Embark on an extraordinary adventure as we navigate the vibrant landscapes of Sri Lanka behind the wheel of a rickshaw. Join me on this epic journey covering 1,000 kilometers, where every twist and turn reveals the diverse beauty of this enchanting island. From misty hills to golden shores, witness the rich tapestry of Sri Lanka's culture, history, and breathtaking scenery. Buckle up for an immersive experience as we drive through bustling markets, serene villages, and iconic landmarks, capturing the essence of a thousand kilometers in a rickshaw. Get ready for a ride of a lifetime – it's a road trip you won't want to miss!
Hope this video makes you wanna get your own Tuktuk and explore this awesome country!
We did this challenge as part of the Adventurists Rickshaw Run (which i wouldn't recommend doing), read my honest review here: https://www.radical-living.net/blog/2023/12/4/an-honest-review-of-the-rickshaw-run-by-the-adventurists
#srilanka #RickshawAdventure #radicalliving
Hope this video makes you wanna get your own Tuktuk and explore this awesome country!
We did this challenge as part of the Adventurists Rickshaw Run (which i wouldn't recommend doing), read my honest review here: https://www.radical-living.net/blog/2023/12/4/an-honest-review-of-the-rickshaw-run-by-the-adventurists
#srilanka #RickshawAdventure #radicalliving
Category
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TravelTranscript
00:00In the next seven days I'm going to cross the country of Sri Lanka in this
00:04awesome vehicle over there the legendary rickshaw and to make it more fun the
00:09only navigation tools we are going to use is a paper map and a compass and of
00:14course I brought two friends with me who were stupid enough to join this stupid
00:19idea I don't think they know what they signed up for yeah good job guys hey
00:25wait for me
00:39the roads of Sri Lanka are known to be chaotic full of wildlife and home to
00:45some of the craziest bus drivers on the planet
00:49tuk-tuks aren't made for long-distance travel I have no idea how to repair this
00:54thing it won't turn on again so we're gonna need it here on the side of the road
00:58I have never driven a tuk-tuk and we are about to embark on a 1,000 kilometer
01:03journey with it here we go
01:10are we gonna make it in one piece will our tuk-tuk survive there's only one way to find
01:16out the plan is simple we are going to start here in Negombo that's where we are and our
01:24goal is Tangale this city down here day one we are going to drive from Negombo we all the way
01:32here
01:33let's hope we make it first we need to go east east is this way let's go
01:52we are going back because the compass said we're driving north so we asked the local and yeah we're going
02:00the wrong way
02:09I almost forgot I didn't show you the tuk-tuk yet
02:18most important part is our flag this is the flag of us the three lines of Swabia because we all
02:26were born in the southern part of Germany
02:28Swabia if you have never driven a tuk-tuk it is a bit different to a motorbike most
02:34people think it's very similar but you are changing gears here the handlebar
02:40here then you can change in first gear and go but you have to give more throttle
02:46there's a little space where we can put our stuff there's the battery there's a
02:52spare tire this is the space where we can put our luggage there's like a million
03:00mosquitoes here right now oh damn it did you see that it's like 50 mosquitoes
03:07you can't fit much in here but it'll have to do but this is enough space for like two people
03:14and a little backpack
03:18this is the motor if it breaks we have to find help from outside because none of us know anything
03:25about motors
03:28look I already broke it oh no
03:31and brake is over here
03:42at the beginning driving this thing was pretty scary especially since people in sri lanka are driving on the left
03:48side
03:50but you'll get used to it pretty quickly after a few hours we came up on the street completely
03:56lined with buddha statues of course we had to investigate
04:04we found our first buddhist temple here this beautiful white stupa here i had to switch shirts
04:10because i can't go in a religious place like this without sleeves that's not respectful
04:29beautiful sleeping buddha right here let's check if he's in nirvana yet
04:35yes he is in nirvana because you can see if the the toes are parallel that means he's not in
04:42nirvana
04:42yet and if there aren't he is here in the middle is buddha but then when we look on the
04:48side there's a lot
04:49of hindu gods there's ganesha shiva it's totally okay here in sri lanka that they mix those religions
04:57because buddhism isn't actually a religion it's a philosophy so it goes very good hand in hand
05:20driving without google maps was an inconvenience for sure if you're not sure which turn to take you
05:25always have to stop and find someone to ask it costs a lot of time but at the same time
05:31you become more
05:31aware of your surroundings you become really conscious of every little turn you take
05:37and you get to interact with locals a lot more it kind of felt exciting
05:49we've got our first lunch here it's a bun with sambal inside caramelized onion with spices
05:57it's pretty good and here we have our fried rice for one person
06:04since we're not using google maps we have to take any restaurant in our way
06:12when the owner saw me filming they wanted to show me something they just brought me to the bank of
06:16the restaurant where they make the buns locally that's awesome i'm not sure if i should eat this
06:22meat with my european stomach but it looks delicious great food guys if you are in the area you're here
06:30sri lanka is home to more than 7 000 wild elephants and hundreds more in captivity many people are
06:36trying to sell you elephant experiences like riding them feeding them or taking a bath with them
06:42unfortunately the elephants are treated pretty bad in most of those places but there is one place where
06:48you can visit the elephants with a good conscience the elephant orphanage we were a bit too late to
06:54enter taking all the wrong turns but still lucky enough to get a glimpse at them they just came from
06:59their bath and now they are going back to the orphanage
07:06look at that beautiful
07:12oh he's wet this is the elephant museum and they make paper out of elephant poo here
07:19that's kind of crazy isn't it this is the elephant pool they take it's dried then they heat the elephant
07:25pool here they put water on it and then the fire next one day will kill the bacteria one day
07:31yes kill
07:32bacteria these are the plants it usually eats and later it looks like that the plant fibers are not
07:39completely digested so they take them blend it grade it and dry it once it dries it looks like that
07:48wow
07:48this is this is proper paper yes it's thick this is an elephant poo yeah i didn't even know this
07:55is a
07:55thing that you can make papyrus out of elephant poo this is all made out of elephant poo
08:05got a little souvenir made out of elephant poo it's getting dark in like an hour so we should start
08:11looking for a hotel now because we don't want to drive around when it's dark it's too dangerous
08:22i can't believe how expensive mangoes here are these are 1200 which is about like four euro for two
08:29mangoes that's german prices oh no it's starting to rain it just started raining like hell we're going to
08:37go to the next hotel we find because it's no fun driving in this look at that
08:44i forgot to mention that it is still the end of the rainy season and it can start pouring here
08:49any
08:50second and just when we thought the condition couldn't get any worse this happened our tuk tuk
08:55failed us in this last distance today it won't turn on again so we're gonna leave it here on the
09:01side of
09:02the road there's a heavy thunderstorm coming our way and it's lightning there over there so yeah let's be
09:09great just when we were about to leave some locals appeared wanting to see what the problem is this
09:14you can do yeah yeah right or you did that yes we tried yeah and since so many people here
09:20have their
09:21own tuk tuks they know a thing or two about them those guys helped us fix up the tuk tuk
09:32yeah we can
09:33continue driving now those guys were super nice they helped us without even asking and they didn't
09:40even want to want money from us they did this for free after a few more kilometers we found a
09:47cute little
09:47local homestay for an incredible price of just 35 dollars a night including breakfast wow they even
09:55have a swimming pool here a little one we ended the day with a well-deserved beer and got to
10:00spend some
10:00quality time with the host family they even were so nice to prepare us a home-cooked meal so we
10:13didn't
10:13have to go out in the rain again what is this called man it's don't eat this this is mine
10:21papa
10:21look at this guys this is the dinner they prepared for us
10:28when you come here make sure to stay in a homestay then you get proper sri lankan food from a
10:34family
10:40the local family here prepared us some delicious sri lankan breakfast this is egg this is a kind of
10:47pancake and these are rice noodles with honey inside
10:53pretty good yesterday we drove 130 kilometers the right way we've turned the wrong way a few times
11:01but we don't count that the owner of the homestay offered us to bring us to a local temple here
11:07the
11:07bible rock temple which is kind of a secret temple that looks similar to a very famous one in the
11:13north
11:13i'm excited to check it out i hope our tuk tuk will not give up again otherwise we have to
11:18find a
11:19mechanic to help us after we have a look at the temple we're going to the major city of candy
11:25and try to make some money there okay first breakfast
11:38those little steps are just cut into the stone i've never seen it like that it's crazy
11:53nobody's here we're basically alone devanagala is called this specific hill over here bible rock
12:01is actually over here i got all mixed up super beautiful temple over here let's have a look inside
12:15in this temple here it is believed that the original tooth of buddha was hidden in here but
12:22they moved it a long long time ago to candy and it is believed that the person who has the
12:28tooth
12:29has the claim to the throne to become king our host said that there is another awesome place in the
12:35area
12:35that we have to check out before we continue to candy and after he showed us this how could we
12:41say
12:41no to that so we were on our way to ambuluava town our next destination is up this hill we
12:55heard it's
12:56pretty steep roads we don't know if our tuk tuk is gonna make it because the host he said only
13:02the best
13:02tuk tuk toks will make it up here i think it is too much moment when you get high to
13:09you
13:09it's not smelling good guys the clutch is jumping out all the time
13:13too thick and high to Market
13:15I don't want to cool it down any minute.
13:22Careful speed.
13:29We decided to let the tuk-tuk cool down a bit, otherwise we're never gonna make it on top.
13:36It's super hot. It's a good idea to let it cool down. It's already smoking a bit.
13:58It's giving up at this hill. It won't take us there. It just stopped working.
14:05So I'm gonna try alone. Let's see.
14:28I can't believe we made it actually to the tower. It's better than we thought. We should give it a
14:33name.
14:33We don't have a name for our tuk-tuk.
14:36Alright, the official name of our tuk-tuk is Shitty Shitty Bang Bang.
14:44Ambuluwawa Tower is one of the most unique religious sites in all of Sri Lanka.
14:48It's got a steep and narrow staircase going to the top that gets narrower and narrower the higher you get.
14:58It's a little hiding room. Give me a second.
15:00I think I need to leave my backpack here.
15:04Because I can't even walk up with the backpack.
15:08But if you dare to go, you'll get an awesome 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains.
15:15For sure nothing for people who are afraid of heights.
15:20No.
15:31Until now, everything we saw in Sri Lanka has been amazing.
15:35But little did we know about the horrors that would still await us tonight in Kandy.
15:41You won't believe where we are sleeping tonight.
15:44A friend of us recommended this hotel here.
15:46Which is the spookiest hotel in the world from what I can see from here.
15:51It's going to be fun, they said.
15:53There's going to be a lot of people, they said.
15:56But as it turns out, we were the only guests staying that night.
16:00So we did what every reasonable human being would do.
16:04We ventured into the dark and explored.
16:18They told us to have dinner in this room.
16:21But there's no light anywhere.
16:24Where's the table?
16:26Guys.
16:32Where is it?
16:33Where is it?
16:34Where is it?
16:38The name of this hotel is Helga's Folly.
16:42Helga's mother was actually from Berlin.
16:45This is Helga's father shaking hands with Willy Brandt.
16:48And this is Helga's mother over there.
16:51And that's the infamous Helga.
16:54Helga Folly.
16:55The mansion here was built in the 1930s and was the private mansion of this people.
17:01Only in the 1990s it was opened as a hotel.
17:05It's crazy how many details this hotel has.
17:18We just found out that Helga, Helga Folly is actually still living in this building.
17:24We're about to call her.
17:25He's calling her now.
17:26She lives upstairs.
17:27And she's 79 years old.
17:30She's from Germany.
17:32She's from Germany.
17:32She's from Germany.
17:34Okay, thanks.
17:36Hello Helga.
17:37How are you doing tonight?
17:39I must say I've never been in such an amazing hotel.
17:42Every Berliner would love it here.
17:43Thank you for keeping it up and running.
17:45Yeah, we are the only people here tonight.
17:47So I've heard, yeah.
17:50This felt like the beginning of a horror movie.
17:53Did we really want to stay here?
17:55We had yet to see our rooms.
17:58Wow.
18:00Look at this room.
18:08Wow.
18:09This is so creepy guys.
18:11Look at that.
18:13Who's gonna sleep here tonight?
18:15It's not me.
18:18Aside from spooky, it turned out that Kandy was a busy, loud and chaotic city.
18:23And the weather gods were not on our side today.
18:27So we decided to move on to a more scenic area in the mountains.
18:31One Sri Lanka is most famous for.
18:33On the road with a motorbike.
18:36Hanging around between the mountains.
18:39Coast to coast you know how to drive.
18:42Dragonflies around the sunset.
18:44Can you believe we're together?
18:46We're celebrating September.
18:49What do you mean it's forever?
18:52Forever is the time to be with you.
18:55We're now at an elevation of 1800 meters.
18:59And it's crazy how the vegetation changed, the climate changed.
19:03It's much colder.
19:04I'm wearing long pants.
19:06And all the plants are so different.
19:09And there's tea everywhere.
19:11In the last century Sri Lanka has been the biggest tea producer in the world.
19:14Some of the best tea is grown in this very fields.
19:17This is every British person's dream here.
19:20You can stay at the old tea factory.
19:23Play some cricket.
19:25And drink tea here in the mountain.
19:27English breakfast tea?
19:29And feel like colonialism is still a thing.
19:32That's every British person's wet dream, isn't it?
19:34This is such a different life up here.
19:37It's green.
19:38It's cool.
19:39And there's no traffic and noise.
19:41Even the sounds here are different.
19:43Listen guys.
19:53Over there is the Harritans Tea Factory.
19:55Which is a tea factory that was founded in the 1930s.
19:59They have been a major producer back in the day of black tea.
20:04But now they just produce their own tea for the hotel.
20:07And they do it in this little factory over here.
20:12An average German like me loves tea.
20:15But we are stupid enough to not know that there is only one plant called the tea plant.
20:21I was today years old when I found out that green tea is from the same plant as black tea.
20:28And that the different sizes of the leaves make the tea taste different.
20:32Like what?
20:34This will be my first English breakfast tea in my life.
20:38And I'm drinking it in tea country.
20:45Smooth taste, for sure.
20:47But to be honest, I couldn't differ it from a normal arrow grating.
20:52He's the gardener here.
20:54And he made this teddy bear here.
20:57Because why not?
20:58It's kind of cute.
21:00Koala bear.
21:01Nice.
21:03It's a fat koala bear.
21:04Very beautiful.
21:05The rest of the day we just spent relaxing and enjoying the calm of this magical place.
21:11Good thing we didn't know yet that our biggest nightmare would be waiting for us the very next morning.
21:18It's 6.30 in the morning and we're doing this little hike here to Ella Rock.
21:23Which is a very scenic walk.
21:26Starting along the train tracks.
21:29This is a busy road here.
21:30Everybody's taking the train tracks, look.
21:32It's easy to see why Ella is one of the most popular spots here in Sri Lanka.
21:36It's super beautiful.
21:38It's not too hot.
21:39It's green.
21:40There's animals all around.
21:41Hiking is a German second nature.
21:44And we love to take the unbeaten path in search of cool and unexpected sights.
21:49However, doing so in Sri Lanka may not be advisable.
21:53This local just stopped us and is taking all the million, all the leeches off us.
21:58We have been on the hike for like five minutes and there's like a dozen leeches on our shoes already.
22:05We didn't even stop for one second.
22:07He said we should not walk this path here because it's full of leeches and obviously if you stop just
22:13for one second you have like five leeches on you.
22:15So we're going to go back to the normal path.
22:20This is insane.
22:22Why are they so quick?
22:24This is their strategy.
22:25They're just sitting on his leaves.
22:27Waiting until someone passes.
22:29And then they take their chances.
22:31Look, he's gonna take his chance.
22:37Look, he must have thought someone was walking by and they're looking for someone to jump on.
22:42Oh, look, there's just as we were talking, there's one on my shoe.
22:46Oh, they're nasty.
22:47So the local, he was so kind to us to bring us back to the righteous path.
22:53The right path.
22:53But now he's still walking with us.
22:55I think he's just thinking, I'm gonna bring those stupid foreigners to the top of the hill.
22:59So this is a house of a cobra.
23:02Don't put your fingers inside.
23:09Just look at this view, guys.
23:11How beautiful is this?
23:17So we made it to Ela Rock.
23:19But we're too late, look.
23:21It's foggy.
23:22We're sleeping too long.
23:24Or I was too slow with my backside.
23:26Goddammit.
23:28Wow.
23:29I'm not sure if it was worth it.
23:32So now we wait for the fog to clear, hopefully.
23:36Otherwise I hiked all this mountain again for nothing like in Acatenango.
23:42We brought a leech with us to the mountain.
23:44Look at that, it's the mountain leech.
23:46Mountain leech, oh yeah.
23:50Mountain leech, oh yeah.
23:54Mountain leech, oh yeah.
23:56He's coming for you.
24:01So while we wait for the fog to clear up, I'm gonna show you the correct way to wear your
24:07pants and socks to be leech free.
24:08It's this way, yeah.
24:11Don't put the trousers to the bottom because the leech will sneak in and go and you won't even see.
24:17So you need to have the socks up and the foot visible so you can really easily spot them, yeah.
24:24That's the way of the locals.
24:26Guys, I think this is the secret why Germans always wear socks like that with their sandals.
24:33We solved the mystery.
24:35The way it was well worth it, it's clearing up.
24:38Look at that.
24:40And now to somewhere completely different.
24:42Like the Nine Arch Bridge.
24:44Also nothing for people who are afraid of heights.
24:48One of the most famous sites here in Sri Lanka.
24:50It was built in 1921 by the British people to bring tea more quick and efficient down to the coasts.
24:58And of course there's a lot of influencers here. Look, there's some. Look at that. Look at that.
25:05Everywhere. Influencers everywhere.
25:06There's another one.
25:07And it is still in use, but we are not using the train to go over there.
25:11We are going by Tuk Tuk. It's much more fun.
25:21Reverse doesn't work. Why does it never work?
25:28Since we have some experience now being a Tuk Tuk driver, it's time to offer our services to the people
25:34here.
25:36Tuk Tuk? Taxi?
25:37Hello?
25:40Taxi, taxi?
25:41Sorry?
25:42Taxi?
25:43They have their own Tuk Tuk. Damn it.
25:45Taxi?
25:47You know what?
25:48Taxi, taxi, come.
25:50He doesn't have money anyway.
25:52Gotta get at least one customer today.
25:54Taxi?
25:56Taxi.
25:57No taxi?
25:58It took a while, but we managed to get our first customer.
26:01Even though he didn't pay, we were happy to have him.
26:04And with the mission accomplished, we were on our way to the famous national park Horton Plains.
26:10But it was probably the worst day of all to go there.
26:14Not the best day to spot some animals, to be honest.
26:20But we're not giving up.
26:22Never.
26:28I'm not sure who's watching who.
26:31Hello there.
26:32How are you doing?
26:35This is my new buddy.
26:37I call him Edgar.
26:40Edgar is hungry.
26:42But he's also shy.
26:43Look at his tail.
26:45So funny.
26:47Edgar, I have nothing.
26:49But you can smell me.
26:51We didn't want to leave cute Edgar behind, but we still had a huge distance to cover down to the
26:56south coast.
26:57It wasn't until deep in the night that we found out that we also had an illegal passenger on board.
27:04So Mr. Edgar was just bitten by a leech.
27:07And this is a local trick to stop the bleeding.
27:10Put some ash on it.
27:16Yesterday evening we met a local guy who invited us to go fishing in the morning.
27:21Yep.
27:21It's 6am in the morning and we are about to go in the water and catch some fish like a
27:29proper local person.
27:30I've never done that before, so it should be fun.
27:33But to be honest, I thought fishing boats are a bit bigger than this.
27:38It's quite small.
27:43Before we could go out to the open water, we had to collect some smaller bait fish from the angler
27:48community.
27:58It was the first time for all of us to go fishing, so we had to learn everything from scratch.
28:10And I really didn't expect that we would be catching so much fish.
28:23Wow!
28:25Look at that!
28:27Yay!
28:27Wow!
28:28This is the biggest fish I've ever caught!
28:31Actually this is my first time fishing.
28:33After a couple of hours and getting a bit seasick, it was time to hit the road again.
28:40For our last day, we have decided not to take the high-speed road.
28:44This is the highway.
28:46Yeah, that's the highway here.
28:47We are going to take the more scenic route along the coast because it's more beautiful.
28:54At least we hope so, right?
29:02By now, we've driven more than 800 kilometers.
29:06And we still haven't seen any wild elephants.
29:09Yeah, we've seen the ones at the elephant orphanage and some captive ones.
29:13But where are the 7000 wild ones hiding?
29:16We decided to actively look for them.
29:20Go this way.
29:21When in doubt, always take the shitty road.
29:24Oh yes, that's where the elephants are.
29:26I can smell it.
29:39We were just talking to some locals on the road here.
29:43And they said the elephants are hiding in the jungle right now.
29:48Because it's too hot and they're in the shade.
29:51So let's see if we can find them in the jungle.
29:59We were just driving past this little bay here.
30:02And guess what's there?
30:03Just waiting for us.
30:05Hungry.
30:06Two fat crocodiles.
30:08Yeah.
30:09We were directly at the sea.
30:11This is like a little bay.
30:12And you don't want to be swimming here.
30:16No, no, no.
30:16So we didn't find any elephants.
30:18But we found the next best thing.
30:20It's a beetle pushing elephant poo.
30:25Oh yeah, there you go, buddy.
30:26Oh, now it's getting difficult, huh?
30:29Now the road is over.
30:30What are you going to do now, bro?
30:31Oh, he's very efficient.
30:33But there's another one holding on to the elephant poo.
30:36That's the original owner.
30:38We will never know what happened.
30:40But the other beetle, he won.
30:42And he owns the elephant poo now.
30:43There's another challenge.
30:46But we don't know how deep it is.
30:48But the stones are already below the water.
30:51So it's probably not a good idea to go through there.
30:54The locals are going through.
30:56Oh, and it's getting deeper and deeper.
30:58But he's gonna make it.
30:59We're gonna drive through the water.
31:14We made it.
31:19This journey was slowly coming to an end.
31:22The last 100 kilometers whizzed by in the flesh.
31:24I'm still awestruck by the diversity that defines this extraordinary land.
31:30From misty hills to golden shores, each step revealed a new layer of beauty.
31:35Not to mention the incredibly welcoming people.
31:38If anything, this endeavor taught me patience, resilience and the joy found in simple moments.
31:44And one of those moments was still waiting for us in the evening.
31:47Chowing down on a fish we caught ourselves.
31:51Let's see how this red snapper tastes, huh?
31:55Mmm.
31:57Oh my god.
31:58It's so good.
32:01What?
32:02This is really delicious.
32:11We've made it to the other side of the country.
32:15And I'm very sad because this adventure is ending today.
32:18The name Shitty Shitty Bang Bang was not the right name because it really served us well.
32:24Yeah.
32:25We will name it from now on.
32:27The glorious Bam Bam!
32:31In any case, this is an awesome tuk-tuk.
32:33I learned to love it.
32:34It had its moments of struggle, but it brought us all the way.
32:39If any of you is thinking about coming to Sri Lanka, I can only recommend getting your own tuk-tuk
32:44and do a tour with this thing.
32:46You're not gonna regret it.
32:48Thanks for watching everybody.
32:49See you in the next video.
32:54Thanks for watching everybody.
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