Sri Lanka Travel Expense Report- Day One

Sri Lanka expense report for the first day was not very promising. As much as I tried to keep my expenses down, they just spiraled out of control. You would think that $13 isn’t that much so what I’m bitching about. But the thing is, I hardly did anything outdoors all day.

I spend most of the day in the house updating my website and catching up on my writing. I only went out in early evening and that too on foot. I walked a good 2-3km starting from the Perera Mawatha onto the Parliament Road until the Statue of War – the Indian War Heroes, where I visited a sort of a model village at a hefty charge, ate at a no-good restaurant called Silver Spoon again at exorbitant rates, and then got fleeced at John Keells supermarket.

All the Pakistanis who complain about Pakistan being expensive should come and spend a few weeks in Sri Lanka to get to know what expensive really means.

I bought just two bottles of soft drinks, a small chips pack and a couple of biscuit half-rolls, and the grand total came out to be a whopping Rs.360. If that wasn’t enough, the curvaceous vixen at the counter asked me whether I wanted a shopper bag. I said sure. Of course I couldn’t carry all the items in my hands. She then dished out a red cloth shopper and stamped another Rs.50 to the total, bringing it to the grand total of Rs.410.

Unbelievable! I then hung around after paying my dues to see what happens with the next customer. Interestingly enough, she gave him a plastic shopper for free.

So it seems the Sri Lankans have a special love for the tourists, and it doesn’t matter whether you are a Caucasian Gora or a South Asian just like them. They will shower that love to all and sundry. Great.

Again $13 may not mean that much to a European or an American, but to a Pakistani, that’s a substantial amount.

S.N ITEM EXPENSE
    Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee
1 Model Village entrance charges $5 640
2 Fried fish at silver spoon restaurant $5 640
3 Snacks at John Keells supermarket $3 410
  Grand Total $13 Rs. 1690

And now the cumulative expenses:

S.N ITEM EXPENSE
    Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee
1 Day 0 $93 11,904
2 Day 1 $13 1690
       
  Grand Total $106 Rs. 13,594

In terms of Pakistani rupees, the total comes out to be Rs.11,827.

Let’s see how Day two fares and whether my Sri Lanka travel expense go up or down.

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