Sri Lanka.

Whenever I whip out my Sri Lanka book, the same question would come from everyone who sees it, " Eh? You going Sri Lanka ah ? ".

Not really, but if there are people willing to go with me, why not ? Maybe as a volunteer man. Heh.

Just before I return this book to NLB, I thought I'd just share some 'Practical Tips' in this book.

Tipping

As a general rule, tipping is not expected unless you feel a service has been special, although chauffeur guides(but not trishaw drivers) expect one. Hotel and restaurants add a 10% service charge as well as govt tax to the bill........

Touts

Touts frequent all main towns but are most prevalent around temples, train and bus sttions, tourist sites and outside hotels. Their friendly over-helpfulness is designed to make you feel obliged to part with your money. They may come up with a convincing act, such as "the student" who is supporting a sick mother and three siblings (sounds like the malaysian woman I saw claiming to have thyroid and a poor background). Many trishaw drivers meeting tourist tains at Kandy station are the worst touts, as they go to inordinate lengths to herd you into a hotel or guest house where they can claim a fee (I kena in Beijing before!). The only way to deal with touts is with a very firm "No!"................................

Begging

Begging is a way of life in Asia (?!), and while some cases are genuine there are others who seek to take advantage.
Tourists are easily categorised as having a surfeit of cash, so you can expect to attract a fair share of beggars. Do remember, however, that genuine beggars love to receive food of any sort since they can eat it on the spot - without having to share it with the racketeer who usually takes most of his earnings (bastards). Begging rackets exist mainly in Colombo, so you might consider carrying a bag of oranges to hand to beggars instead of cash, if you object to giving money.

Toilets

Toilets in up-market hotels and restaurants in tourist spots are of Western style. In less visited areas, expect to squat eastern style, with water provided in place of toilet paper (so carry some with you if you prefer to use it).
Public toilets should only be used in dire emergencies.


I'm gonna miss Singapore when I get there.

With reference to touting, my mum and I were lucky to have met 2 Chinese nationals who are utterly street-smart. First we got cheated to take this economical ride to Great Wall and we shared it with them.

Instead, we were brought to shitty places that aren't really made to be tourist-friendly. Add to that, we were brought to a 'good restaurant' for lunch and we paid for crap. Then we were brought to another place that we thought was an ancient building. Upon entry, it was a moderately furnished gem store. They looked kinda crap to me anyway.
So we all got back into the cab and we talked about this whole scamming. One guy was familiar with the cabbie's scam tactics and so when the latter excitedly came back and asked, " Hey! How was your meal ? Were the stones good ? How much did you buy ? ".

The guy quoted double the amount spent and off the cabbie went. To have a toilet break so he says. Haha.

Basically the cabbie was in cahoots with these store operators, driving ignorant customers to god-knows mountainous areas and when they get hungry, a money-sucking oasis' just around the corner.

So say, for example we spent $380RMB, if the restaurant's honest enough, he gets x% of the $380. But the sly one said $600, naturally he needed a toilet break just to get things ironed out. =)