{"id":63720,"date":"2017-02-24T05:19:43","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T12:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=63720"},"modified":"2017-02-24T05:19:43","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T12:19:43","slug":"sigiriya-toilets-out-of-order-tourists-asked-to-go-to-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/02\/24\/sigiriya-toilets-out-of-order-tourists-asked-to-go-to-jungle\/","title":{"rendered":"Sigiriya toilets out of order; tourists asked to go to jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I wrote about the Sad State of Sigiriya few months back .I mentioned the issues faced by not only tourists and our locals who are second class citizens\u201d !<\/em><\/p>\n

Security and officers of and the officers of\u00a0 the department of archeology hang around the gates looking for foreigners who want to cheat the system by trying visit with tickets for locals which is much cheaper \u00a0and do not inquire about the sanitary conditions of the premises.<\/em><\/p>\n

.During my visit I noted that touts selling artifacts at three \u2013four time the price just before the entrance to Tourist car park where shops are located .When I confronted one and ask them why they rip off foreigners and even locals one local thud came charging at me .<\/em><\/p>\n

SigirIya management is a disgrace and the minister in charge should visit Sigiriya incognito and see it himself and may opt commit suicide <\/em><\/p>\n

Quote below is what I wrote to Lanka web\u00a0 last November<\/p>\n

SAD STATE OF SIGIRIYA <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

We Just returned from one of the World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka today. Despite the fact that I should not be climbing up the lion rock due to my age\u00a0 ,I had a lion,s heart to overcome my own reluctance and fear\u00a0 and I concurred.<\/p>\n

Rock was full of foreigners of European ,Chinese and many other nationalities who are charged 4350 Rs where I was charged only\u00a0 80 Rs\u00a0\u00a0 ,Of course for 80 Rs I was not supposed to bring my car to the gate hence we had to hire three wheeler paying 300 Rs to get to the Local\u201d gate after\u00a0 a de tour .I did not get the wash room facility like in foreign sectors ( which reminded me of apartheid in South Africa ) where an attendant was standing at the door ( interestingly there was a notice board that it is free to use) ,who expected the foreigner (who discharged his refuse\u201d on our land\u00a0 ) is rewarded with a toilet paper half-roll when you enter and he keeps smiling .<\/p>\n

I knew all these as I came down running to have pee and found that with all the precautions, toilet was smelling .I did not mind because local toilet is worse and stinks .<\/p>\n

If your remember I wrote about toilets in the museum in Pollonnaruwa .there were notice boards indicating for locals\u201d and for foreigners\u201d<\/p>\n

I noted that so called guides\u00a0 carrying an umbrella pestering locals as well as foreigners to use them and charging exorbitant prices. I also observed that\u00a0 quite elderly men and women\u00a0 were trying hard\u00a0 to climb up with the help of guides who lose consciousness after hearing about\u00a0 their fee after they descend.<\/p>\n

We should ask UNESCO to provide a First Aid with some ambulance type device to bring down and person who can get ill due to steep climbing .Even at half way point there are no officers or para medics to attend to any emergency .Some stairs were badly rusting and wobbly and yet Department of Archaeology turns blind eye to defective structures. At the entry point they could have given some printed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 material about the rock as the guides who speak foreign languages were uttering nonsense<\/p>\n

Department guards look at local people who may be fair in colour with suspicion and my wife who was wearing a foreign attire was almost stopped until she blabbered in our language<\/p>\n

On the way down scrupulous traders were milking money out of ignorant foreigners by charging 10 times for their artefacts and destroy the Sri Lankan name .<\/p>\n

Department should privatize the whole Sigiriya Rock to a\u00a0 party who may\u00a0 run the establishment in a better\u00a0 way so that they spend more money for the welfare of locals as well as foreigners .<\/p>\n

THEY SHOULD ISSUE \u00a0AN EOI (EXPRESSION OF INTEREST )\u00a0 ( OR USE SWISS CHALLENEG !) \u00a0AND ISSUE RFP (REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL ) AND THEN HAND OVER THE MAANGEMENT TO A FOREIGN PARTY AT A ROCK\u201d BOTTOM PRICE AS USULLUALLY \u00a0THEY DO<\/p>\n

THEN THEY CAN GIVE THE JOB OF RUNNING SIGIRIYA TO A SOMEONE IN THEIR OWN DYNASTY !<\/p>\n

Unquote<\/p>\n

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0 – See more at: http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk I wrote about the Sad State of Sigiriya few months back .I mentioned the issues faced by not only tourists and our locals who are second class citizens\u201d ! Security and officers of and the officers of\u00a0 the department of archeology hang around the gates looking for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}