Recently the beautiful island nation of Sri Lanka has been making international headlines
unfortunately not for the most positive reasons the country is struggling with its worst economic
crisis in 70 years Sri Lanka defaults on 51 billion dollars external debt there is no
fuel there are no medicines critical surgeries are being canceled
the country is dealing with rampant inflation
one estimate from Johns Hopkins University shows real inflation at over 130 percent
the pressure on the government was overwhelming with tens of thousands protesting outside
the presidential headquarters
on July 10 thousands of protesters stormed president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's official residence
But how does this affect tourism?
is it safe to travel?
are there still shortages of medicine fuel and food?
is it difficult to get around?
are things improving or getting worse?
should I just go to Bali instead?
well let's get into
that welcome to Sri Lanka
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foreign [Music]
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Ohhh Sri Lanka
what the heck is going on?
if you haven't seen any of my previous videos my name is Steve Yalo
I've traveled quite a bit around Sri Lanka a few years ago and I am so happy to be back
unfortunately, this country has been dealing with troubles
economic political troubles
and in this video I want to take this opportunity to share what it is really like here
right now for a traveler
and to be honest there have been some difficulties and some downsides which I'll get into that
in a little bit
and I also want to share the real reason why I came back to Sri Lanka
which is very exciting so stick around
but I don't want this to just be about me and my experiences
so first let's hear from some other people that I've met throughout this journey
I would definitely say that whatever International media portrays is not 100 percent correct
I'm not saying that there is no issue at the moment but without tourism coming into the
country we won't be able to get this country back up on its feet
everything is open everything is nice
locals are really really happy if somebody comes
locals definitely go out of their way to make you feel safe
I haven't been put in any position where I feel like there's imminent danger or there's
"I need to get out of this situation"
you wouldn't realize you know there's any sort of political situation going on out on
the beaches in the neighborhoods the communities it's all been amazing so
it's been really good it's been great yeah I love Sri Lanka
I'm really surprised at the people I love the people everyone's so friendly everyone
invites you for coffee nice food
it's beautiful
so far it's been amazing I'm super glad I decided to come here I was a little bit reluctant
because people were telling me that it could be frightening for a girl or that be careful
because the conditions I hard on the country but I think it's much better you cannot feel
anything of what happened
coming here has been one of the greatest experiences I've ever had
I've traveled to Southeast Asia
I've been to Europe I've been to South America but this country and what it offers from the
culture to the people is a place that I think everyone should experience
people food amazing scenery gorgeous country
I had like tons of friends who were like uh you shouldn't be going there it's not like
safe but everything here is working so fine
Do you feel safe here in Sri Lanka?
yeah I really do
and would you recommend coming here to other people?
yes definitely it's so nice here
just give it a try it's so worth it just come here and enjoy Sri Lanka
because still we have not lost our hospitality we still haven't lost this beautiful smile
that you see in everyone's faces we still have that all that energy that we can welcome
them with open arms and we just want you to come because that supports our economy without
a doubt
so without your help I don't think we can get there so we definitely encourage
all tourists to make Sri Lanka their holiday destination next time
or soon
even now
okay so I know that was a lot of positivity but now I do want to address some of the negatives
or some of the valid concerns that a lot of people are having before deciding whether
or not to come to Sri Lanka
and the the big one I think
are the shortages
fuel food medicine
and just basically everything
and the reality is
there was an extreme shortage but that
was a few months ago and things have been improving
I drove a tuk-tuk around the entire country
well most of the country
and with that comes the need for fuel and I had no issues at all
at some fuel stations there were lines or cues
some of them were longer than others
there have been fuel stations that have just not been opened but you just
drive a few more kilometers and you'll find another one so I've never been in a situation
where I ran out of fuel or even really waited too long to get it so it's been no problem
with that
so the second concern most people have before coming here are power cuts because
they need fuel to run the power grid here and with the shortage of fuel comes a shortage
of power
but things have been getting much better
there have been power cuts about one
hour every day depending on where you are in different locations they actually organize
it so people are aware ahead of time so you can plan accordingly luckily I've been very
grateful to be staying in places that have generators depending on where you stay they
might have access to a generator if not they usually know ahead of time when the power
cut is going to happen and it's only about an hour to an hour and a half it's not a big
deal
now the real big issue here is honestly not for foreigners
the big issue is for locals
because as a traveler
as a foreigner
you're barely affected
sure you may get a power cut once a day for an hour
it's not a big deal at all
the real issue is hitting the locals
really hard because of this economic crisis the value of the Sri Lankan rupee was cut
nearly in half so imagine that imagine all of your money in your bank account is now
pretty much overnight one day worth half of the value and then on top of that most of
the goods most of everything the price increased and in some cases doubled so just imagine
imagine that all of your money being worth half of what it previously was and now everything
is double expensive
it's crazy
as a foreigner you don't feel that because the value of the
currency drops significantly so now the US dollar is actually way more
it's
you don't
it's honestly it's just sad I feel really bad for locals and I'm astonished with how
resilient these people are they've been dealing with one after the other of just constant
hardships
yet as I travel around this country people who see me are smiling
I know they're probably struggling with their own personal
issues and finances but they're still friendly
I was here a few years ago and it feels no different at all and ultimately I think the
best thing we can do as foreigners to support these people is being here
come here
stay here
spend your money here
support the locals
and honestly it's paradise and there's not
many people here accommodation is available everywhere and some of the most popular tourist
destinations right now are empty so this is the best time to be here I just love Sri Lanka
this place is amazing
my biggest suggestion if you are interested in coming to Sri Lanka
would be to come now don't wait
oh yeah and the real reason I came back to Sri Lanka is
for a very special travel challenge called the tuk-tuk tournament
if you haven't heard about this I actually participated in 2019
which is the last time they've been able to
do this just because of everything that's been going on for the past few years but this
is a very special event hosted by an amazing company called tuktukrental.com
where any time of the year you can rent a tuk-tuk as
a traveler and drive anywhere around this country
which is just super fun and convenient to have your own transportation to go wherever
you want at any time
but also one of the most unique ways to get around
anyway they organize an event called the tuk-tuk tournament which
is a two-week challenge around the entire
country competing with teams from all around the world
to complete as many challenges and
visit as many locations as possible
there's a whole point system
it's organized so well
and we just finished and I'm gonna be making some videos about this so if you want to see
those
please consider subscribing to this channel
and if you made it this far I'd really appreciate if you like this video
and feel free to share it
I would love to share this message
I think there's a lot of misinformation being shared about Sri Lanka and the truth
is this country is amazing
so easy to travel people are so friendly and you should definitely
come here if you're interested
all right that's it for me
I'll see you in the next video
peace
Good weather
good sunset
you come to Sri Lanka but waiting for you Sri Lankan guys come to tourist people okay
I love you I love you I love you Sri Lanka thank you very much bro [Applause]