I find myself in complete disbelief. I am known as the eternal optimist or idealist, and for once in my life I am wondering if I can borrow some juice from someone else’s cup that’s half full. Why you ask?

I love experiencing how the rest of the world lives. Seeing the world through the local’s eyes, walking the streets and eating their food. This time I find myself hiding from them and blowing my budget to get ‘clean sheets’.

Third world countries fascinate me and I usually feel at home. They certainly have their share of problems, but what I am usually witness to is a connected community where they look after each other and find the sweetness in the simple pleasures. During this trip, I have seen a different side.

Its mid afternoon, my weather app says ‘feels like 39c’ and I stop in for a lime juice with my friend at a local eatery. I am standing at the counter ready to pay for them and I remember that the menu price was $150LKR (about $1USD) for each. After being ignored for 10 minutes while the staff look after the locals, they snatch my $1000LKR out of my hand and proceed to give me $300 back. I had to argue with her that she was overcharging me before she reluctantly gave back the rest of my change. Meanwhile, I am closely watching the guy behind me sneak something from their counter and smoothly slide it into his front pocket. I’m well aware that he is also standing close to my purse. This situation is just one of many ‘eye opening’ experiences on this trip that stole the ‘quick to forgive’ part of me.

Throughout the 2 weeks in Sri Lanka, it was a constant struggle to catch the scams. The first one was a ‘spice garden’ where they make natural remedies that are ‘too good to be true’. After the free tour you get taken to the ‘pharmacy’, where the sales/tour guide hovers over you with anticipation for his hefty commission on the remedies that are today’s version of snake oil.

See, we didn’t even ask to go to a spice garden. We paid a lot of money to hire a driver for the week. This is something also out of character for me when I travel, but due to the transportation issues and gut feelings, my friend and I decided it was worth it. Little did we realize that the driver we hired was also in on it all.

When someone asks you to trust them, does that send a red flag up right away? It usually does, but this guy came to us from a reputable source so I let it slide. After seeing pictures of his family and told how he follows the Buddhist path, I decided he had our best interests at heart. That ‘heart’ started to bleed dry by the end of the 7 days. The spice garden came after he tried to get us to stay at his ‘friend’s hotel’ – full of pillows that could crawl out the room on their own. Meanwhile, we caught onto that trick quickly, booked a hotel close by for a fraction more then they were asking at creepy crawly, and ended up with a 5 star quality hotel thanks to booking it online ourselves.

After a heart to heart with the driver about both of those situations, we found ourselves down the road at another tourist trap. Big buses are idling beside us as we get shuttled into a room with a 60 inch TV. Here they show us how they harvest the gems from the ground and work in conditions that look like the coal miners caves. After they get the goods they take time to pray to the Gods to thank them for the treasures. The video then captures how they perfect these treasures with state of the art machines and deliver them to your palm in mint condition. After the video, they take my friend and I into a room full of whispering men, sit us down at a desk that is older than most people I know, and bring out the ‘goods’. I look down at the carpet that breathes a faint mist of moth balls and wonder how I am going to get out of this one. My friend and I are polite to start, and then decide to share with them that we have no intention in buying their gems. The presentation comes to an abrupt halt and we speed walk back to the car wondering if the tour bus full of people beside us are having the same experience.

I decide to keep my mouth shut on that and hope the tea plantation is going to be full of porcelain and white tea tips that are world renowned. It starts with a free tour where they show us a fake working room with machines from the 1930’s. They tell us how difficult it is to get it right and how the tea dust is what you find in the everyday stores. I’m hearing the makings of an overpriced product in my near future. As I sip the different teas, she shows us all the ones they offer and I’m wondering who buys tea for $40USD. The biggest exporter of Sri Lankan tea is Lipton- is this Lipton’s gold sprinkled orange pekoe? Because that’s the only way you will see me buying it.

Over the years, I have come to realize that human beings are incredibly smart and that our bullshit radar is usually quite good. Why is it that people in this country think they can pull the wool over our eyes? I can now understand where people became sceptical of natural healing methods over the years and where the ‘snake oil’ mentality comes from. Once taken for a ride, you stop getting into the car. What if because of that you end up having to walk through life and never receive the healing of a healthy lift when you need one?

Moving forward from this experience, my wish is for each of us to gain the discernment and intuition to bring us the medicine we need while navigating through this beautifully complicated world. Now where is that Genie in a Bottle? Perhaps I’ll find it on my next adventure!