Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Sharon Inn and the Mafia

Shron Inn people proved to be very helpful although when we said he was well connected, we didn't quite realise how well connected!

Seems there is a controlled tourist market in Sri Lanka and once you are sucked into it, it is very hard to escape. Our helpful man made phone calls to all his friends in various places in relation to anything we wanted to do, arranged drivers to take us only to his friend's places and once there, if we tried to arrange our own drivers, he would be notified by his subjects and then call to talk to us. Seems the way to spot a Sri Lankan mafia Don is as follows:

Not skinny like many Sri Lankan men
Wearing Stevie Wonder sunglasses and pretending to be blind
Having a lot of men running around after you in your house
At least 7 telephones in the house....possibly more
Regularly summoning tourists (via the associated staff) to sit before them
Being extremely helpful, as long as you agree with whatever they say

We have now managed to escape by befriending a driver, who had a rather large soft spot for Jen (possibly because he worked for the same company as she does!!) We refused to tell Mafia man 2 which driver we had booked, escaped early and hid in the town for collection although mafia men had worked it out and already called him. Fortunately he refused to tell them where we are staying and a whole series of lies was concocted.

Hopefully we are now off the radar and lying low in Bentota!!!

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