Sharing is caring!

It saddens me that the first blog post written about Sri Lanka has to do with Sri Lanka scams. I spent three weeks in the country, and it is high on the list of my favorite countries; however, I had one bad experience that I feel compelled to write about first. One of the top tourist draws to Sri Lanka is the fact that the country has the highest concentration of leopards outside of Africa. The densest concentration in the country is at Yala National Park.

Yala National Park – The crown jewel of Sri Lanka – This is the poster boy or elephant of Sri Lanka scams

Bus trip from Ella to Tissamaharama

Many people come to Yala National Park from Ella. The bus ride from Ella to Tissamaharama takes about three hours. Tissa, for short, is the nearest city to the national park and the gateway to Yala. According to the bus charts that were in the Bunk Station in Ella, there is no direct bus from Ella to Tissamaharama. One needs to take the Kataragama bus and then transfer to Tissa. I successfully got on the Kataragama bus in Ella. When I followed the progress of the bus on Google Maps, I was completely surprised and confused when I noticed the bus going through Tissamaharama before Kataragama. I jumped off in Tissa still perplexed by the inaccuracy of the information given to me in Ella. Usually, hostels are so helpful and have such good information.

Related: Osa Travel with Felix Menocal – A cautionary tale

Here is the bus schedule displayed at the Bunk Station Hostel – Still a little confused and surprised that Bunk Station provided such misleading information to travelers – I am glad that it was easier than expected, but knowing there was a direct bus would have saved a lot of anxiety

Meeting Isuru at the bus station

When I got off the bus, a younger fellow approached who introduced himself as Isuru. He helped me with my luggage, and he asked if I was going to Yala National Park. I replied in the affirmative, so he told me that he could set up a tour for me. I got into a safari jeep, and a driver drove to a nearby office. Isuru explained that the entrance fee was approximately 13,500 SLK (Sri Lankan rupees), which is about $40 U.S. dollars. He said he needed 12,000 rupees down, so he could purchase the Yala National Park entrance fees online the night before.

Sri Lanka scams originating at the Tissamaharama bus station

Isuru and his driver both seemed trustworthy, and in my several weeks in Sri Lanka, I had not had one person take advantage of me. My guard was down because of the friendliness and helpfulness I had been accustomed to in Sri Lanka. Also, I was hot and tired from the bus ride. Thinking I had to make a connection in Kataragama also preoccupied my mind, so I was not as alert as I might normally have been. I gave them the 12,000 rupees, and they drove me to my hotel.

Related: Kruger National Park safari with All Out Africa

Instagram message to a fellow traveler

I had met another Chicago traveler in Kandy and also hung out with him in Ella. He was one day ahead of me coming to Yala. We exchanged Instagram follows. I sent him a message on the app asking him how Yala was knowing he had done his safari that day. He replied that he was scammed and that it was horrible. Knowing that he came in on the same bus, I knew right away that I fell for the same scam he did without even asking for details.

Isuru is Youtube famous

When I returned to my room, I googled “Yala National Park scams.” The first thing that came up was a video featuring Isuru. The video was two years old, so he looked different, but I was pretty certain it was him. The scam is that they charge you for the entrance fee at Yala, and the guide’s fee, but they never take you inside the fee section of the park. This is where most of the wildlife is and most of the leopards.

It would be like paying for a Yellowstone National Park tour, and the guide collecting $25.00 per person for the entrance fees and then driving you around a neighboring national forest. You will probably see wildlife, but since there is no entrance fee, you are paying double what it should cost and seeing far less wildlife. Animals love the remote areas of national parks, so the likelihood of seeing them outside these zones is considerably less.

Sri Lanka scams from a safari vehicle – This is Koomar’s jeep

Messaging the driver about Sri Lanka scams

I messaged the driver and threatened to call the police if he did not bring me into the park the next day. I sent him a link of the video and also mentioned that my friend had been on the fake tour earlier in the day. He called me and said the tour was legitimate and said I could refuse paying the guide amount if I was not satisfied by the tour. By this time, it was too late to get another tour for the next morning, I had already paid the down payment, so I decided to go ahead with the tour. He asked that I refrain from telling the other people on the tour the agreement we had.

Hopper breakfast before the Sri Lanka scams begin

So the scam begins

The next day, Isuru’s driver picked me up as scheduled around 5 a.m. He introduced himself as Koomar. We first drive to pick up Isuru, but he was nowhere to be found. He was supposed to join the tour. This of course was just a charade.

We then drove to pick up the other guests. When two people from the Netherlands joined, I was a little hopeful that perhaps this was legitimate. One of the characteristics of the scam that I researched was there was a promise of other people on the tour. When they pick you up, they tell you the other people canceled. Sometimes they will ask for more money in order to continue the tour. Having actual other tourists on the trip made me feel hopeful. Then we started to drive towards the park. We were flanked by other safari vehicles, which reassured me even more.

On the way to Yala among other safari vehicles

A turn to the left and the Sri Lanka scams commence

Just as we approached the gate, Koomar turned a sharp left. All the other safari vehicles kept going straight. My heart sank as I knew the scam was on. We drove through some deserted gravel roads and started to see monkey, deer, and some wild pigs. We also saw a few interesting birds. I now knew we would not enter the park and would only drive around the outskirts. My acquaintance from Chicago informed that was what happened to him. I still hoped that we might see something interesting to make the day worthwhile.

“Yala” National Park from the outskirts

The other guests

The couple from the Netherlands at first seemed interested in the tour. I was very curious how they would react to the tour knowing myself from the beginning that it was probably a scam. Perhaps they would be happy with seeing some monkeys, deer, and pigs.  Very quickly though, I knew they were catching on and getting frustrated. They were following the progress on their phones and kept asking the driver to take them down towards the main gate and by the ocean through Block I.

A rural temple, which might have been cool if I was in the mood for a temple, but I was in the mood for leopards

Every time they asked this, our driver took out the map and told them where we were and then made some evasive excuse why we were not going to the heart of the park. Sometimes the excuse was it was better in this area with less people. Another time it was too far and we would waste the whole day getting there. Then the driver started saying that the park is closed at noon, so we could not go in. We discovered, not to our surprise, that this was not true either.

We would see no leopards today thanks to Sri Lanka scams

I knew the real reason was that to go where we wanted to go cost money, and they had no intention of paying that money. Instead, they were going to keep it for themselves and give us a mediocre experience. We would see no leopards today.

A peacock somewhere along the journey

Stop at a rural cafe

We stopped at a rural cafe and the driver bought us some snacks. There was a German tourist there along with some locals. We ended up giving the German guy a ride out. He was apparently on some solo religious retreat and needed a ride back to Tissamaharama. Was he part of the scam? We were so frustrated that we began to think the whole world was in on the ruse. Maybe everything that had ever happened to us on our lives was done in order to scam us in Yala National Park. Once you lose trust in humanity, this is how your mind can wander.

Yala National Park pilgrimage

After we left the rural store, we drove around some more, but the roads were cluttered with people. I guess there was some festival in Kataragama and the people were either walking to there or from there as they walked from village to village for months. I was not at all interested in them although they would have been interesting in another setting. Right now I was getting really annoyed at the situation. The fact that this was a scam and that they were taking the money for the Yala entrance fee and pocketing it was apparent. The dude from the Netherlands and I began to joke that we had seen more people than wildlife and of course no national park would let hundreds of people parade through an environment that hosted hundreds of leopards. Perhaps these people were all part of the elaborate scheme.

Pretty sure there will be no leopards hanging around as hundreds of Sri Lankan pilgrims walk through the area

Elephant

“Elephant,” exclaimed the young lady from the Netherlands next to me.  Sure enough, an elephant was off the road in a clearing. Koomar turned us around, and we pulled into the clearing within feet of the beast. Koomar was euphoric from the presence of the elephant. Looking back on it, I think he was happy because seeing the elephant legitimized the tour, and he thought I might cough up some extra dough due to being happy about seeing an elephant.

Another pitiful picture of the elephant wallowing in trash

While I enjoy a good elephant sighting, this would not deter me from being unhappy about not actually being in Yala. As we got closer to the elephant, another disconcerting fact appeared to us not only by sight but by smell. The elephant was rooting around in a mountain of trash. It was a completely nasty scene. I took a photograph of the elephant in the trash thinking this is Yala National Park, the crown jewel of Sri Lanka. This was not the scenes I saw on Instagram.

One irony is I saw better hornbills on this tour then I did the next day in the actual park- Our “guide” referred to them as toucans – Toucans are only in South and Central America – These are malabar pied hornbills – Another proof of incompetence

Sri Lanka scams – Lost phone just adds to the chaos

By this time, both myself and the couple from the Netherlands had had enough. I decided now was the time to let them know what I knew about the scam and the Youtube video. I promised the driver that I would not tell, but I owed nothing to someone who played a part in deceiving me.

To add to the circus of this terrible tour, the driver then lost his phone. We backtracked for over an hour looking for his phone. We went back to the trash eating elephant, we passed the pilgramage of people, and then we returned to the store. It was like a this is your life episode reliving one of the worst parts of your life. The tour was bad enough and lame enough the first time, but now we were revisiting all the places in Sri Lanka that did not have leopards.

Scenes from the rural cafe that played such a big part in this story – Here Koomar is yelling at someone about his lost phone while the goofy German dude on a religious retreat stands to his right

When the driver did not find his phone at any of the places we had just been to, he came to the realization that one of the locals at the store must have stolen it. He started yelling at people at the store. Since the driver was such a liar, we were not sure if this truly happened or if the phone was part of the scam. Anything was possible with these clowns as their main goal was to take as much money as possible without taking us to Yala National Park.

Koomar exasperated by our demands to enter Yala National Park

Mutiny on the safari

It was now getting ugly between us and the driver. We were threatening police action if he did not take us to the main gate. It was an all out mutiny. While we were backtracking on one of the roads looking for the clowns phone, we came upon a National Park ranger. We told him that our driver was scamming us and not taking us to the national park. He spoke to the driver in their language, and the ranger said the driver was not the ringleader and that we should only get certified guides. The ranger also verified that the roads that we were driving on were not part of the national park. Something we already knew, but was now verified.

The couple from the Netherlands wanted to try and get their money back from Isuru and demanded the driver take them back to Tissamaharama. We went back to the bus station and of course Isuru was nowhere to be found. We had our driver take us back to our hotels. I spoke to the manager at our hotel to report the issue. He recommended I email the tourist police.

Another bright spot was seeing this mongoose

Response from the tourism police about Sri Lanka scams

What it looks like to actually go through the gates at Yala National Park

Not sure how I feel about the response

I am not sure how I feel about this response. I never expected my money back. In fact, I feel like the experience was worth the $40.00. It was very amusing although I would have preferred to skip the shenanigans and go to Yala. On the other hand, just like the response from the ranger at the back gate that we encountered, this response reeks a little bit of blame the victim. I am sorry, but I am not going to check every tour guide’s qualifications when I am in a foreign country. It is your responsibility to make sure tourists are safe and not taken advantage of. The fact that this clown has a Youtube video from two years ago and nothing has been done, shows that Sri Lanka has failed in this regard.

The only one smiling on this tour was this elephant and the perps, but their day will come if they continue to screw people over

Everyone loses from this scam except the perpetrators

As soon as I realized that I was potentially scammed, I booked a tour online with Get Your Guide, and I had an amazing experience the next day. I feel bad for my friend and the couple from the Netherlands. They had only one day set aside for Yala, and all they got were dusty roads full of pilgrims and trash eating elephants. Yala National Park also loses in this regard as over $130.00 that would have gone to Yala went in the hands of pirates. The reputation of Sri Lanka also suffers. I spent three weeks there and I had so many incredible experiences, but my first blog is about this. Everything else I have posted has been extremely positive, but some who see this article and the lack of response from the Sri Lanka Tourist Police might think otherwise about visiting this beautiful country.

We spent two hours driving around on these roads with hordes of people walking them

Sri Lanka scams not a sustainable venture

Even though Isuru has been at it for at least two years, his days are numbered. People are more informed these days and word gets around. Even if the government does nothing, people will catch on. Crime does not pay and something bad will happen to these clowns if they continue screwing people over. It got pretty heated on our tour, so if they continue to do this, they are going to mess with some people someday that might have less scruples than them. They might get physically hurt by pissed off travelers. I condone violence, but I would not be surprised if an angry tourist assaults one of these two clowns.

People might pay for a tour like this and be happy about if if they were not mislead about paying Yala entrance fees and succumbed to Sri Lanka scams

My message to the perpetrators involved in Sri Lanka scams

If Koomar and Isuru ever happen to stumble on to this post, my message to you is that crime does not pay and you will end up in jail or hurt. Even if you continue to screw people over, how can you sleep knowing you are responsible for making people miss what they came to see? Tourists sometimes fly over ten-twenty hours to see leopards and because you feel you are poor, you feel it is your right to take advantage of them. It must not have been pleasant for Koomar to deal with angry safari goers. Here is my advice to you – go legitimate.

It is a shame that you are keeping some travelers from seeing sights like this due to your greediness

Sell a cultural/medium wildlife tour on the outskirts of the park. People who have already seen the park might be interested in seeing other places nearby like temples, birds, and mongooses like you showed us. Instead of charging for the entrance fees to Yala that you don’t buy, reduce the rate of the safari to cover petrol and the guide. You could still make a living selling legitimate tours outside of Yala if you were not so greedy.

Tips for avoiding Sri Lanka scams

• Never pay for any tour in advance. Every other tour in Sri Lanka, I paid the agreed amount at the end. No one else asked me for money up front.
• Don’t buy tours from people off the street. I did book a tour with a tuk-tuk driver, but it was only $10.00 usd, and he did not charge me until the end.
• Do not buy tours from people at obvious tourist places like bus stations and railway stations
• Book tours through legitimate hotels, tourist shops, or online
• Get Your Guide is more expensive than booking with locals, but it is legitimate and one nice thing as far as Yala is concerned, is you can book a transfer from one place to another. I paid $200.00 for a tour that had a pickup in Ella, tour in Yala, and then a drop off at one of the southern beach towns. This is quite expensive, but it is nice having a private air-conditioned car for travel and not have to worry about bus transfers. Since I was already in Yala, and not in Ella, they only charged me half the entrance fee.

Another beautiful bird picture I took on the tour with Koomar – Little green bee-eater

More tips

• Do not think you are immune to being scammed because you are a seasoned traveler. My friend had been traveling for a year, and this was the only time he had been scammed. The couple from the Netherlands were well traveled, and so am I, and we were all burned. This story is a reminder to all travelers to keep on your guard.
• Don’t go to Sri Lanka. I would not recommend this option because Sri Lanka was beautiful and my experiences with the rest of the people I came in contact with was overwhelmingly positive.
• Notify local authorities and the Tourist Police of Sri Lanka Scams. Here is the Tourist Police website