What we spent: Sri Lanka

I’m writing from Bangkok! We arrived a few days ago. In the end, leaving Sri Lanka was similar to the whole trip: mildly distressing surprises that ultimately worked out just fine (for us). The night before our flight, it rained hard in Weligama and our little street flooded dramatically in mere minutes. Shopkeepers hurried to move their wares indoors and a few lonely bicycles made their slow way down the street through inches of standing water. Brian and I watched the scene nervously from our balcony and wondered what mischief the storm might mean for our planned travel. But by morning, the water had drained away and our taxi arrived as planned. The drive to Colombo took four hours but the roads were clear and we didn’t run out of gas a single time. Once at the airport, the power only blinked out once, and just for a short while. It could have been worse!

Tabulating our Sri Lanka spending (below) was also surprising. Even though Sri Lanka felt very inexpensive while we were there, we still hit our usual $200ish per day. I’ve come to see that the variable part of our spending (for example, variance in restaurant prices) accounts for only a small portion of our total outlay. Most of our costs are fixed and local prices don’t matter as much as I thought they would.

Nonetheless, I think daily food spending of $39 is family record. Fun costs in Sri Lanka were also quite low even though the guys surfed more days than not; surf boards can be rented in Weligama for about a dollar an hour and the water is so warm that wet suits are not so much unnecessary as unimaginable. Sadly we saved even more money by missing out on side trips to destinations in the center of the country due to fuel shortages and general economic dysfunction while we were there.

The only thing in Sri Lanka that was expensive was functional sunscreen. After buying and using “Made in Sri Lanka” sunscreen, resulting in sunburns so bad the kids’ faces bled, we spent $30 (!) on imported Russian zinc oxide paste which could have doubled as Parisian mime makeup but did the trick.

As before, I’ve kept airfare separate. Our flights from Cape Town to Colombo were $887 after we used up some travel points; flights from Colombo to Bangkok were $1193.

Now we’re in Thailand. So far, we love it here. We’re eating almost exclusively street food and it’s SO GOOD and SO CHEAP. This morning, the boys ate what can only be described as the breakfast of champions (pork with greens on rice, topped with a gloriously runny fried egg, clear soup on the side) from a street stall near our hotel. Total tab for two: $3.

What we spent: Sri Lanka

Radical hospitality

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