We were really excited to go on Sri Lanka’s version of a wildlife safari in Uda Welawe Park, home to over 400 elephants on 75,000 acres of park. The wildlife was great, but looking back, the most memorable experience was our “tracker” who rode along with us over 2.5 hours in the back of a land rover.

When he got in the truck, it became quickly apparent that he was a skinny, partially toothless, jovial guy who spoke only broken English. This was the first sign that he may not be the tracker that we imagined. I had pictured someone who made a profession of understanding wildlife and could interpret everything before us. This was not the case- not by a long shot.

One of our first indications was when we saw some monkeys in a tree. I asked the tracker about the species – “what kind of monkey?” After conferring with the driver, he turned to us and said “black monkey” with a semi-confident nod. It was a Gray Hangar Monkey and our tracker didn’t know.

Soon after, we heard birds in a tree. He turned to us and said “bird noises”. All I could say was “yeah, thanks” before Sachi me and the tracker burst out laughing. I’m not sure he knew why.

The most commonly sighted bird of the day was the peacock- they were everywhere. For the first few he pointed to them and said “peacock”. At least he knew a peacock from a spotted dove. What he didn’t know was when to stop. After about the 30^th peacock and the 30^th identification by our tracker, we just began to laugh each time. So did he- though I’m not sure if he knew why. To this day, “peacock” is our word for something we see over and over.

As it turns out, the trackers are not hired based on expertise, but political favors. Our tracker was someone who might have otherwise been unemployed. The park was helping with the unemployment problem in Sri Lanka and our tracker was a likely beneficiary.

In the end, we didn't learn a lot, but saw many great animals and laughed a lot between the three of us. He is a good man that has a good time and laughs a lot, even if he's not much of a tracker and for that, he got a nice tip from us.

Guides are big business in Sri Lanka. The government’s tourist board licenses them and they are useful and interesting part of seeing historical sites such as Anuradhapra and Polonoruwa. With the help of Nimal, we hired quality guides ahead of time and didn't regret it. They are essentially interpreters; describing the historical significance of the sites along with some amusing anecdotes.

 Here are our guides for the ancient cities, all of which we enjoyed:

This is R.P. Chandrasa (cell: 0722-925997) specializes in bicylce tours of Anuradhapura.

Our guide for Polonnurawa:

And our guide for the amazing Sigiriya. This guy spoke 5 languages.

There seem to be two types of guides: hired ones (above) and leeching ones. With the hired ones, the relationship is clear – for a few dollars, they will be your guide. The leeching ones can be useful, but you should be leery of their agenda.

As we saw many times in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kandy, Sri Lanka, the guides will sidle up to you, start a friendly conversation and then start to lead a walk describing every plant. These guides may or may not be certified and their business is to provide a guide service in exchange for a tip to be given at the end of the walk. The problem is that this relationship is not clear in the beginning. It’s very easy to assume the guide is a friendly park employee, paid to provide the service. It’s not so and a simple “no guide please” will send the message and they will leave.

Other “guides” however have a different agenda. As we approached the entrance to the Tooth Shrine in Kandy, a young and honest looking guy came and said that we should see the “free” temples before entering the Tooth Temple. He was obviously a leech guide, but we figured we’d see what he had to say. He led us around a bit and said that for one particularly interesting-looking temple, we would need to make a small contribution. We entered the temple and on the way out another man approached us about what appeared to be a visitors book. In the book were the names and addresses of travelers from all over the world followed by amount of contribution. Each person had apparently given from $10-20US (a lot for a “contribution”). I signed my name and told the man that I would not contribute that much. I contributed about $2 and left, much to his chagrin. Upon leaving that area, we tipped the young guide and entered the Tooth Temple.

Looking back, it was clear what had happened. The young man was not just a leech guide – he was in cahoots with the contribution guy, ensuring a flow of naïve tourists were entering the second-tier and “free” attraction, where their cash could be efficiently extracted. That book I signed either contained a list of suckers (me included) or it was designed to relate the desired amount of contribution for those unsure.

Either way, it worked on us and we learned a lesson. I don’t think the guide was completely dishonest, but the scheme was designed to prey on people like us, who struggle with not knowing how much to tip or contribute in all the situations where it is appropriate. It’s a daily battle and we just want to do what is appropriate, which is often very hard to know.