Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Let us take you now...

To the island of short memories

and the small village of fat hopes.

It hardly featured on any map.

But, thanks to the civil war of lies,

the small village of fat hopes had grown

in importance

for all the wrong reasons.

They spoke in color in the village

as they did in most parts of the country.

The cost of living made people purple.

People often felt marooned,

and the jokes were always black.

The war is over.

At the old hotel,

the 50 caliber in the tower next door

is wrapped up and attended by one sleepy guard.

The main enemy today is not the soldiers,

guerillas, fighters, and suicide bombers of the LTTE

but the black crows

who hover ominously over the breakfast buffet

on the veranda.

A man with a slingshot patrols the lawn,

driving them away with an occasional shot.

Colombo, capital city of Sri Lanka.

Unlike the last time I came here

nearly a decade ago,

this South Asian island nation of 20 million

does not feel on lockdown.

There are no longer the military checkpoints

and heavy equipment, sandbags or barbed wire

in between the airport and the center of town.

There's a new democratically elected government

voted in by a coalition of former adversaries.

Everywhere you look, construction, expansion,

new hotels, foreign money,

something that looks a lot like hope.

Hundreds of thousands of dead and missing later,

the country is at peace,

and we can go where we want.

Hopefully, people will be able to talk about their lives.

Last time, they couldn't.

So this is the Galle Face Green.

It used to be a place for the English families

to come and hang out on Sundays.

And it was also the home

of the first golf course in Sri Lanka.

This is our Central Park.

Ah.

What are we eating today by the way? What's good here?

So this is all Sri Lankan street food.

These kitchens are run by Muslims.

So, there's no pork dishes. A lot of seafood.

Dharshan runs several popular Colombo restaurants,

including The Ministry of Crab.

When not catering to the needs of his customers,

he enjoys simpler fare.

So what distinguishes

Sri Lankan cuisine and Indian?

I think our curries are lighter,

and I think it's the access to seafood.

If you look at Mumbai, it's 20 million people.

The ocean's under pressure.

Here it's so clean we can have access

to great seafood any time.

When did the war get bad?

It got really bad I think 2005 onwards,

it was really bad.

Yeah, we were last here

in 2008.

I mean, just to get to the hotel,

I remember, from the airport

we had to go through

one security cordon after another.

During those times, we had no idea

when it was going to end.

I've done business in this country

never knowing what a peaceful time would be.

How long have things been quiet?

Well, the war ended in 2009.

It's been eight years.

It takes time for things to happen.

Things have happened though.

The city's not overgrown.

We aren't overpopulated.

The oceans are still clean.

Whatever the underlying problems were,

do you think they are being addressed

or will be addressed?

I think they are being addressed.

Maybe a bit slow.

But I think you will find a difference.

So the world has changed,

and it's great to see stuff like this.

Evening fell

upon the small village of fat hopes.

Suddenly, they heard a noise

that filled them with dread.

Ah! Ah!

There was honestly such a culture of fear.

An incredible amount of self-censorship.

We had death squads,

people, journalists, so many being disappeared.

This kind of white van phenomenon

where, you know, your loved ones were taken from you

and you never heard from them again.

They're still so many of those cases going on,

and just a real feeling of fear.

From 1983 until 2009,

Sri Lanka's bloody civil war

divided the island in two,

splitting the country along religious lines...

Buddhist Sinhalese majority in the South

versus Hindu Tamil minority in the North.

Years of mistreatment and suppression

led to the formation of the LTTE,

or Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam

and their campaign to seek an independent state.

The conflict ended in 2009,

but an enormous number of internally displaced persons,

or IDPs as they were referred to,

remain in refugee camps.

Ladies and gentlemen, appearing now

and before it is too late,

the traveling circus of refugees.

Colombo native Tracy Holsinger is the founder

of Mind Adventures Theatre Company.

Not long ago, to even talk politics

let alone stage a play deemed controversial,

could be dangerous.

The play that you've been doing

came from a book or...

"Speaks in Numbers" by Mike Masilamani.

It was first performed in November 2009.

- Controversial would you say? - A little.

The play is about internally displaced people.

After the end of the war,

we had over 300,000 people in camps.

The largest one of them

was built to house 100,000 people

but ended up housing 227,000 people.

Tents that were designed for maybe five people to be in

had 10 to 15 people in them.

There were no toilets in the camp.

There were just these big pits.

Living conditions for these people

was intolerable.

There are some communities, Anthony, in this country

that have been displaced for 25 years.

That means since the '80s

they haven't had a home.

Hurry up! Don't waste my time.

What's in the bag? It's just some-

- Can't take anything inside the camp.

Search this. Hurry up, next!

It's a play that was staged at a time

when all this was so raw for us.

And there is no way to speak directly

about what happened.

I think it's still very difficult

not just for us but for people to acknowledge

that these terrible things were done

to part of our community and our people.

Was this a perilous thing to do?

And how was it seen at the time?

You know, I didn't think

about whether it was perilous or not,

and that's probably bad on me

because I involved all these other people.

That scene is done. We're moving on.

For me, the important thing was making sure

that in whatever form it got out there

the play's out there and it reminds people

that this happened.

We found the person responsible

for trying to poison the minds of all you good people

with these lies!

She was sleeping amongst you.

Living amongst you.

And there are many others like her.

Let this be a lesson to you all.

This is how we deal with traitors.

Take her away!

No, please, please.

- No! - Please!

So, are things getting better?

I would say in one sense

we're not so afraid.

You're not afraid to speak out.

But also I wouldn't say everything is wonderful.

It's not... I think things are slowly being pushed,

but it's too slow.

So, 20 years from now,

are you optimistic, pessimistic?

What do you think?

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon,

was once the crown jewel of the spice trade.

Its cloves, cardamom, pepper, nutmeg,

mace, ginger, cinnamon, chilies, and curry...

the envy of the world.