My trip to Kandy

Big Drop
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

I wasn't feeling well Saturday so I stayed in town but wanted to get away Sunday so I headed to the train station after breakfast to see where the trains would take me...

As the train pulled into the station a mob literally sprinted for the train and I realized either run or stand for four or five hours so I sprinted down the track but noticed that the crowd was all congested around the first two cars so I managed to move around behind them and went to the five car or so and board the train. It was a third class carriage so I headed unobstructed through the train towards to second class carriages where all the mayhem was. I grabbed the first two seats I saw in the carriage as people were starting to crawl in the windows and get through from the other carriages. I sat down and held both seats while the people fought and pushed for seats, leaving me with my two seats alone. I then noticed a lady I had heard yell “Oh Sh$t” when the crowds started to run and pointed to the seat to see if she wanted it, she was quite happy to have a place to sit. She was a grad student from Tulane University working in Galle and on her way to Kandy to take a course. We had a nice chat for the journey about NGO’s and developing countries as she’s also worked in Gabon with the Peace Corps. Arrived in Kandy in the early afternoon and sought out a bit of food first. I bought some pastries from a bakery and had to laugh at the “bag” I got with the pastries, it was two government documents recycled by gluing the three sides into a bag. I opened the bag and could see that a couple of companies had imported some fabric and how much they paid in duties etc.. I wonder if it’s like a lottery and if you get documents with your name on them you win something. Laura wasn’t too happy with the FOI/POP issues. I rented a tuk-tuk for an hour and had him drive me around town to see the sites and was surprised how small Kandy was, it is a lot smaller than Colombo. Like Vancouver it is is limited in how much it can grow as it is surrounded by large hills and a lake. The hills are beautiful and lush green forests grow up the sides only interrupted now and again by a hotel or house that commands the view. Some places are perched on the side of the hill with the use of stilts and I wonder what it is like in the rainy season with mud slides. Parts of the rail journey are also like that. On the one side of the train is a steep rock cliff going up and on the other side it falls away a few feet away from the train. It provides you with an incredible view of the paddy fields down below and into the distance. In a few places there are waterfalls that fall along the tracks however these are often used by the locals for bathing and cleaning and the area was often quite littered which was a shame.

I was told the train left at 4:10 and raced back to be there in time to get a seat and was happy to see the train sitting there quite empty when I arrived. I fell asleep waiting for the train and it slowly filled up. At about 5:30 I was still waiting and could see sparks coming from under the train where they were welding or grinding something, I hoped it wasn’t the brakes as it was a 300 to 400M drop we would make over a short length of the trip just outside of Kandy. The train finally left at 6:30 and I got home rather late and sore, but an enjoyable day away from the city.

Today we were told that he study centre at Batticaloa is quite active regardless of the strike so it was suggested we go for a visit. Hopefully that will work out, I will have seen the north/west/south and east coasts as well as the central region J That’s it for now, Rob

Not my hotel - not even close

DSC04514
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Laura and I decided to head south for the weekend to Bentota and explore osme of the resorts. We had a wonderful weekend away, it started a little shaky but was great. We arrived at the train station at about 6:45 and bought our tickets. The ticket person said track 5 and then the person checking tickets said track 5 as well so off to track 5 we went. I knew that the train to Galle which I had taken the two previous weekends also stopped where we were going and noticed that it left from track 6. We saw it pull in on time and I thought hmmm, I should check so off I went and was told that no, I needed the train on track 5. Anyway no train showed up on track 5 so we had a look on the train to Galle and there were no seats by this time so we waitied. Finally a train showed up on track 5 so we got on. It was obvious that it was a different train and was set up for commuting. Sure enough it stopped halfway to where we were going (Bentoto) and we had to get off. We asked and the next train wasn't until 9:30 (the express to Galle)… So we hung out in the small dirty town for a few hours getting covered in flies… Anyway, we jumped off the train when it stopped and we literally got off the train in front of the stairs to our hotel. We sort of laughed before we saw the stairs with the sign saying it was our hotel as the rooms were ten feet from the tracks. Guess where our rooms were… It wasn't too bad though. The rooms were clean and really nice. We were woken up at 5 by this roar that made me think oh ^%& I hope that is a train and not a tsunami (the water was on the other side of the tracks). Then at
6 the train blew its whistle waking us up again, other than that it was fine. We spend the day Saturday visiting hotels telling them we were planning trips for a group and would like to check out their facilities, it was quite fun and we did some good research!! There are some really nice hotels but you pay up to 130 US a night in the off season. We also were able to walk through some of the hotels that were really hit by the tsunami and decimated, very sad. On Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel, went for a walk to some more resorts and then took a tuk-tuk up to some beautiful gardens about 10 K away from town.
It was funny, we got there and we were the only people there so it was really quiet. We had just entered the gate and I was looking at a nice flower when Laura started to choke and look quite shocked and was pointing down the path. I looked up to see a HUGE monitor lizard, about 5 feet long and larger than a dog. It was strolling down the path away from us. We both got our cameras out and when to chase it down. It was strange it had just disappeared. I still don't know how something that big could just disappear like that. The gardens were magnificent. The designer, who was an artist, worked on them from 1929 to 1992 when he died. There were ponds and fountains and showers and statues, it was truly spectacular. Eventually one couple showed up but it was deserted. So peaceful and serene. I can't wait to take my mother there if she visits and I think Wayne and Delcie will like it when they come. After we left the gardens we visited a few more resorts and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the trip back. Both train rides I rode on the outside step, something I've always wanted to do. It was rather exhilarating and I knew if I wanted to do it I needed to before Cher arrived and wouldn't let me :-) I took some photos of the tsunami hit areas but missed the worst of it and couldn't bring myself to photograph the scene it was so sad. We made it back in about 2 hours which isn't bad considering how different it is from Colombo! I can't wait to go back. I think I will take Cher there for the first weekend she is in town. It was so beautiful and peaceful at the smaller resorts like Club Villa (see photos on my flickr site). I can't wait to take Cher there for the first weekend she is here, I just don't know which palce to go to. The larger resorts are nice, I liked the Lanka Princess best, but the smaller ones are really nice too... We'll see....

Unavatuna trip

DSC04412
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

My trip was quite nice. I went with a Denisfrom work down south again and as usual it was an interesting train ride down. The train tracks are rather worn and the train cars themselves date back at least 50 years so the springs are shot. The ride reminds me of those mechanical bulls you can ride, except those are a bit tamer! I now know why nobody rides on the roof, they wouldn't be able to stay on!!

We got to the hotel and it was quite nice. It was raised up on the rocks right on the ocean but also had a rock feature between the ocean and the hotel that came up to about the second story. Our rooms were on the third floor (all rooms were actually on this floor - "all" is really only 4... The first floor was living quarters, the second floor was a large eating area and then the four rooms on top. The rock feature in front of the hotel protected them from the tsunami, however their grounds were flooded. Right below the room s the waves would crash into the rocks and send up great waves of spray about 20 feet in the air. About every few minutes you would get a huge wave and it would spray a good 40 to 50 feet high. Then about 10 seconds later you'd get the spray in your face if you were standing on your balcony. It was quite awesome.

Once we got settled in we went for a walk to the main beach, about five minutes away. Along the way we ran into a group of large monkeys and a medium sized monitor lizard. Some photos are posted on my flickr site (see previous post for URL). I did capture the end of a big wave on the video camera, I'll try to get a video clip posted somewhere as well later.

We went swimming at the beach and the water was quite nice. As it is monsoon season the water is quite a bit cooler but still really nice. Even refreshing almost. We walked down to the far end of the beach and had a nice meal on the beach, it was rather pleasant. We then headed back to the hotel and then walked to "Jungle Beach", which is trail accessible beach that is literally a beach in the jungle, very nice and a great place to swim. There was a group of young Dutch women teaching a couple of local girls how to swim there and other than them it was empty. On the way back it was an interesting trek through the "jungle" and we got a bit lost but you can always hear the roar of the ocean so you can't go too far wrong. It was an adventure. After we got back we showered and took some naps and then headed out for dinner. We had a buffet at a beach resort which was a bit pricey, about 6$, but hey, we splurged. We then headed back and it was pretty dark and the roads are all sort of road/trail with lots of damage from the tsunami. We wanted to get a to larger road where we could get a ride but as it had rained really hard during dinner the roads were pretty washed out. We came around a corner and could hear a vehicle when I saw something moving ahead of us in the shadows. It then moved to where it was silhouetted against the headlights from the car and was a large dog, a very large dog. It moved around the corner and something in my mind was telling me something was different about the way it moved, not in a dangerous way, just different. Denis had noticed it too but didn't say anything, he'd had a few beer with dinner and thought it was the effect of those that was confusing him. Anyway we rounded the corner and bumped into the "dog", it mooed at us and we both broke into laughter as it was a medium sized cow... How brave we were... The owner of the hotel passed us on his way home and gave us a ride back so that was nice. We headed to bed and I was asleep within minutes after all the swimming and walking and sun only to be awoken with a crash about an hour later as a gust of wind hit us moving at least 100K. A storm hit with an incredible crashing of waves and wind and rain. It was incredible. I had been sleeping with the patio doors open but the rain was coming in sideways so I shut them and enjoyed the sounds of the crashing waves and of the rain hitting the building. About an hour later I was woken again as the storm turned up another notch. I had cringe at the thought of all the people down the road still living in tents and wondering what it was like there. I got out of bed around 2 to film some of the trees on the back of the hotel but missed the rain and some of the bigger winds, it was still awesome though. When we woke up it was still stormy so we had a nice breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and toast with jam (fresh home baked bread, my first since I've been here). We decided to head out on the 10 AM train as it was going to rain for the day. We fought our way onto the train and eventually found two seats between two windows. The train ride journey is 160K and sitting by a window is almost a must. The two seats in front of us were being held by two bags and when the people arrived I asked with a hundred rupee note in my hand if they wanted to switch. The wife didn't notice the money and indicated no, she wanted the window, the husband saw the note and couldn't pick her or the bags up quick enough. So we switched and I added another 100 to make them even happier. The ticket (2nd class - no 1st on this route) cost 93 Rupees so they got a free ride plus some money for snacks and we got our seat. One US dollar is about 101 rupees to give you an idea of the money I was throwing around like Rockafellar... Our room was 1500R including breakfast. The ride in a three-wheeler from the train station to the hotel was 150R, all in all a fairly cheap trip. Oh, I took a local bus to the train station from in front of my flat to the train station for 6R too...

All in all a great trip for about 30$ total! Can't beat it! Post your comments or email me, I have a feeling nobody reads my posts as they are too long... sorry. With the poor connectivity I tend to post less frequently but longer posts....

Today is a HUGE rally here in Colombo, they expect a million people. Should be interesting even if they get half than many people together!

Take care... Rob

The Apple

The apple…
I needed to get some groceries tonight but didn’t have enough time after work and before dinner to do my run and also do a shop so I decided to combine the two tasks. It’s cooled down considerably with the monsoons so it is bearable to run in the evenings now. The temperature is around 30 to 32 and the humidity is 70-95% according to the news tonight. That sounds hot but really it’s a lot cooler than it was and feels cool enough to use the geyser in the mornings (that’s the hot water tank that hangs above my tub, you turn it on a few minutes before the shower to get hot water). Anyway, I took the list of groceries from Susanah and along with my visa went for my run. I typically run in the military secured area behind the apartment as there isn’t a lot of traffic. There aren’t enough roads to make a good run without either lapping the route several times or else going out onto a busier road for a couple hundred metres so I often do a bit of both, loops and busy streets for a short distance. Anyway tonight I was trying to plan the time so that I would end up at the food store after 45 minutes so I ended up doing a loop past this one spot about three times. There was a lady sitting on the sidewalk begging and each time I passed her she held out a hand for something. I indicated I had no money each time and kept running. I finished the run and headed to the store with my list and bought three big bags worth of groceries and started to walk home. I soon realized that I was going to have to pass the lady I had told three times that I had no money with my arms full of food. I didn’t want to try to explain that I had paid with visa or pull out my card for someone to grab so I took an apple out of the bag and had it ready for her. As I neared her I could see that she saw me with the bags and was dealing with the dissonance of what I had said and then walking along with bags of food. As I was reaching into the bag to proudly pull out this ice cold big juicy apple she smiled simultaneously with me producing the fruit. Just as I handed it to her I noticed she had a toothless smile that was changing to a frown of displeasure at the useless piece of food. It was rather awkward and I didn’t have anything else I could give her easily so I left feeling pretty horrible. Lesson learned, always carry small rupees!!