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Sri Lanka Interior
Our track in and around Sri Lanka |
25 March 2007, Galle, Sri Lanka
Dear Friends and Family,
We've just come back from a wonderful tour through inland Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka,
known as Ceylon when the British controlled it, is a tear-drop shaped island
just SSE of India. The northern part is being fought over by the Tamil Tigers,
who want a country to call their own, so we didn't go there, but the southern
half is usually safe. The central area is quite mountainous and therefore
deliciously cool so that's where we spent most of our time. Although we were
offered a car and driver for only US$35/day, we decided to really get the flavor
of Sri Lanka by using primarily public transportation, which was an adventure in
itself.
Our first leg, from Galle on the SW corner to the capital of Colombo 3 hours
north, we did by old, rickety commuter train (2nd
and 3rd class only). The tracks
follow the coast and we saw considerable damage from the 2004 Boxing-day tsunami
(foundations without houses, lots of small cemeteries, etc.) even after 2+ years.
There were also none of the warning sirens or posted tsunami directions
that we saw all over coastal areas of Thailand.
Some of the many palm trees along the coast sported ropes between the tops.
These are for the "toddy-tappers" who slice the small coconut nodules to make
them weep, wrap the bundle of nodules in the husk that hangs over them, and hang a
gourd at the end of the husk to catch the juice. The tapper then walks the ropes
to the next tree to repeat the process. The juice is fermented into a beer
(toddy) and also distilled into a liquor (arrack).
Empty foundations 2 years after the tsunami |
Colombo is a sprawling concrete jungle, with traffic all following the Indian
driving model (get where you want to go the most expedient way you can). When
we were here in 1980, all of the taxis were old Morris Minors, but now they use
Indian 3-wheeled "tuk-tuks" with tiny 125cc (7.5 cu in) engines
and crazy drivers. Since they aren't metered, getting in one usually involves
an argument over the fare, which the locals seem to enjoy. We paid about Rp300/hr
($3/hr) in 2007, but sometimes we had to argue hard to get it. Beggars,
businessmen, guards with AK-47s slung casually over their shoulders, and thousands
of street vendors are everywhere, the women wrapped in beautiful saris.
|
Amanda, Jon and Chris at Pagoda Tea House,
Colombo, for a delicious curry and dahl lunch. |
After a very spicy and delicious curry lunch at the Pagoda Tea House (which
included our first taste of Watalappan,
a cardamom-coconut custard desert made with eggs and palm sugar) we boarded
the "first-class" rail-car to Kandy. Now, 3rd class
costs $1 for 3 hours - a pretty good transportation deal anywhere. Second
class costs about 50% more and sports individual seats rather than benches, but
still no assigned seat and you have to be fast or you'll end up standing.
First class costs $3 and gets you a fan overhead (no air-conditioning)
and an assigned seat in the only first-class car, but all the seats face
backwards! This is guaranteed to induce
motion sickness as the rails are none too flat. The best place to be was
standing in the doorway savoring the moist, fragrant tropical breeze. We never
saw any of the huge, comfortable, air-conditioned busses that we took all over
Thailand and Malaysia.
Sue in the beautiful Botanic Gardens near Kandy |
From the coast to the mountains, SW Sri Lanka is a jungle paradise of coconut
palms, climbing vines, frangipani trees, banana plants and huge mahogany trees.
The tracks climb to 1,600' (500m) up the side of a ridge which affords excellent
views of the plains below. As we rose higher the air chilled delightfully
and the vistas included misty hills, deep forested canyons and small villages of concrete
and wooden houses nestled amongst the greenery.
Thankfully, the guest-house manager in Kandy met us at the train and took us "home" to
delightful long showers and interesting "tea". It seems that they don't have a
license to sell beer, so they pour it into big teapots when customers want it! Dinner
was extravagant with 4 different vegetable curries, curried chicken, pappadam, dahl (lentils), rice,
and ice cream afterwards to put out the fire on the lips. Strangely, they don't serve
yogurt (called "water-buffalo curd" here) or even chutney to cut the fire of the
curry, which is much hotter than what we experienced in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand.
|
Kandian dancers wear elaborate costumes
and dance with grace and skill |
Chris and Amanda at the
base of Ramboda Falls |
We spent a day in Kandy, enjoying a lazy breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs, toast,
jam, and delicious Ceylon tea) on the terrace overlooking the lake and temple where a tooth
of the Buddha is enshrined. Amanda and Sue excitedly checked out the many new
birds that sang around us. A stroll around the lake was enchanting with the
Buddhist statues and shrines, families with neatly uniformed school children, the
girls with their long black hair neatly braided and tied with ribbons, men selling
peanuts and sweets and women under bright umbrellas for the sun. In the trees above
us hung thousands of fruit bats (flying foxes, with their long brown snouts) and
scores of white egrets which preened, argued, nested, and swooped in turn to the
lake edge to feed.
Kandy, like the other Sri Lankan towns we visited, is a-bustle with lumbering
ancient busses, honking tuk-tuks, pedestrians and bicyclists, and the occasional cow
or ox cart. We escaped the street madness with a walk in the elegant Royal
Botanic Gardens before enjoying front-row seats at an athletic Kandian dance
performance in the evening. Considered the heart of Sir Lankan culture, the
Kandian dancers were bedecked in head-dresses, silver and bangled vests, and
foot bells. While men beat enthusiastic and intricate rhythms on double-ended
drums, women wove sinuous patterns with hands and bodies and men performed
outstanding acrobatics: up to 6 back handsprings in as many seconds.
Relaxing in Kandy with beer served in tea pots |
Moving higher into the hills the next morning, we opted for a van and driver which
meant we could stop for photos, hike to a waterfall and stop to taste fresh cups
of excellent Ceylon tea at Blue Fields Plantation. Despite the van breakdown --
a necessity for any good Hacking road trip -- we still had time for lunch before
boarding the afternoon train from Nuwara Eliya to Haputale.
Tea pickers get US$4 per day for 20 kg
(44 lbs) at Sri Lanka's tea plantations. |
This 1.5 hour ride
must be a highlight of train travel in the world and only costs $0.40 (2nd class,
window seats). Running along both forested and open ridges at over 1,600 meters
(5,300 feet) we passed blooming rhododendrons, manicured tea plantations, and
small villages surrounding Hindu and Buddhist shrines. A thousand feet below
spread small, neat fields that provide the majority of fresh vegetables for the country.
We spent a morning outside Haputale at a tea factory where we donned white
coasts and had a private 1-hour tour of the processing of tea leaves into the
fragrant brown powders that fill Lipton tea bags. While Jon and Chris hiked on a
ridge to enjoy far-reaching vistas, Amanda and Sue wandered the tea fields,
smiling and chatting with the tea pickers, and capturing their images on the camera.
Laughing about yet another close call
on our hair-raising bus ride down Ella Gap |
A hair-raising and sometimes hysterical bus ride down the Ella Gap took us back to
the heat of the lowlands of SE Sri Lanka. We should have realized we were in trouble
when the bus stopped at a Buddhist temple and the ticket-taker got off to make an
offering and pray. The most important pieces of navigational gear seemed to be the
(very loud) horn and accelerator, followed by the steering wheel. Brakes ran a
fairly distant fourth. Our driver seemed to think that every other vehicle on
the road was in a race, and he was going to win, no matter the cost to
comfort. One second seemed to be ample time to avoid a head-on collision.
Potential passengers on the side of the road had to signal early and very energetically or
they'd likely be passed by. Enlightening.
Asian elephants roam freely
throughout Yala National Park |
At the lovely Tissa Inn we arranged an all-day safari into Yala National Park, a
wildlife sanctuary on the SE coast. Bouncing along poorly maintained roads we
arrived at the park entrance the next morning at sunrise. Thus began a day that
rivaled some of the best in Africa. Watering holes and ancient (over 1,000 year-old)
reservoirs attracted crocodiles, dozens of wild water buffaloes, and hundreds of
birds (Sue and Amanda identified over 45 species). On the dry, flower-studded plains we
spent hours in company with wild elephants (sometimes only a few paces away),
monitor lizards, mongoose, wild boars, red-faced monkeys, well antlered Chital
(spotted) and Sambar deer, and jackals.
The Green Bee Eater
is common in Yala NP |
Our vehicle was a rather beat-up Mitsubishi knock-off of a Willys "Jeep" with
the front wheel drive blown out. Luckily we never actually got stuck enough that
we needed the 4 wheel drive to get out, and only a few times would the (supposedly necessary)
4 wheel drive have helped. Very few of the nominally 4WD vehicles we saw there
actually had working 4WD - most had their front drive-shafts removed, as ours
did. Our driver was excellent and knew lots of interesting and isolated back tracks
to take, as well as when to stop and how to track the animals.
We took a 4-hour break in the middle of the day to relax by a clear river,
eating our chicken and fried-rice lunch, drinking cool water and lime juice from our
12v fridge, swimming, reading, and napping in the shade on our foam pads. Later in
the afternoon, as a finale to a great trip we reveled in a half-hour of
following and observing a Sri Lankan leopard as it ran after a water buffalo,
climbed a tree, rested there then descended, groomed and finally blended into the
bushes. There are only 35 leopards in the whole park, so they're not often seen.
Sri Lanka's native leopard is rarely seen. We
were very lucky to spend time with this one |
We're now back in Galle aboard Ocelot, having seen Chris off at the
ultra-high-security airport in Colombo.
As we wait for the fluky late-season winds to return to some semblance of
normalcy we are provisioning Ocelot with 3 months worth of dry goods and as much
fresh fruits and vegetables as we think we can store. The diesel tanks and jerry jugs are
full. We'll be out of here in a day or so, starting the 600nm passage to Addu
Atoll in the southern Maldives, just south of the equator. From there we'll head
to the Chagos archipelago (home of the Diego Garcia military base) 300nm further
south for 2 months of swimming and relaxing.
Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon, Sue and Amanda Hacking
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