Good morning

After taking the overnight mail train to trinco (if you plan early, it really is the best way to travel to trinco on a budget) we got to trinco right on time for the sunrise. Seeing as this was the east coast, what an epic sunrise it was.



Also a tip to those wishing to travel to trinco on a whim, book a hotel early! Especially during the season. The tuk driver that took us to our hotel was jovially describing how he was ripping foreigners off who came to trinco without a reservation and needed a ride to a hotel so they could find a room. He would do a tour of all the hotels which he knew was already full and cash in on a fat charge at the end of the day from poor backpacking tourist types.

Honestly though, trinco tuk drivers are really crafty and will rip you off if you give the slightest inclination of not knowing the area well. We got taken for a ride (pun intended) a few times by them, until we found a regular. You really start to miss the meter tuks in Colombo after a while.



Trinco is also becoming a bit of a tourist trap. I think it's mostly down to the lack of direction of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka in general. My sister made a good point that the general philosophy of the tourism industry here hasn't changed for decades; all the money from the big hotel chains gets pumped into building massive resorts on the seafront. Not only are most of these hotels eyesores from the outside (with the exception of a few), big resorts also tend to divert their waste into the lagoons or even the sea nearby completely ruining the area. These hotels usually cater to tourists by the bus load, pump them full of mass produced (Western!)buffet food send them to some attraction where the tour operator can cash in a nice big commission.

It's like the concept of the individual was lost during the really profitable days of Sri Lankan tourism. Now all thats left are these bloated, undead blocks of cement springing up everywhere.



I hear Arugambay is turning into the new Hikka, this in my opinion is not a good thing. Hikkaduwa is like a testament to how not to do things (remember those child prostitution scandals?). The current administration can make all the pretty commercials in the world, but it cant change the fact that we dont have a sustainable model.

Wow, this really turned out to be a rant. I was literally planning to post the pictures, say the beach was awesome and then do some home work. Crazy.