‘Sir’ Lanka Part II – Sri Lanka....Kandy, Trincomalee and Wilpattu

• I fall out with trains
• East Enders on the beach
• Whales and Wasp nests 
• Proud of my northern roots
• Breaking Couchsurfing records

The next day I was on the 6am bus to Kandy.  It was a holiday weekend all the trains were sold out and I had to queue for 1 hour to get on the bus.  There was a tourist AC bus with no queue but AC and I don’t get along so I went with the locals and had far more fun.

 As busy as the Sri Lankan buses they are very pretty….

I've been trying to couch surf for the last year and keep on ending up instead just meeting people for coffee, including a nice lady in Colombo.  However, in Kandy I finally couch surfed.  In fact, I ‘hadmyownroom surfed’ with a family who have hosted more than 800 couch surfers.   I have to admit when I first arrived and dropped my bag on the floor next to the dinner table where the family were tucking into lunch I did feel a bit of an outsider.  Imagine a stranger who doesn't speak your native tongue walking in off the street and rocking up for lunch.  I’m a social guy but this felt odd.  After lunch, however, things changed.  The sink in the kitchen backed up which via many blockages in my own house I happen to be an expert at fixing.  I rolled up my sleeves and spent the next two hours working with the family to get the drains fixed.  It bonded us.  I’m not sure they do that with all couch surfers as an ice breaker but it certainly worked with us as all of a sudden I felt part of the family :)

Me, fellow couch surfer Danny and the family :)

Kandy was a disappointment to me.  The Buddhist temple, where there is a sacred relic of Gautama Buddha's tooth is a big tourist destination.  I don’t get Buddhism in Sri Lanka.  Firstly there’s the hardline buddhist’s acting against Muslims that I mentioned in my last post then there’s the group who studied tourism management and run this temple.  In Bodgaya where Gautama Buddha was enlightened there is no charge and a serenely peaceful level of tourism.  The tooth draws a bigger audience, a 1,000RS entry price and staff that usher you around giving you no time to take in the place.  Very ‘unbuddhist’.    

It is at this point I have to admit a mistake or maybe it was my bad karma biting me back for slagging off the tooth temple.   My next destination was Trincomalee and I’d made the mistake of listening to someone in the Railway station tourist office for travel advice instead of asking other travelers.  Instead of taking a 6 hour bus I travelled for 16 hours (back to Colombo, waited for 4 hours then caught a night train).  I’d been told by the nice people at the railway that the bus was not 6 but 10 hours and as I like night trains I thought I would check out the Sri Lankan offering.

The first part of the trip was fun.  I met Ramanesh and Dominic whilst waiting at Colombo train station for the night train.

The lads....

Obviously, they were Christians (part of that 7% I mentioned in my last blog – as were my couch surfing hosts!).  When asked why (I was expecting to hear ‘coz last night JC was on Sri Lankan TV and we are ALL Christians now so ignore those wiki stats) they told me that they’d heard the good news (not about world peace but about JC).   They also tried their musical talent on me.  When I said I was from England, Ramanesh perked up and said “I know a song about England”.   ‘London’s burning’ was his odd tune of choice.  And there was me expecting him to do the John Barnes rap!

Sounds like a good trip right?  Yes, until the fecking nighttrain. Due to the holiday weekend, sleeper class was sold out so I had to go luxury tourist class.  I did check if it had beds but it seems that phrase was lost in translation.  Sleeper class had beds and was about $8 so was confident that for the $15 I’d parted with that I’d get something pretty special.  And I was right. I got an AC ‘fridge’ carriage, with big comfy chairs that reclined 2 inches.  I had an endless supply of mints, hot towels, tea and a TV in front of my face showing Mr Bean on loop which couldn't be switched off for the 10 hour trip.  During the night there was an abundance of mosquitoes (don’t ask me how on an AC train but they appeared to be Mr Bean fans) and based on this being the bumpiest train ride of my life I woke a few times with my head under the seat.  I was not a happy chappy and neither were the only other two tourists in the carriage.  In the last year I've smiled more than I have in any year of my life but during those 10 hours I was one grumpy old man. 

There was, however, some good news.  My mum sponsors a child in Sri Lanka and I had been trying to locate her village but failed.  The final stop before Trincomalee was ‘China Bay’ part of the address that my mum had given me.  I had a plan.

I arrived at hostel in time for breakfast and sat facing an empty tropical beach.  Despite the dilapidated building the beach was gorgeous.  I was joined by Liz from Hertfordshire, who within 5 minutes had told me all the gossip.  It went something like this (in a cockney ‘ish accent).

 Right dis is the story.  Jo runs this place but she’s a bitch.  Fernando is her ex husband and he owns the place.  Ferando is lovely.  So right, Jo is sleeping around and trying to turn this place into an upmarket money maker but Fernando just wants to keep it as it is.  Laura my daughter has been hit on by every slimy hotel owner in Sri Lanka but is seeing Fernando as he’s a lovely guy.

Liz and her daughter were what I’d call ‘Salt of da earf’ kinda gals.  Both worked as security guards and were travelling together.  I used to watch East Enders when I was at Uni and it took me back.  The funniest night was when ‘Jo’ turned up at the hostel.  I’ll just leave that to your imagination.  Turns out Fernando was a ‘lovely guy’.  He charged me 1500RS/night for a room and I overheard others being charged 5,500 for the same deal!

The weather wasn't great on my first day so I set off to ‘China Bay’.  The internet was down and that was the only reference I had.  Obviously the rickshaw driver knew where the ‘orphanage’ was until we got there when he turned out clueless and too proud to ask anyone.  I asked a local family and we soon had a chain of events involving a teacher coming on his motorbike taking me to the principals house and then to Amani the sponsor child’s family home. 

A very special experience, meeting someone the other side of the world who has been writing to my mum for the last 10 years and has photos of her.

Amani with a photo of my ma

Amani with her family :)

On my first night I met Alex and Jenny from Engeland.  Jenny was from Clitheroe, the town where my Dad was born and half my family grew up.  She was the third person I’d met from Clitheroe in the last year, having only ever previously having met people from Clitheroe in Clitheroe.   It might only have a population of 15,000 but that 15,000 is pure gold!

Me with Jennifer and Alex

We took a few boat trips together.  The first was Whale watching which basically involved a race between two whale spotting boats towards any big movement in the Ocean.  It was pretty sad to see all such a noisy vibration of engines so close to Whales but I did get to see a Blue Whale.  It was breathtaking.  I gave up trying to take photos in a rocking boat and just stared at its majesty. I did, however, get one snap.

and this was the other 'whale chasing' boat.....

We also went snorkeling in Pigeon Island.  Considering this was just a snorkel, the colours of the coral blew me away.  I guess that’s the blessing of Sri Lanka being such a new tourist footprint. We saw parrott fish,, bannerfish, triggerfish  and had a family of reef sharks follow us round.

A few days later I took the bus across to the west coast to Wilpattu National Park.  Sri Lanka is famed for it’s national parks and Wilpattu is the biggest, yet least touristic as it’s only just reopened post civil war.   For that reason I managed to get two night’s accommodation, food, a guide, permits and a jeep all for around $60US!  The best part was, despite the 5am wake up to get to the park before sunrise there was a packed breakfast included in the price.  All of a sudden I felt like I was on a school trip, however, instead of going to a local field to look at cows this one was to spot leopards :)

My packed breakfast!

As we were going through the gates of the park my guide got very excited about a wasp nest.  That kinda set the benchmark for 6 hours on a bumpy jeep, and I've had plenty of wasp nest in my house so had no interest in a photo stop.  No leopards, elephants or any large mammals.  I guess having seen a Blue Whale only a few days previous was a hard one to top anyways.  However, for the Ornithologist this park was heaven.  Within the first hour I saw a Crested Serpent-Eagle, Changeable Hawk Eagle and a few  more of the c60 species of eagles.   Here's just a few....

 

In 6 hours I only saw two other jeeps so if you want a peaceful National Park with ‘the highest potential’ of spotting a leopard in Sri Lanka and ‘a lot’ of birds of prey then this place is perfect.  I loved it but after 4 hours I took to using the bird spotting lookouts as yogashalas!

I then took the 4 hour bus to Negombo which is the closest town to the airport.  It also has a beach, and lots of tourist hotels and restaurants so is the perfect base close to the airport. Still I had a 12 hour wait for my flight (it had been $40 for a 4am flight vs.$70 for a 8pm flight).  The airport was very basic but it had a supermarket so I could tuck into a decent range of healthy snack with my last few ever so pretty Sri Lanka Rupees.  

At 3am there was an announcement that my flight was delayed by 2 hours.  At that stage I had a full belly and was snoozing on my $1 travel pillow.  I didn't care, so long as my next stop was India, I was happy.

I will miss those beach sunsets though!