Then he said kindly "oh yes", went in through the main entrance and sprinted out the back door across the street to the mini market and bought a pack of toast bread in Eileswinde. Then he ran back, convinced we didn't see him, went out the back door, took a loud breath and then came out friendly with the packet of toast. The same with yogurt for dessert. We laughed the whole evening and ended it, as well as Sigirya, with one or two rounds of the traditional Indian board game Caromm. It was a wonderful time.

But I also notice that with all this input, I also need a corresponding output every day. I enjoy the contact with friends and families from home all the more, conversations with others to exchange ideas and the time for myself in which I simply enjoy the landscape and think.

You meet a lot of backpackers and talk and exchange ideas with everyone. I'm slowly noticing the different mentalities of these people. Those who rush around the country for 3 weeks to see everything once and never arrive. The shy, the arrogant, the gossipy, the funny, but also the funny, kind and admirable. Just like at home. I've only slowly realized that not all backpackers are the same and that it's completely okay not to get along perfectly with everyone. Then it's better to be alone but happy for a day than with someone else but pretended. You won't get lonely either way. At most in relation to contact with very familiar people. The only thing that helps is to pick up the phone and contact these people back home and see if you can. Meet a traveler with whom you will be traveling for longer than 4 days and can build a kind of deeper trust.