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FIRST DAY IN SRI LANKA AFTER BANKRUPTCY 🇱🇰 - YouTube
Channel: Passenger Paramvir
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I welcome you all once again to my channel, Passenger Paramvir.
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Currently, I'm in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka.
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This is my second day in Colombo as you might already know if you...
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Watched my previous video in which I travel from the airport to my hotel.
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Right now, Sri Lanka is going through a very severe crisis...
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Which you might already know through the various news outlets.
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A very big political and economic crisis is underway here in Sri Lanka.
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And it began exactly 11 days ago, today is 25th of July, 2022...
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And 11 days ago, on 14th July, 2022...
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The president of this country ran away...
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To Singapore via the Maldives...
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And he submitted his resignation through an email.
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The people of Sri Lanka have revolted against their government...
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As that one family has mired Sri Lanka in nepotism and corruption...
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By the Rajapaksa family.
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The president of this country was Gotabaya Rajapaksa...
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And Mahinda Rajapaksa was the prime minister...
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And both of them literally are brothers.
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So, both of them were running this country together and...
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Different ministries were like irrigation, agriculture, finance and others...
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Were handed to their family members, in fact...
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Boys at the mere age of 22, were made ministers.
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Covid has a very severe impact on Sri Lankan economy as...
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It is heavily dependent on tourism...
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And tourism came to a halt here due to Covid pandemic.
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And as a consequence, foreign currency stopped coming in the country.
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And they also brought some new rules for taxation, which...
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There was also a time when 75% of ministries was with only one family...
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The Rajapaksa family.
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So, they brought some changes in taxation, which...
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Impacted the economy negatively.
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And foreign currency became non existent in the country.
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Winds are blowing quite fast here as I've arrived at the sea shore.
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Sri Lanka is a very beautiful country.
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Look at this...
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The sea is just right beside the road and it's very clean ...
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It would definitely be a lot of fun to drive on this road.
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The effect of depleted foreign currency reserves have been so severe...
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That Sri Lanka doesn't even have money to import fuel.
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That's why, there's days long line in front of fuel stations.
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Many people have lost their lives just to get some fuel.
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People don't have any gas left to cook food for themselves.
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Basic necessities like rice, or any other staple food they might consume..
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Is out of reach for them.
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This country is in very bad condition and...
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You might've seen it in my previous video that...
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People slept in their cars in that queue at the fuel station...
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In the hope that there turn will come in few days and...
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They will be able to get some fuel for their vehicles.
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In black market, petrol is selling at more than 5 times the normal price.
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It means that petrol is selling at $6.3 per liter here.
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There's no electricity at houses and there's also a shortage...
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Of fuel and food.
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The main protest site is 3 km away from this place.
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You might already know all this from the news outlets.
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My objective is to show you the ground reality here.
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What's the situation here?
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How are markets functioning amidst all this?
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How are people coping up with all this?
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Are people happy or not?
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To do all that, first I need to do a few things...
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I'll need to take a auto to that site and for that...
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I need Sri Lankan Rupees.
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I do have some money in my wallet, but...
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I do need to withdraw some more from an ATM.
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So, we need to find an ATM first...
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From which we can withdraw the local currency of Sri Lanka.
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I've found this bank here and...
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Here's the ATM.
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Let's go inside then.
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There's a lot of humidity here and...
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That's why I was sweating so much outside and...
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They don't get dry easily.
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Luckily, there's AC in this ATM, so I finally got some relief.
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15,000 LKR($42).
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The surcharge will be 600 LKR, roughly equal to $1.7.
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We've no choice but to pay it.
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They're giving 4.2 LKR for every ₹1...
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Despite ₹1 trading at 4.5 LKR right now.
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That's the official rate...
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And on top of that, they've put up a markup of 7%.
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It's going to be very expensive to withdraw from here...
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But we'll withdraw anyway.
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The transaction has been declined.
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I was not able to withdraw money from this ATM.
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Don't know what's the issue there.
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I also faced this problem at the airport yesterday.
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The money got deducted from my account twice, but...
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I was still not able to withdraw any.
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$1 is equal to 360 LKR.
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And the rate before March was...
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$1 equal to 220 LKR, this was the standard rate for the longest time.
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But due to this severe economic and political crisis...
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$1 started trading at 360 LKR after march.
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This is why there's so much inflation here.
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I've got some Sri Lankan Rupee on me, so I should take a auto...
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From here and we'll look for another ATM there.
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I'll withdraw some more crash from there.
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Right now, I've to go to a train station and...
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I've to book a train ticket to Ella.
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The journey from the train to Ella is quite beautiful.
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So now, I'll take a auto from here and withdraw money from ATM later.
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These are the local public buses of Sri Lanka.
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This one might be a private bus.
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This is the situation, that...
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Hotels are empty here as no one is visiting here any more.
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There was no rush in the flight as well.
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Airport was also quite empty.
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So, everything is quite deserted.
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It's mostly locals here and I've not seen any tourist so far.
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Despite tourism being dominant sector in Sri Lanka's economy.
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Sri Lanka doesn't look much different than India, it's quite similar actually
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A good thing is that many people here do know some Hindi.
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And most people also know some English.
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English is spoken here much more than in India.
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I also found this place very clean and well maintained...
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And it also feels quite safe for a tourist here.
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There're some auto's here, let me ask them.
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He will not go there, I have to ask to another one.
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There's no one sitting in this one.
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There's no one here.
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It's seems so empty cause it's very hot here during the day.
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I've been looking out from my hotel.
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People must've been returning to their homes after work in the evening.
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That's why it was so crowded.
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I finally got one auto.
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5,000 LKR($14).
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then pay 1,000($2.8).
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700 LKR is equal to $2.
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He is charging me more money, but...
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As the situation here is really bad, I won't mind paying some extra money
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The train station is approximately 3.5 km away from here.
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And for that he's charging me 1,000 LKR($2.8).
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We're very near to the protest site.
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This is the place where main protests are taking place.
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Maybe this is where President's and Vice president's residence is.
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And these camps that are you seeing...
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People are actually living in them.
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Mainly protestors.
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Just like how it was in India during the farmer's protest movement.
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They also made arrangements to live at the protest site.
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They're also doing the same thing as...
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The protestors living in these camps are
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Those who're protesting against the government.
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As you can see, there's a lot of barricading over there.
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There's a lot of military presence over there.
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This path was closed at night but they opened it in the morning.
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There's some heavily armed military man standing over there.
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So, this is the railway station.
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It's in Colombo, but this area's name is Fort.
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As Sri Lanka was also ruled by the Britishers...
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So, many roads and buildings do feel like it was built by the Britishers.
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Just like we got Connaught Place in India.
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There are also many places here like that.
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So far, It felt like I'm still in India.
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But, wherever I visited so far has been very neat and tidy.
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The cars I've seen are also pretty much the same, there's...
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Alto, Fortuner, Honda City.
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I've come to this railway station but I don't have any cash on me, so...
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I've to search for an ATM nearby, to withdraw some money.
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I've been told that there is an ATM nearby here.
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There's a counter here where you can buy tickets.
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But first, I've to withdraw some money.
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Finally found it, Its name is People's Bank ATM.
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But there's a long line in front of it.
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There's another one but, there is a line before it as well.
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So, there is a Railway tourist information service here and...
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I asked them where can I get a ticket.
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Then they told me that I'll get the ticket for Ella on counter no. 17.
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But they don't accept card here so, I've to withdraw some money after all.
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Look there, there's a BATA store there.
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What is he selling here, lottery or something else?
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He was selling lottery tickets for 20 LKR($0.56).
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By looking at this part of the city, it looks like that situation is normal...
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However, in reality they're struggling a lot.
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But they are still somehow able to carry on their normal life.
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I think I'm the only one who's crossing this road through this bridge.
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This might be a post office.
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It's quite beautiful.
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And it's also got an ATM on its premise.
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It's inside, I can barely see it.
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Let's see...
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This one is not working, but he said that there is another one ahead.
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We'll go to that one.
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The Pakistani team is in Sri Lanka to play a match.
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You might remember that once the Sri Lankan team...
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Went to Pakistan to play a match.
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And terrorists attacked the bus of the Sri Lankan team.
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After that, all the countries refused to play cricket in Pakistan.
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It might've resumed again, but...
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For now, it's the Pakistani team that is coming to Sri Lanka.
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I don't know what it says as it's written in Sinhalese.
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It might be saying that the match is on the 16th of July.
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I think these are the South Indian dishes that he's selling.
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I think this is a dish made of fish.
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And this might be Vada, I don't know for sure.
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This is samosa and this is undur, I don't for sure what is it.
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I don't know what is this one as well, but he's calling it isso.
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And this I think might be something like chapati.
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Oh, just behind him is the ATM.
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I've finally found an ATM after much difficulty.
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I hope it's working alright.
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15,000 LKR($42).
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I hope it works.
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What's happening?
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I've got a notification that confirms my withdrawal of the money.
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But it didn't and the money still got deducted from my account.
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I don't know, what's the problem?
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If this keeps on then I'll not be able to withdraw any money.
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Due to inflation, they've posted new prices here.
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This place might be a supermarket.
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And the rates they've posted here are 328 LKR($0.9) for a kg of sugar.
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Red lentils is priced at 630 LKR($1.75) a kg !!
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How are people here affording such outrageous prices?
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So, I met these two people and asked them about...
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Where can I find ATM here?
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They then told me to follow them.
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I hope they take me to a working ATM.
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There's a commercial bank there.
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There's an ATM of a commercial bank there.
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I've already tried this one earlier.
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There was a line in front of the earlier places.
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I hope this one works.
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Due to high humidity...
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I start sweating every few minutes...
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It also gets very slimy.
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I was in the AC just a few minutes back and...
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Within a few minutes of exiting from there, I got sweaty all over again.
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Finally...
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We finally have some Sri Lankan currency with us.
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This is a 5,000 LKR($14) note...
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And this one is a 500 LKR($1.4) note.
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I've withdrawn around 15,000 LKR, which is roughly equal to $42.
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Now, there's no need for it.
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I'm at least 700m-800m away from the train station...
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Or maybe even 1km.
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It'll get dark soon if I go there on foot.
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So, I think I should get an auto instead.
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But, I can't see any auto around here.
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There's one over there.
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200 LKR($0.56).
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This man is honest as he offered me the correct price of...
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200 LKR, which means $0.56.
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Now, I've to go to counter no. 17.
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It's very crowded here.
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I also can't see any numbers like 17 written here.
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So, this counter is 5 and this one is 6.
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Counter no. 17 might be inside.
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It's a good thing that I asked for counter no., otherwise...
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I'd have waited in vain in that line.
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There's only counters no.'s 7,8 and 9 here.
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We've finally found counter no. 17.
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There're some tourists here.
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The one who was sitting at the counter was very helpful.
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As usually, they're in very irritated mood...
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Cause they've to deal with the public every day.
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First, we need to fill out this form and when I went there after filling it...
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I got in the line and my turn came after 5 minutes and...
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Then he said that all the trains to Ella are already booked.
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I said if there's any vacancy on yesterday or a day after that.
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He said that it's all booked till 31st August.
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And I've to go there before that, so I said to him....
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That it'll be of no use to me to book after 31st August.
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And then he said that booking is only limited to 3 train boxes, like...
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1st class, 2nd class and 3rd class.
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And for other boxes, you can travel by booking a ticket on the spot.
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Just like we do in our passenger trains.
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And then I asked him for the timings and...
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He gave them in writing to me here...
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Daily 4 trains travel to Ella and these are...
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First one is at 5:55am in the morning, second one is at 8:30am and the...
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Third one is at 9:45am and the last one is at 8:30pm in the night.
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So, he said that I can travel by directly buying any one of the tickets...
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And I found it very reasonable and...
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These trains operate daily to Ella.
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So, I'll come and board one on 27th July and...
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There's a plus point as I'll get more of the local experience on it as...
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The first class is for rich people and they're the same across the world.
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So, the more local element there is to it the more enjoyable it is to me.
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There was this man there who was helping me a lot back there.
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He brought me the form and told me how to fill it...
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And he even gave me his pen.
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He was very helpful.
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But when I got outside he told me that he has a train tomorrow to Kandi.
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And that I should give him some money.
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Then I realize that he was doing all that to get some money from me.
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Now, only half an hour is left before it starts to get dark here.
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And there's a vegetable market near to here and I was thinking...
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That I should visit there and look around there.
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I just start moving again and my monophone's holder got broken.
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And that's why I was not able to record till now.
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But I saw a shop across the road, Let's see if I can get another one.
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So, there was some confusion amongst us as...
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I was only asking him for the upper part of it as only that part got broke.
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And he said that I'll have to buy a whole new one for 700 LKR($2).
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But, its quality is much worse than my own so, I don't want to buy it.
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So I said to him to just sell me this upper part for 300 LKR($0.84).
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He refused this offer of mine and...
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Then at last he agreed at the price of 400 LKR($1.1).
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This is very light and I don't think buying it is the right choice.
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Even if it's provided for free.
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I need another one so I'll return it back.
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So, I only took this one.
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Why is this man lying here?
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You're eating a pan...
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You get high from this, right?
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Yes, this is to get high.
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Okay.
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I'm from India, Delhi to be specific.
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These people have been waiting since 2am in the night.
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