Heavy Metal in Sri Lanka

Ian Wright of Lonely Planet and Pilot Guides fame tells Outpost about Sri Lankan curries and metal bands.

Outpost: What was one of the most exciting things you did in Sri Lanka?
Ian Wright: We went to Sigiriya (Lion Rock), which is this phenomenal rock right bang in the middle of Sri Lanka. It juts out of nowhere with steps going up—it looks insane. The legend is that a king had two sons: one son killed his dad and took over the kingdom and the other son fled. Knowing that his brother would one day come back and fight him, he relocated to this rock. It’s absolutely impenetrable, there’s no way you could get up there with an army. Then his brother turned up about 10 years later going, “Come on! We’ll have ya! Come on!” And the guy responded, “Yeah I’ll have some of that.” And he left his impenetrable castle only to kill himself in battle. What was the point? I think someone called him a chicken. Anyway, the only thing left of the entrance are these two huge lion paws. You go through them to go up the mountain, and all around you see Buddhist statues and old ruins. It’s well worth a visit, but not if you have vertigo, because it’s a sheer drop.

OP: What were some other highlights?
IW: I went fishing on stilts in the south. You wade out to a pole stuck in the ocean and just sit on it with a fishing rod. It’s an iconic view of Sri Lanka, really, with all these fishermen out there. But you get sunburned to shreds after about 10 minutes—and the only thing I caught was sunstroke. We also took the train to Kandy. The trains are brilliant—they’re old and people are just hanging out of the doors. The train went through the tea plantations so you see these beautiful, manicured hills that are covered in tea. Kandy’s also the sort-of religious centre. They’ve got Buddha’s tooth in a box there.

OP: Did you see it? What’s the legend behind the tooth?
IW: Oh, you can’t see it. It’s not like a pair of false teeth you can fit in for a laugh, you know? It’s religion, man, you can’t mess about with that. This is the original. The legend? I don’t know. It’s not like he had a little scuffle in a nightclub and someone kicked his teeth in for stealing their pint. (That’s the unofficial version, anyway.)

OP: What is Sri Lankan food like?
IW: The food is just fantastic. I asked a taxi driver what I should order in the restaurant—because I know Indian food and there’s a name for every dish under the sun—and he said, “curry and rice.” I’m like, “Well yeah, I know that (snort snort), but what kind of curry? A balti? A vindaloo?” He said, “No, just curry and rice.” So I ordered it and it came with about six different dishes: a lamb or chicken curry, spicy side dishes with vege-tables and daal, which is that lentil stuff. I have never tasted better daal in my life.

OP: Tell me about one of the more memorable moments of your trip.
IW: In Colombo, the capital, we saw a rock band in rehearsal—Sri Lankan heavy thrash metal (wee-ow wee-ow). They were playing on the top floor of their parents’ house (real rebels) and were called Stigmata—rock on baby! And their singing was all “ARGH!!! AHHH!!! WAAAAH!!” I couldn’t understand a word of it. So, I had to get out my air guitar and show them how it was done. Teenage rebels screaming on the roof while their parents are downstairs. What better way to show that Sri Lanka is not all tradition than with a thrash band, huh?

-Compiled by Sara Cation

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Wright of Way. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.