Hey Reader,

Hope all is well in your world.

We were scrolling through our Sri Lanka photos and came across this one…

It may not be obvious, but we are smiling through gritted teeth after accidentally engaging in the kind of tourism we actively try to avoid.

The owner of our homestay in Sigiriya was insistent on taking us around the area, which was mostly great.

We’ll assume it came from a good place… but one too many times with this guy we found ourselves in a classic Sri Lanka tourist trap.

This one involved a ride on the cart in the photo. We were told it was a "village tour" (it was not) and a boat ride.

Our host was our ride and kept negotiating the price down, so we eventually just gave in to avoid an uncomfortable situation, even though we didn’t want a ride from an animal.

At that point, it felt harder to say no than to just go along with it.

The boat ride around the lake after the cart ride was actually lovely, and at the end of the day having a cow pull us around is not the worst thing in the world… but we still ended up participating in something neither of us wanted to do.

—

We have some perspective now, but that situation is a good reminder of something we’ve had to learn the hard way more than once:

Being “nice” while traveling can sometimes cost you.

It’s okay to say no. Even if it feels awkward. Even if someone insists. One awkward moment usually saves you from a much more uncomfortable situation later.

If you’ve ever had a moment like this while traveling, hit reply and tell us. We can’t be the only ones!!

And if you want to know where to avoid staying in Sigiriya, just let us know. We won't publically bash our guesthouse owner as he didn't explicitly do anything wrong and the accommodation was a great value.

But if you have a hard time saying no sometimes, we wouldn't recommend staying with him 🤭.

​
Jess & Julia