Sri Lanka Travel Tip: When traveling, don’t ask how much time it will take to reach your destination.
For superstitious reasons, you should not ask a driver how LONG it will take to reach a destination. They believe that between now and the destination anything can happen, so they will not give a time. Rather, you must ask: “How FAR are we from the destination?” They will usually give you the distance in kilometers and then you can calculate the time. For those who didn’t pay attention in high school physics, you take the distance and divide it by your speed to get time. The average speed here is about 50km/h so it’s safe to always use that as the speed. So, if the driver says you’re 200km away, 200/50=4. 200km will take 4 hours. This is tough for someone like me who has traveled from Montreal to Ottawa (~200km) in 45mins on our nice Canadian highways!
In related news: I have started driving here. It’s not hard to get used to the left hand (or is it right? Whatever.) driving. My aunt’s car is small and an automatic, so it’s like driving a go-kart (she hates when I say that)! The driver kept telling me to slow down. Here, 80km/h is going fast; there, 180-200km/h is fast. I’m normally a very alert driver because I’m used to driving at high speeds back home. A different type of alertness is required here in the sense that people suddenly decide to cross the street, motorbikes and 3-wheelers will be whizzing around you and there will be people passing you on the left and right (AT THE SAME TIME!). Crazy driving, but it’s fun.