Feeling very white in Badulla

It was Sri Lankan new year and as such almost everything was closed, including the tea factory we had planned to visit. So we decided as it was a railway holiday to go to the end of the line, to one of the oldest towns in the country: Badulla. 

Growing up, I never really considered race very much, apart from the occasional pain when one of my close friends in primary school would get picked on. It never seemed that important. I guess because I was always in the majority. On most of our train journeys we were the only white people in the carriage but it never felt significant. Kids will smile if you smile at them, adults largely ignore you. That changed in Badulla. They clearly weren't used to tourists and everyone was staring at us. Men shouted things, women glanced at us uncertainly. We got followed. It was very obvious we were different and it did not feel comfortable at all. We decided that waiting until the next train was simply not an option so paid a lot of money to get a tuk tuk back to Ella.