Checkpoints? No Problem … We’re Tourists!

As one might imagine for a country in the middle of a civil war, there are military checkpoints everywhere. The most frequent ones we encountered were on the road when the bus we were traveling in would be stopped and people would have to grab their bags and head through an inspection station. Some were searched, some were not. However, Carrie and I would just sit on the bus and wait.

Eventually a soldier would come on and start checking the documents of the other passengers who didn’t get off. We have no idea why some got off and some didn’t. Anyway, the soldier was always stern and gruff with the locals but full of smiles when they got to us.

“What is your country? How long in Sri Lanka? Do you like it?”

These were the most common questions. I don’t think we had to take out our passports once, though one time I did get off and walk through the checkpoint just for fun. While others were being searched, I got smiles and chuckles from the soldiers and was waived on.

Our theory, which was backed up by talking to locals, is that everyone knows that it’s not the tourists who cause civil unrest. Sure, they might be a day or two over on their visa, but they still have thrown caution to the wind and come to a country that most dare not enter. Why would the Sri Lankans want to cause trouble with the few of us who are willing to come spend our hard earned money in their economy!

We had similar experiences with checkpoints when we hired a private driver to take us up north to the Ancient Cities. While other cars were stopped left and right at checkpoints, our driver just slowed down and let us wave to the army officer who quickly sent us on our way. When driving at night he had us turn on the inside lights when we approached the checkpoints in order to assure our speedy continuation. Usually, when driving locals, the driver has to stop at every single one and wait for the whole car to be searched. It really did make us feel like a sort of royalty at times.