Sri Lanka for backpackers

How does SL compare with India and SEA (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia), as a destination for backpackers on a modest budget. We're looking for somewhere different to explore, with nice beaches, food, beer etc that doesn't cost a fortune. Our usual standard would be a rustic beach hut or backpackers guesthouse, eating at foodstalls and cheap restaurants, and a couple of drinks in the evening, local transport etc. I've read that there is a double price policy there, is this true? Any advice welcome, many thanks in advance xx

Hi sniffindog,
I can't really compare Lanka with the places you've mentioned, after all, whats good for one person isn't good for another, so really down to personal opinion but I can say a little about whats good and whats bad.
Sri Lanka is great for a couple of reasons.
It has everything you could want all contained in a smallish island. You can be in the mountains and within a couple of hours , using public transport, travel down from the hills to the dry zone plains, through scrub jungle, through paddy fields, to the beaches.
Internal travel is easy and cheap.
Trains, where they run, are best. No pre-booking required, just turn up, buy your ticket and step aboard.
Where the trains don't reach, there's plenty of buses which are even cheaper.
The island is conveniently split into areas. The cultural triangle has a wealth of ancient sites, with the ancient cities plus many temples and other sites.
South from there, you're in the hill country. Mountains, hills, tea plantations, water falls, enough to keep the trekker happy for years.
Continue south from the hills and you're in the southern dry zone with a couple of national reserves for safari type animal watching.
South again and you have some of the best beaches in the country spread along the south coast. Most of them empty. The majority of the star rated tourists don't venture this far.

Costs.... Really mixed at the moment. The rupees is vastly over valued due to the government fixing the value to the US dollar. There's high inflation which also doesn't help if you're base currency is sterling. Not so bad if your base is the Euro.

The worse thing about lanka , for me, is the two tier pricing system.
Most sites , the entry fees for a visitor are many times what a local will pay. Lots of travellers are happy with this, claiming that , without this system, the locals couldn't visit the sites but as we're paying for all these world heritage sites, through our taxes and payments to the UN, I reckon we should be rated the same.
Hotels, guest houses , etc are all the same. One low rate for them and a high rate for us.
Even the Budhist temple in Kandy has a big sign up as you go in, Foreigners 500 Rupees.
You might well be a died in the wool budhist but you'd not be allowed in to your place of worship unless you paid.
Transport such as taxi,s tuk tuk,s stuff like that also have one price for them and one for us, so bargain everywhere.

Food, can be cheap. usually you can get a decent deal with a small guest house so breakfast is included with a room for about 800 to 1000 rupees. Lunch is a couple of spicy pastries from a street stall or village shop and dinner can be a good rice and curry for
about 150 rupees in one of the small local cafes, usually with a sign up saying hotel. They are not hotels but cafes.
Beer is getting expensive having doubled in price over about a year. Sometimes best to get a bottle of Arrack, the local hooch.

Having grouched about all that, I should mention Sri Lanka's greatest asset.
The people.
Sure there are plenty of touts and scammers around, especially in the main tourist areas.
Negombo, Galle, Colombo, Kandy, etc, but the vast majority of the people are the freindliest you'll meet anywhere.
Get away from the crowds and you'll be welcomed with open arms by the locals.

So, Sri Lanka,,, getting more expensive all the time but at the moment, still Ok.
I've been twice this year and booked again for 4 weeks in February before moving on to Malayasia.
The country is fantastic, the Lankan government almost trying to discourage back packers and instead encourage the star rated holiday brigade.. It;s certainly different and the majority of visitors want to return .
Rod.

Wow, that's loads of info, thanks Rod!

I haven't been to India or Malaysia, only Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia but I have to say that the pricing in each of these countries is fairly similar. I was in Sri Lanka two years ago and tourism had really slowed down due to all the fighting in the North East with the LTTE. As a result of this, heaps of little towns (especially in the inland and in the cultural triangle) were devoid of tourist, which meant that most guest houses automatically dropped their prices so you'd stay there.

The people are really suffering because of this drop of touism which is a shame, as I understand that a lot of these places were very busy and touristy years ago. The LTTE along with the tsunami years ago have really affected local tourism. Tourism might be picking up a bit more now which will no doubt lead to higher prices, but based on 2 years ago it was still fairly cheap.

I found that the transportation in Sri Lanka to be a lot different from a lot of other South East asian countries. The main mode of transport was by taxi, which is usually a local on the side of his road with his car and a cardboard 'taxi' sign. I'd recommend taxi for long distance trips. The taxi fares may seem relatively high, but you'd spend twice as much at home getting a drunken taxi ride home. The tuk-tuk's are really good for short distance trips as you can normally negotiate a pretty good fare. I thought I'd cut costs and get a tuk-tuk from Negombo to Colombo (which was fairly cheap), but I think I cut a good 15 years off my life because of all the pollution and car fumes. 99.9% of the cars/buses/trucks in Sri Lanka spew out plumes of black smoke, so keep this in mind.

I also found that most other SEA countries have more transport options, like tourist buses and mini-vans.

The accomodation in Sri Lanka consists mainly of guest houses, hotels and resorts. I didn't really find any beach bungalows, but at the beaches in the south the guesthouses are located right on the beach, so there's not much difference.

It's easy to find heaps of cheap places to eat. My favorite places were the little local places offering 'short eats'. These are little pastries and curry parcels, etc... that are really cheap and really nice. The curries over there are amazing. You just ask for a curry and you get your curry of choice plus about 7 side dishes (I don't think I ever finished a meal 100%, and I'm not a small eater). Drinks are relatively cheap, but not as cheap as Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia. Probably about the same price as in Thailand.

Like any other SEA country, they have two prices. Tourist price and local price. When you compare your income to that of the local population, it's easy to justify paying a little more... In the end it's only a bit more and not worth troubling yourself over. Get used to it too. I found the Sri Lankan people to be nice, but they all seem to turn every conversation around and want you to buy something or go on their tour/taxi, etc... Gets a little annoying after a while and you start to feel like an ATM.