Gouging relief workers

After I left the hardest-hit areas on the east coast, I decided not to go back to Colombo mostly because of what I would describe as the “tsunami relief tax.” Foreigners are always charged more than locals, which as an American I typically accept as a small gesture toward correcting our nation’s tendency to otherwise grossly distort most other aspects of international commerce in our favor. But some of the gouging of those who have come in response to this disaster goes too far.

Hotel room rates always tend to rise in proportion to the number of relief workers in the area, and “incidentals,” such as telephone use, can end up costing more than the room. To avoid this trend in the capital city, I went an hour north to Negombo – a beach town normally packed with tourists. I got a room in a largely empty hotel at a reasonable rate.

It’s been cloudy and rainy most of the time, but it was still beautiful. There’s no sign that the place was once full of about 3 feet of ocean from the tsunami. I enjoyed a chance to stop moving, talk to the locals and rest. It was promising to see the fishing boats off the shoreline, a sign perhaps that life in Sri Lanka – for some anyway – is returning to its regular rhythms.