Experiencing Sri Lanka like Locals was EPIC

Welcome back on board Roti. Yes, that's the name of our tuk-tuk. Come along on yet another road trip while we travel from, actually we're in Wapatupa National Park right now, down to Sigiriya and then down to Nagomba. Another road trip. Let's go! So when we got the tuk-tuk, we were told it's like a general rule to gas up every 100 kilometers because the gas gauges aren't 100% accurate, let's just say that. We haven't touched the reserve tank yet and the last four gas stations have said they are not gas stations. I have high hopes in this one that's supposedly in 200 meters. You don't have petrol? You don't have petrol? I don't have petrol? Damn. Okay. Thank you. Believe it or not, this gas station is out of gas. Soon we might have to walk. We're going on 140 kilometers and that's pretty much the limit. So hopefully there's another gas station soon. He did say that and hopefully they have gas, right? When you're a gas station, it's like the number one thing that you can't be out of. Gas. Okay, there's a tiny gas station right there. We are running on fumes. Full please. Okay, we are full, back on the road and now we should be smooth sailing to our next hotel. I don't even know where we're going. Tracy plans everything, I just drive. I just have it on the GPS. Welcome to my place. Thank you so much. So we are staying at a place called Lion Rest for the night. And apparently first it is cultured out of tea, so we're having tea. I really appreciate you chose my culture. We love it here. Thank you. Chicken kottu is my favorite meal. I'll tell my mom to prepare it. Perfect. Would you say your mother makes the best chicken kottu in Sri Lanka? A lot of people say. Okay, okay, we'll see. I can't wait that they start cooking. Okay, so let me show you quickly around the room. We just need like a quick one night tour because there's something that we really wanted to do. You'll see that early tomorrow morning. So this is our room, queen size bed. We have everything we need for tea and coffee. Beautiful bathroom in there. AC, fan and we already met the host and he is so lovely. We're actually gonna have supper here tonight instead of going out. From his mother. His mother is gonna cook for us. A true home cooked meal. I feel bad. I don't want to be too hard. I can't review his mother's cooking. I'm sure it's gonna be good. Well, to say the least, we arrived just in time before the storm. Problem, we forgot to close up the flap on the tuk-tuk. So hopefully it's not gonna drown. Thank you so much. So for supper tonight, chicken kottu, which of course... From his mother. Yes, and then we have some dal curry and a sauce for the chicken kottu if you want it with a whole bunch of spices. And it looks fantastic. That is good. Oh, that is so good. You can tell that this chicken kottu was made with love. We were about to leave, but then he was like, no, no, we have Sri Lankan dessert, which is like buffalo curd with this coconut honey. It's really, really good. Somehow that syrup that they make kind of tastes like maple syrup. All my compliments to your mother. Thank you very much. See you tomorrow. Bye. We're gonna run, run, run, run, run. And hopefully there's not gonna be any rain tomorrow when we wake up. We are so fortunate to be able to have travel experiences like this around the world, like traveling Sri Lanka in a tuk-tuk. But at the end of the day, we are still human and we do have our own struggles that go on behind the scenes. Which is why I'm so excited to have a paid partnership with BetterHelp for today's video. A platform that I personally use. A lot of times when we hear the word therapy, we think that you have to have a clinical mental health diagnosis, such as depression. Well, it is a great resource for depression. You can actually use therapy simply as a safe space to talk without fear of judgment about anything that is weighing down in your mind or going on in your life. So what is BetterHelp and why do we love it so much? So BetterHelp is a platform that allows you to communicate effectively with your therapist and get the most out of your therapy. For us with the travel lifestyle, the thing that I love the most is the different types of communication that you can have with your therapist. So when we're on the go every day, I can just send a message and then I get a response and do therapy that way. Or if we're slowing down, I'm actually even able to have a video call face to face. And because of that, it is so much easier to prioritize my mental health on the road. Starting therapy is easy with BetterHelp. All you have to do is go onto the website and fill out a quick questionnaire and then you will be matched with a qualified therapist in as little as a couple of days. But on top of that, sometimes if the first therapist, you're like, it's not quite the best fit for me. No worries. You can switch therapists until you find the right match for yourself. So if you are struggling and you think that you would benefit from therapy, check out the link down below in the description or go to betterhelp.com. Dave Manny for 10% off your first month of therapy. Good morning. It is just before 5 a.m. And we're going on a hike. Hopefully, it's our first sunrise. I can see a lot of stars, meaning that the sky is clear. Hopefully, we're going to get lucky. Good morning, sleepyhead. Good morning. So we made it to the start of our hike. Oh, we're on an edge there. But I would say it's a bit more popular at this time of the morning than I anticipated it being. Tracy, you ready to climb a lot of stairs? There's going to be a lot of that. So there are two major rock formations in this area. The first one is Lion Rock, the most famous one. It also costs $30 USD to go up. But when we were in Colombo, our guide told us that Pidurangala is actually better. And it's also about $3, which is very nice. This rock formation was actually built by volcanic activity. And it's been occupied by monks for over 2,500 years. And still to this day, it is still a sacred site. Sorry, I'm having a little bit of a hard breath. This is a lot of stairs. So we just made it to not quite the top. There's a little bit further left to go. But from here, like the majority of the stairs and a bit with the temple. And there's a huge line to go up. I think it's like the last section. So instead of waiting in the line, we're just going to sit here and watch the sunrise. Because it is beautiful. So graceful. So some people literally missed sunrise because they wanted to go to the top. And they waited in line. But now that the sun is up, we had a beautiful sunrise from our viewpoint, to be honest. And it was much more private than up there. You were born climber. See? Wow. Everest, here we come. So Lion Rock is the other famous rock that you can climb. And you can see it right here. And to be honest, from here, it's even better. Because you have a view of it. And it's stunning. Because this rock doesn't look as good, to be honest, from a distance. So when you're from there, you can enjoy this rock. But from this rock, you can enjoy this rock. Do not ask me how these dogs made it on top of this mountain. But there's like 4, 5, 6 dogs. Even a little puppy. And they're just keeping all the monkeys away from the people. It's like they have a job and they take it very seriously. Honestly, the views here with the rice fields and the fog that's still kind of there. It is absolutely stunning. And I think Sri Lanka as a whole right now is becoming one of the most beautiful places that we have ever been. Rock formations sometimes, I just don't understand them. Like the top of this rock is like a pretty flat rock, right? But on one end, there's this massive boulder. That looks like it just was dropped there. I'm sure it was not. But that's how it looks like. You know the drill, I'm filming just in case you fall. Wow. I always tell her that. I would help her. But you know, you don't want to miss a good fall. I don't like the feeling of being stuck underneath of a big rock right now. Yeah, wait your turn. There's a lot of people. This is the massive boulder you saw up there. It's huge. What's she doing? Well, Roti couldn't come up so I'm showing her some photos that we took up there. So we just had a delicious Sri Lankan breakfast with the coconut rotis and the tea and all. It was great. And now, today, we're driving to Negombo, which is almost 150 kilometers. It doesn't sound like it's that much, but in a tuk-tuk, 150 kilometers is a lot. By the time we stop for gas and probably get lunch, it's going to take us about 5 hours. Yeah, probably. I do have to say, we kind of have this down to the science in here though. Which is nice. Surprisingly, there's definitely more space than it looks in the back. Thank you so much. Thank you. So I'm not sure if we said the name of where we were staying. That was Lion Rest... We'll put it on the screen. And as usual, if it's something that you want to book, we will put the link down below. Highly recommend this place. He was super, super hospitable. And the food that his mom made, some of the best. When these big bus are passing our tuk-tuk, you can literally feel the tuk-tuk being sucked back. It slows us down. How are you? Good. So as usual, we are looking for a place to pick up some little rotis. I think we found one. These are so good. Just like rotis in two different shapes. A cylinder and a triangle. They're all the same thing. Those are spicy. I'm not going to lie. Both of us are dying right now. I think those were the spiciest ones we've had yet. We've been pretty used to handling the spice, but those ones were a whole other level. Good though. Corn tuk-tuk. I'll be selling corn on a tuk-tuk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're coming all the way from Jaffna. So before heading to our hotel, we need to bring our tuk-tuk to the tuk-tuk spa. So we obviously did not buy this tuk-tuk, right? It is from a tuk-tuk rental here in Sri Lanka. And it's amazing because it's a social business. So these tuk-tuks are not owned by the company. They're owned by different families around Sri Lanka. We're basically using this service to rent their tuk-tuk for an extra income. So we've got to take very, very good care of those. So we're here at the tuk-tuk mechanic, a.k.a. tuk-tuk spa, for a little bit of oil and to grease the tuk-tuk. Basically, when you go off-road and the dust and everything goes into it. So every 1,000 kilometers, we're supposed to grease it back to kind of protect it. And believe it or not, we just did over 1,000 kilometers with this tuk-tuk. Tuk-tuk is oiled up, greased up, we're ready to go. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here. Thank you so much. Oh yeah, the tuk-tuk feels all refreshed. Good morning from Negombo. Right now, we are just beside the Hamilton Canal, also known as the Dutch Canal. This was built by the Brits between 1802 and 1804. And the goal was to drain the water out of the wetland. This thing, it's 14.5 kilometers. So very, very long. And it makes it kind of the Sri Lankan Venice. So what we can see right now is that it looks like it's being used by the local fishermen. And along the sides, they're selling a lot of fish. So a lot of people come to Sri Lanka to go to the beach. It is a beautiful beach destination. But because we decided to go all the way north instead of going all the way south, where most of the beaches are, well, we haven't been to a beach yet. But we've heard that the Negombo Beach here is actually quite nice. So we're going to go check it out and maybe touch the water for the first time. And just like that, we made it to Negombo Beach. I have to say, like, it is beautiful. It is super clean. There's a bunch of, like, resorts, a bunch of different restaurants and bars and shops and everything. It is definitely a more touristy area. But hey, if you want to go to the beach, this is what you get. So fishing is obviously one of the key source of income for the locals in this city. And you can see, like, different types of fishing boats all along the ocean. And you can see a bunch of fishing sailing boat at distance, which is super cool to see. Okay, first time going into the Sri Lankan ocean. This is not the name of the ocean. But oh yeah, it is so nice. It's so hot and humid because it's monsoon season again. So, like, this feels good. Whoa, it dropped really fast. Because it's a very touristy area, there's some what we call beach boys. Just trying to sell you some souvenir. Bracelets, purses, wallets and a bunch of other stuff. It's beach time. It's beach time. That's beach Tracy. To the ocean. Tracy is stressed because, like, so it's overall, like, fairly a clean beach. But the fishermen, I think, are kind of preparing the fish that they catch in the morning in the ocean. And throwing, like, some parts. So there's, like, a few dead fish and a few, like, heads that you might see. But don't worry about it. It's fine. It's the ocean. The ocean is going to take care of it. Just here. There's no fish here. Tracy. Come. As usual, Dave is swimming like a fish in the ocean. And I am just enjoying some relaxing sunshine. Which is pretty great, to be honest. It's nice to have a bit of a slower afternoon here on the beach before you get some lunch. To the tuk-tuk. Time to find some food. Got a bunch of goodies. Including some sort of fried samosas. That's so good. I'm going to get out of traffic now. These inside have, like, the vegetable and eggs. They're just, like, spicy enough. Probably mild for Sri Lankans, but spicy for us little Canadians. But so, so, so good. These are definitely some of, like, the better ones we've had. And they're stuffed with so much and they've been the same price as everything. Fantastic. See this woman with this big machete? Don't mess around when women has a machete. That's nice coconut juice. I did nothing this... I don't think I can drink my massive coconut and drive at the same time. So we just made it to the Negombo Fish Market. It is a massive fish market. There's fish everywhere. They're drying most of it from what I see. And it's easy to find. Just follow this map. Oh, that's so rough. Oh, wow. I'm good. It's fine, it's fine. It almost tastes, like, jerky. Really good. That's good. It's good for the beer. Yeah. Go with the beer. Well, that turned out to be even more interesting than I expected. Thanks to a random local fisherman who was like, come, I'll show you around. So, there's so many different types of fish. Everything from, like, yellowfin tuna to literally baby shark. Tracy doesn't feel well about the baby shark. No. It's sad to see the baby shark. But basically what they do, every morning they go out, they get the fish, bring it back here, cover it in salt, prepare it, let it dry under the sun, which can take, depending on the size of the fish, between one and a half to, like, four days. And after that, they send it to different markets all around the country. This is the largest open-air fish market in Sri Lanka. And according to my new fisherman friend, the largest one in South Asia. I'm not sure about this one, but you know what? I don't know. So I just, I choose to believe it. One quick shower later, we are back out to go to supper to a very, very special place. I think I'm literally the unluckiest guy ever. I got another flat tire. It's the second time. So that shockingly didn't take that long. It only took about five minutes. And that is thanks to the locals who helped us do it the last time. If you didn't see that, check out our first road trip video. We'll put the link down below. And yeah, thanks to them, we knew how. Now let's go for supper. So Roti is parked right in front of the restaurant for tonight, which is Tuk Tuk. The name of the restaurant is Tuk Tuk. Normally we stay away from like these places. It looks very touristy, but like, I don't know. It's our last night with Roti. So it just, it felt fitting to go to Tuk Tuk restaurant. So Tuk Tuk Wine & Dine seems like to be a really cool restaurant for the cool kids. If I was living here, I'd probably come here every single week. There's also live music that's supposed to start any minute though. So that's going to be cool. And yeah, I can't wait for my pizza. I'm getting the Tuk Tuk special pizza. Because how fitting. And of course, an evening in Sri Lanka without a Lion Lager is not a proper evening in Sri Lanka. Oh, thank you very much. So I got like a Thai wok chicken noodle. And it's really good. It just tastes like an Asian noodle dish basically. But like very, no sauce, just flavor. That's really good. It's very hot but very delicious. Wow. Wherever you are. She's playing Celine Dion. And it's always funny because she's actually from my hometown in Canada. Right, right. To the place I belong. That was great. Highly recommend the restaurant. Definitely you're going to pay a little bit more of like tourist prices. It's 6,500 for pretty much everything. But it was delicious, especially my pizza. Yeah, it was very good. And I would say potentially not as local tasting. No, no, definitely not. More if you want like Western food. Yeah, yeah. But it's cool, especially with the live music and stuff. Yeah. Well, guys, I have to say I'm devastated. Because tomorrow we have to bring Roti back to tuktukrental.com. I'm very sad. Roti has served us well. We've had so much fun in the past like 10 days driving around the country. It was epic. It's so true. Like you really do need to rent a tuk-tuk to have that more local experiences. Like pulling off into random shops for lunch. Like getting help with the tires. It just made our trip. And just see Sri Lanka at a slower pace. I agree. So once again, we're going to put all their information down below. You need a tuk-tuk to see Sri Lanka. It's so cool. Yeah, it was great. I mean, if you come to Sri Lanka and don't drive a tuk-tuk. Did you come to Sri Lanka? Probably not. Anyway, so until next time. See you guys. In the next one.