Great article, I experienced similar feelings as you describe when my wife and I travelled to Sri Lanka 6 years ago. We saw so many sites and signs of poverty that it’s made us very grateful for what we have here in the UK. Sri Lanka is also beautiful and the people can be lovely, so I’m not knocking it.

On a somewhat related idea, the small town where I grew up always made me a little uncomfortable and I was never sure why (I prefer cities). Perhaps my discomfort is because the general populace in my home town seems less mature than city folk? People in my home town seem less satisfied, more anxious and more scared of the world and others around them. I’m generalising though, which is never a good idea!