Ash our tour guide, Dino or bus driver and Lucky our driver’s assistant, spotter, and passenger support.
Sri Lanka is my fifth group tour. I know the feeling at the beginning. A group of strangers, a guide you have yet to meet, fifteen days ahead. Each of us arrives keen to meet each other. The group, and the guide, will shape the trip as much as the country itself.
Our tour guide Ash (Niruth Ashendra) meets us at the hotel the night before. We stand around in a loose circle, share a short backstory and why we have come to Sri Lanka. The first challenge of meeting new people begins. There are no name tags. The test starts immediately. Some people write names down. I start linking names to faces and backstories, hoping it sticks. It rarely does. Then Ann and Adam introduce themselves. A and A. “A” breakthrough.
The conversation carries into dinner. By the time we arrive at breakfast the group has started to connect.
We move to the bus. You step on and see the seats, the windows, the air conditioning, check for charging points and if the seats recline. Then you see the team.
Lucky, (Mohottige Shalitha Lakshan), stands at the door with a tray of flowers. He hands one to each of us as we step onto the bus. People smile, cameras come out, conversations begin. It happens again the next day, and the day after that. It becomes part of the trip.
Dino (Rajapakshe Pathiranage Dinushan Isurinda), is in the driver’s seat. Lucky moves between the door and the aisle, handing out refillable water bottles.
Ash, walks down the aisle, doing a head count, all warmth and welcome, something we discover is typical of Sri Lankan people
After my first two blogs (see here and here), I had feedback from two Australian readers who work in the social and environmental justice sector. Bill worked in international development and understands how aid is designed, funded and delivered across countries like Sri Lanka. He reminded me that what I was seeing from the bus sat alongside years of programs, partnerships and investment that a visitor rarely sees. He encouraged me to have conversations with people on the ground, to move beyond what I could see from the bus. It became clear very quickly that the only people I had real access to were Ash, Lucky and Dino. Neil remined me about passport privilege, the ease of arriving, observing, and leaving.
A view from the bus shows moments. A conversation shows a life.
I had already spent time with Ash (see my blogs on our conversations here, here and here.) I had also spent 12 days watching the partnership between Ash, Lucky and Dino, and how well they worked together
I sat down with the three of them in the hotel foyer. Ash translated for Dino and Lucky, and you could see how much their ability to understand and speak English will shape what opportunities will open up for them next.
Ash works as a freelancer, often with Butterflies, the local partner to Bunnik Tours. He can choose when he works and who he works with. Dino and Lucky are employed by the bus company, which is contracted into the tour.
Dino has been driving for ten years, across cars, vans and heavy vehicles. He went to Japan to earn money and send it back home. Getting there meant paying an agent a large fee and taking on loans. He worked long factory shifts until his back gave out and he came home.
He is married. He lives with his parents and is building a house on family land for his wife and himself. Each trip pays for walls and floors.
Lucky is 22. He worked in a hotel before this job. He notices when someone hesitates on the steps or when a bag needs lifting. He moves before you ask
He came into the job through Dino. They grew up in the same village. They trust each other and it shows.
Lucky is working toward a heavy vehicle licence when he turns 24. Ash encourages him to build his English and move into guiding, work that brings more income and more options.
Their choices keep pointing toward the future, work, income, a house, family, stability.
On the road, Dino watches the traffic carefully and moves skillfully with it. Motorbikes pass close to the bus. Tuk tuks move into narrow spaces. Dogs cross. Cows stand in the road. When he overtakes, he uses the horn and the other drivers respond. It works as a signal. Everyone understands it and uses it.
Lucky watches everything else, the passengers, the luggage. In tight spaces he works like a spotter, out of the bus, guiding Dino through and directing traffic.
When we step off the bus to visit temples or markets, Dino and Lucky stay and wait for us to return.
As we talked, the conversation moved to what comes next.
Dino wants to keep driving, earn a steady income, and finish the house he is building.
Lucky spoke about getting his heavy vehicle licence. He has to wait until he is 24. For now, he works alongside Dino and learns the job from the ground up. Ash encourages him. Better English opens the next step. Guiding, more responsibility, better pay, more opportunity.
I asked them what it was like working with travellers from countries like Australia, seeing how we travel and where we stay. Opportunities they can only hope for.
Lucky said he enjoys meeting people, hearing their stories, seeing how they live.
Dino nodded. “It’s good,” he said. “You see different things.”
We step off the bus and walk into hotels, temples, restaurants. They stay with the bus or head to driver accommodation nearby. Basic rooms, shared spaces, simple meals. The same trip, two different versions of it running side by side.
The conversation shifted again, this time to life outside the tour.
Water came up. They use town water. Typhoid is rare in today’s Sri Lanka. So is catching rabies, malaria or Japanese Encephalitis.
Whilst healthcare is free, they spoke about long waiting lists. If something needs to happen quickly, you find the money. Sometimes there is no money.
Dental care was another thing. If it costs too much to fix, you take the tooth out.
We spoke about growing up here. The civil war. The tsunami.
Their memories are fragments. Ash remembers it well. He spoke about it as something that sat in the background of his childhood. On the bus he shared with us about his family’s frightening experience with the tsunami. He laughed when he told us his father who is Anglican was praying to Jesus, his mother who is a Buddhist prayed to Buddha to keep them safe.
Then the conversation moved to now.
Sri Lanka has changed, people talk more openly about politics. Ash described Sri Lankans as politically savvy. They follow what is happening. They talk about decisions and how those decisions land in their own lives.
There was a time when speaking out carried risk.
Women show up in public spaces here. Ash spoke about protests led by women, especially families still asking what happened to those who “disappeared” during the war. Mothers and wives stand together, holding photos, returning again and again, asking the same questions.
There is also a long history of women in political leadership. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female Prime Minister in 1960. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, later served as President.
Women have seen leadership at the highest level.
At the same time, what you see on the ground is mixed. Women ride motorbikes, work in hotels, and move into management roles in places like Jetwing Kandy Gallery. The General Manager spoke about mentoring and creating pathways for young women to step into leadership.
For Dino and Lucky. The here and now is the focus.
Dino is building his house. Lucky is working toward his licence, his English, his next step.
Tourism brings income. It also brings a window into other lives, every day, right in front of them.
I have been working in the environmental and social justice sector for twenty years. Most people I know want to support others. The harder question is how to do that in a way that helps people build the lives they want, rather than the lives we imagine for them.
The answer starts with conversation.
For Australians, support can be practical. Travel with companies that use local partners and treat local staff well. Tip directly and respectfully. Share the work of people like Dino and Lucky, including their TikTok videos ( here and here), because visibility can become opportunity. Support programs that build English, vocational training, women’s leadership, clean water, health access and safe futures for children. Back aid that is shaped with local people, rather than designed from a distance.
Passengers sit on the bus and look out the windows, taking in the country they have come to see, immersing themselves in it as much as someone passing through can.
Ash, Dino and Lucky give us life long memories. We leave with their stories, their plans, and a clearer sense of what would support the lives they are building.
