The author and their family are traveling around Southeast Asia for eight months. After five weeks in the region, they have arrived in Sri Lanka. They found the roads in Sri Lanka to be chaotic at first, with many vehicles and no traffic rules followed. However, they realized the roads have an efficient system where vehicles accommodate each other. This has allowed the author to feel safer on Sri Lankan roads than in the UK. During their visit to a snake farm, the author was terrified to be near a cobra that still had its venom, in contrast to how such an experience would be commercialized and less authentic in the UK. The trip has helped the author relax UK safety fears and embrace new experiences outside their comfort zone.

1. Around The World in Eight
Months – Series II
Welcome to the Jungle

2. We are now in the fifth week of our travels
around South East Asia and preparing to
travel to Thailand.
We are now in the fifth week of our travels
around South East Asia and preparing to
travel to Thailand.

3. Arriving in Sri Lanka, the children and I had no idea what to
expect. Taking in the sights when we left the airport was incredible. We saw
coconut trees, banana trees and rubber trees. The roads were terrifying at
first sight. There were families riding on bikes with no helmets, children riding
pillion, ‘tuk tuks’ (three wheeler rickshaw), cars and buses, all of which were
complemented by ‘street’ cows (as my five year old called them) and ‘street’
dogs.

4. On first impression, the roads appear to
be incredibly disorganised and life risking
ventures. However, after a week in Sri
Lanka we see that the roads do, in fact,
involve an incredible system of inter
vehicle acknowledgement. Sri Lankans
don’t tend to stop at roundabouts or at
junctions (actually ‘tend’ is the wrong
word – they don’t, full stop) but since the
other road users know this, then they
give way and the traffic effortlessly
merges. The concept of being ‘cut up’
doesn’t exist in Sri Lanka. It is merely a
system of accommodating fellow road
users. Within a couple of weeks I feel
safer on Sri Lankan roads than I do in the
UK.

5. It is at this point, and very early into our travels, that we shrug off
our first deeply entrenched UK perception of road fear. In the UK,
we would never go anywhere without the kids being in the right car
seats – buckled, with buckles checked (and usually re-checked),
anything sharp, (with the potential to remove an eye or limb)
removed in the event that we crash etc.
In fact, within a week of being there, Neil and I sit in a tuk-tuk whilst
our children hang off the back of a moped in front. The tuk tuk
drivers find it amusing to allow our youngest to drive the tuk tuk
(thankfully not on the main roads and just on the tracks) but the
police however are very effective in Sri Lanka and it’s not long
before our tuk tuk driver is pulled over.

6. It really is a change of state. To go from being parents who are
obsessed about car and road safety to relaxing in this way feels
almost liberating. It’s becoming apparent to me how we live our
lives with a sense of ‘fear’ in the UK, most of which I’m sure is
good but it certainly doesn’t allow for a relaxing life.
Neil with his sons

7. A good example is a visit to a snake farm as soon as we
arrive, at what transpires to be no more than a hut, a man
appears a couple of feet away from us carrying a cobra
and puts in on the floor in front of us. As it rears its
hooded head in front of us hissing and spitting, our tuk tuk
driver runs away screaming, I recoil into my chair
practically hyperventilating and the children ready
themselves to run over to it. For anyone who has not
been close to a cobra, (without protective glass), the
experience is exhilarating and terrifying.

8. The snake handler takes delight in telling us that the
snake still has its venom. An expert in snake handling
(slight breathe of relief at hearing this on my part), he
is called to homes / areas in which a cobras arrive
unannounced and obviously without an invite. To
protect the snakes, he removes them and either
returns them to the jungle, or as in this case, he keeps
the snake to exhibit for up to six months before
releasing them back into the wild. If their ability to spit
venom is interfered with then the snake is unable to
function in the wild and hence it’s essential that the
snake returns fully intact. This sends the tuk tuk driver
further down the drive way.
This guy is an expert. He handles the snakes superbly
and I admire his expertise greatly. I later discover he’s
an academic doctor in this field and is part of a long
line of family snake experts. Although he’s clearly had
a few run ins in the past which are apparent in his
hands. It’s only when we leave to go and shake his
hands that I notice that his thumb is completely
deformed and twisted and that two of his fingers are
missing. All part of the job! He seems almost proud of
these wounds.

9. I’m not dismissing the UK’s commitment to health and safety but it’s entrenched in anything
and everything that we do. This same experience would never have been available in the UK.
The snakes would have been in aquariums with thick sheets of protective glass and it’s
unlikely that the children would have experienced such an ‘up and close’ master class with an
expert of this calibre. Equally the experience would have been commercialised; a café selling
the types of food that very few people are happy for their children to eat and a gift shop
selling endless plastic gimmicks. This experience was simple, incredibly educational and
without the commercial trappings of so many of our UK attractions.

10. To sum up our experiences in Sri
Lanka to date, the Sri Lankan people are
probably the most lovely and friendly
people that I’ve met anywhere, the
beaches are out of this world and
incredibly clean, the food is fresh and
healthy but just be prepared to be taken
out of your comfort zone with a few
aspects such as the roads.

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