Explosive atmosphere in Lanka

A week ago, eight suicide bombings blew up hotels and churches, between 150 and 300km away from me. 250 died. Two days ago, 15 more people died, also due to suicide bombings. 60km away from me. It´s getting closer. Yet, we´re still sitting on our restaurant’s balcony, getting drunk and smoking too much. We´re safe here, meanwhile it´s looking from the outside as if the whole country was collapsing around us (thank you, media -.-).

I´m not trying to make it all look “less worry-worthy”, because bombings and dying people DEFINITIVELY is something horrible! But it happens everywhere and everyday, just have a look over to Afghanistan or Syria, where people were and are still, dying on a daily basis. No one really cares. Yes, it´s bad, but it became so normal, that it, at some point, wasn´t “new” enough to bring it up on the news every day. Plus, there weren´t many tourists dying in these wars, while 35 foreigners died during the attacks in Lanka. And foreigner’s lives are of course way more worthy than that of the native ones. People are leaving the country, TUI is going crazy over getting people out of Sri Lanka, flights get canceled and some tourists, not even close to the bombings, are really freaking out. I got calls and messages from friends, begging me to get back home. Away from the bombings. Away from the danger. But I´m not going to leave. There´s plenty of possibilities to die in everyday life, not only by suicide bombers and the IS. I could die on an airplane accident or while walking home from a party in Stuttgart. And, other than here, there´s no Special Task Force, the Army or the Military saving me from these dangers. I attended a security meeting, for all the hotel and bar owners, a few days ago. To be honest, we didn´t learn much new than what we already knew, but at least we were told how they want to manage the security of Arugam Bay, e.g. curfew going on from 10pm to 4am. I was complaining about it, because it´s really killing the restaurant business… But since I found out, that the curfew is valid for the whole day in some cities, I´m happy that it´s here only during the night! Furthermore, the social media is down in the whole country, to stop the spread of fake news etc. Smart people might get a VPN, other´s might be fucked. The thing that is raising the most awareness to the fact, that something is really wrong, is the police, Military, STF and what else patrolling through the streets. They´re checking passports as well as bags of “suspicious people” (basically Muslims, no one cares about the white girls lol), patrolling trough the streets and even some restaurants. Almost every shop was closed during the first few days after the bombings, so there was no possibility of getting food, drinks or other supplies. I`ve heard that it´s still like this in Batticaloa and some parts of Colombo, which makes sense on the one hand (no crowds coming together = harder to plan new attack) but is some extra stress on the other: what if you run out of food or water? Or you might not even be allowed to leave the house for a few days, due to the curfew? Innocent people are suffering from what has happened, and that makes the bombings even worse.

I can understand why some people are scared to be here at the moment – at the same time, it´s definitively not as horrible as stated by the media. At least not in the cities, where no bombs blew up. If there weren´t the curfew and the military running around, we in Arugam Bay probably wouldn´t even know that anything is going wrong… Of course, Batticaloa and Colombo are to be avoided for obvious reasons. I think there are still not really buses on the east coast which are going directly trough Batticaloa, and even if there are, they´re controlled several times, which makes traveling kinda hard right now, and you should definitively plan in a few extra hours. But rather safe than sorry!

A friend of mine drove from Batticaloa to Arugam Bay, and the way took him 2 hours longer than usually – due to controls and check-points every few meters. Empty streets in the biggest city on the east coast was another thing he experienced. He was the only one in the streets (oviously due to the partly 24/7 curfew), and that gave him some weird looks by the controlling officers. But that was close to the attacked places - so definitively not the normal situation here.

Have to say it again, life´s “normal” in Arugam Bay. And I´m assuming that it´s the same in most other places in Lanka. My friend, who drove down the west coast, said that he´s never seen that much security in his life, and neither have I. It´s actually the first time ever, that the sight of police is really giving me the feeling of safety, rather than being an unpleasant thing.

Still: I won´t say that it´s safe here. There´s no such place anywhere in the world. But there´s no current need to freak out. The main problem is the (german) media, overdramatizing everything. It´s great that TUI want´s to fly out those, who are scared. It´s also great that one can cancel their flight to Lanka, because of not wanting to spend their holidays in a not 100% safe surrounding. But please also accept my decision (and the decision of maaany good friends I´ve met here), to stay here without freaking out. I´m pretty sure that no one will talk about the happenings within one week time, provided that nothing else happens.

I´m feeling with all the families who lost any members, close relatives, friends. It´s a horrible thing to kill people, and it´s even worse to do so in churches, holy places, made for peace not war. Moreover, I´ve spoken to so many people here, who survived the civil war that ended in 2009 – they´re all having flashbacks to what happened back then, are rather crying because of that than because of the current events. It´s a shame what kind of anxiety the people now have to go through, after so many years of peace! If I was religious, I´d pray for all of them. This way, I can only try to give some mental support and stability. Rest in peace!

I hope that this post could give you a better insight than the"normal" media, of what has happened here. Maybe even calm you down a bit. Or just inform you, how I, as one of many backpackers, have experienced everything. :)