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Published: March 29th 2015
Winter isn't Shanghai's finest season. The air quality deteriorates, the days are short and cold, and everything seems gray and colorless. From a western perspective at least, January is always a bit of a let down. Once the festive Christmas holidays pass and the excitement of the New Year subsides, the leftovers feel pretty drab (though in China everyone is still looking forward to Spring Festival and time with family).
Luckily enough, we managed an extended escape…our first time to the glorious cacophony of color that is South Asia. It was also nice to get away from the big city. The first thing I noticed about Sri Lanka as we approached was how dark it was. Even as we descended towards Colombo there were very few lights until we were practically on top of the capital. In fact, the entire population of Sri Lanka is just about 20 million…that’s 3 million less than the inhabitants of Shanghai!
We arrived so late that we opted to stay at a hotel near the airport. It was basically just a small family home with a few rooms rented out for guests funneling in and out of the country. The next morning we
sat on the balcony, overcome with happiness, as our hosts puttered around in the yard. Across the street a coconut fell into the neighbor’s garden. She hurried out to retrieve it. In two hours of relaxing and journaling outside this was the most eventful occurrence we observed. Welcome to a different pace of life.
Later in the afternoon we headed into the city proper, where we would stay at a more central hotel before catching an early morning train the next day. The cab driver stopped short of our destination, claiming to have been confused about the address and asking for more money. This was the first of many similar interactions that we would have while in Sri Lanka.
We politely declined and found a tuk-tuk to take us to our hotel (which, unsurprisingly, was only a few blocks away).
We were so excited to be back in the tropics that we immediately headed out to explore, oblivious to the midday sun. Of course, we mostly just walked from one restaurant/café to another, so there was plenty of time to lounge and soak it in. One of our favorites was
Barefoot. I’d seen it recommended on a
number of blogs and travel sites, but wasn’t sure what it was until we wandered in. It’s a very popular handicraft shop/café/gallery. The store sells everything from Ceylon tea to saris and a large percentage of the price tag is returned to the artisans. They also have a nice courtyard full of trees and wooden carvings and the food was quite good.
Another highlight was
Whight and Co. Coffee. It ended up being the best coffee we had on the island. They brew local coffee and the beans are supposedly from Nuwara Eliya in the Central Highlands. We never went to Nuwara Eliya, which is perhaps why we never again found such good coffee. However, I expect that Sri Lanka suffers from the same fate as Guatemala: many of the best beans are purchased by large companies and exported and it’s cheaper for the locals to drink Nescafe or another instant variety. Whight and Co. sits on Marine Drive and at dusk has a great view out to sea as the commuter trains rumble by.
We ended our night at the
Colombo Cricket Club which somehow felt like a throwback to last century. You can sit outside and
Cool wooden statue
In the courtyard of "Barefoot", Colombowatch the fruit bats return to the trees or inside amongst the cricket paraphernalia. Cricket fascinates me. I have no idea of the rules and can’t follow what’s happening. Actually, the only time I’d seen it before was at Kapiolani Park in Honolulu where matches were held sporadically on the weekend. Our visit to Sri Lanka coincided with several important incidents. One was the run-up to the Cricket World Cup, in which the national team has been a major contender. It’s perhaps the only event that could overshadow the recent election, but when we did have a chance to chat with people it was the topic that they were most eager to bring up.
I really liked Colombo and I think it would be an interesting city to be an expat in. It appeared extremely bustling and chaotic in places, but also had a sleepy quality about that I’ve noticed in other tropical cities. Time just passes differently. I really enjoyed the color, the palm trees, and the abandoned mansions with their peeling paint and sagging verandas. The food was great and people seemed relaxed (at least when you weren’t trying to cross the road!) But these are only
my fleeting impressions and it is important to note that we were centrally located within easy walking distance to many old parts of the city.
We got up bright and early the next day to go to the
train station. I’d learned last minute that we were traveling on the eve of a holiday: The February 3
rd Poya Festival followed by Independence Day. "Poya" are religious public holidays that occur once a month on the full moon. People usually get the day off work, but rather than spend it slugging beer on the couch they are expected to pay a visit from the temple and abstain from unhealthy habits, like drinking alcohol, smoking, eating meat etc. The word poya actually comes from Sanskrit, meaning "fasting day". Devotees at the temple often arrive with the whole family, dressed in white, and bearing offerings of fruit and flowers. Poya, I learned, was not to be confused with puja, which refers to a specific Buddhist ceremony. Pujas, are held daily (sometimes more) at many of the temples around Sri Lanka and usually last for an hour or so. This event is concerned with the
Tuk-Tuk
Colombo public worship of the Buddha, and followers gather at the temple to share in prayer, line up to give offerings, and listen to music. We eventually went to a puja ceremony in Kateragama, which I will describe in a later blog.
Back to the mundane aspects of travel - Since we were to be traveling around the holiday, we reserved train tickets in advance. Maybe that was due to my “I-live-in-China” paranoia… prepare for the crowds to be at their worst and ALWAYS book ahead on a national holiday.
In retrospect, I’m sure we would have been fine buying tickets at the station. When we arrived at 6: 30 am, the trains were sold out for the next few hours. However, there were tickets available from 11 am onward, so if you were patient you could have just waited it out at a local café. Though there was a bit of jostling and a few line-cutters, the queue wasn’t out of control either.
If you want to pre-book your train tickets before arriving in Sri Lanka, there are two helpful websites that will allow you to do this: ExpoRail (
www.exporail.lk) and Rajadhani Express (
www.rajadhani.lk). We took the
former from Colombo to Kandy and the latter from Peradiniya (6 km from Kandy) to Ella. These are special “sightseeing” cars run by private companies but attached to normal, government operated trains. For anyone out there who is planning a trip to Sri Lanka and considering this option…
Advantages:
1. You can book a few weeks in advance AND there is a guaranteed seat…no mad dash!
2. Online reservation process is easy and you can pay with any international credit card
3. They serve you food (sort of)
4. There is air conditioning (sort of)
Disadvantages
1. It is more expensive (relatively speaking). We paid roughly Rp 1200/person, which is around USD 10. While inflated from the normal price, it might be worth it depending on your travel style.
2. Not all of the seats are equal. Even though you are riding in the special viewing carriage, some of the seats only have a fragment of window. We got lucky, but it could be very frustrating if you choose wrong (and there is no way to tell at the time of booking).
3. The windows won’t roll down, and because the
AC barely worked it was quite hot and stuffy. It’s much more fun to ride in one of the second class cars where you can hang out the window, breath the fresh air, and take photos.
Generally speaking, I would say that it’s probably not worth it unless you find yourself traveling at a particularly busy time. That said, our ride to Kandy was pretty awesome.
We found our train without too much trouble and were on our way to Kandy at 7 am on the dot. As the old train lurched and rocked noticeably, Craig and I exchanged nervous glances. Was this normal? We were used to Shanghai’s smooth bullet trains, which race effortlessly along the tracks at close to 300 km/hour. But the older Sri Lankan trains had personality. The stewards came around (one of the perks of reservation class) with their white uniforms and gloves (one of the perks of reservation class, I suppose). It was like slipping back in time to the colonial era.
They handed around boxes of pastries and later served tea and coffee, which took considerable talent considering how violently the train was bouncing. It was downright hysterical to watch
everyone trying to drink their hot beverages. As soon as we’d reach a smooth patch all of the passengers would simultaneously take a gulp, then return to their awkward positions holding the cups at arm’s length, letting them move up and down slightly to absorb the shock of the tracks, an odd sort of synchronized dance.
I never drank out of a paper cup in Sri Lanka. Perhaps a true holdover of the British legacy, it was always porcelain. Even in the smallest café, tea would be brought out in a full set: cups, saucers, sugar bowls, pot.
About thirty minutes from Colombo we began to climb out of the flat rice paddies and into the hills. Gaps in the foliage showed increasingly dramatic views as we ascended. Within 2.5 hours we had reached
Kandy, the so-called “cultural capital” of Sri Lanka.
I don’t know much about Sri Lanka’s long and complex history. The island has been fought over a number of times, by warring kingdoms and later by colonial powers, which, in turn, carved it up and sparred over its rich natural resources. In the tidbits that I have come across, Kandy was extremely important. Always
Queen Cafe
Having coffee on a rainy day fiercely independent, the Kingdom of Kandy (which lasted roughly from the late 1400s to early 1800s) held out first against the Portuguese, and later against the Dutch.
When the British arrived in the late 1700s and defeated the Dutch, they began to piece together their new empire and establish government. Ever the thorn in the administrative side, the leadership of Kandy refused to give in. At one point, the British even marched on the city and attempted to install one of their own governors, only to be driven out and chased down in the misty jungle. Eventually, the rogue king lost popularity with his subjects over his violent punishments of wrongdoers and the British succeeded in driving him into exile. In 1818 the Treaty of Kandy officially linked Kandy with the British Empire, though the Brits promised religious freedom and to leave former systems of government intact.
The spirit of rebellion and of being the true preservers of Sinhalese culture remains strong in Kandy. We heard it mentioned on more than one occasion. The modern city looked a little drab as we rolled in on an overcast afternoon, but there was no doubt that the setting was spectacular.
The heart of Kandy sits along a man-made lake. Crushed between jagged green hills, even the blocky concrete buildings have an air of isolation and mystery.
We were staying at a house outside of town, perched on one of the aforementioned hills. We’d found it through TripAdvisor’s vacation rental page, thinking it would be a nice base from which to explore the city and surrounding area. Upon leaving the train station we made the mistake of taking a taxi. Overall, in the course of our travels, I found tuk-tuk’s to be much easier to rely on. The drivers generally seemed more knowledgeable about the local area, the fares were cheap, and you were less likely to get the hard sell on this-or-that tour.
That’s exactly what our taxi driver did. He was so busy trying to get us to sign up for a countryside tour or a day trip to the UNESCO sites that he barely glanced at the paper with our address. As we headed up into the hills he shoved his recommendation book into our hands, pointing out all the young foreign couples who had been just thrilled with his services. Eventually, he realized that we
were in the wrong place. First, he blamed the other drivers at the station for distracting him and giving him wrong information. Then, he turned the blame on us. Why hadn’t we told him the correct address? After several minutes of accusations I calmly piped up and reminded him that we had shown him the address.
After being contradicted, he flew into a rage and began telling us that Sri Lankans are always friendly and happy, and since we were on vacation, we should be happy too. I've honestly almost never seen someone lose their cool over something so trivial. Long story short, we reached our destination... but it was a pretty poor start to our time in Kandy. The argument with the driver was one of our worst and most extreme interactions of the trip. That said (and in danger of making a generalization), it was not the only time we encountered this attitude. In fact, I frequently had men telling me that I should “look happy” and that “nice girls smile”. This wasn’t said simply in jest, it was said with an undercurrent of resentment. It was a common rebuttal when declining a tuk-tuk, or politely refusing
an invitation into someone’s shop. Even when being harassed by the most obnoxious of touts, it was an inexcusable offense not to offer up a big grin and say something along the lines of “gee, I love Sri Lanka! People are so nice!”
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Sri Lanka very much. It’s a beautiful country, rich in history, and many people were beyond nice. At the same time, there are quite a few headaches associated with a fledgling tourist industry. Sri Lanka’s coastline was wracked by the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and its violent, 25+ year ling civil war ended a mere five years ago. Seeming to stabilize, it became ripe for discovery by tourists seeking turquoise water, some less-traveled roads, nature, or perhaps, a more off-beat alternative to India.
What’s certain is that the tourists are there now, in droves. They were pouring through Kandy (as were we, of course); not just western tourists, but also large packs of mainland Chinese. Sri Lanka is undiscovered no longer.
One side effect of the recently-emerged tourist explosion are the numbers of touts and scams. It seems everyone is groping to get theirs amongst this
new-found windfall. I suppose that you can’t blame them after the bleak history of the past few decades, but for an independent traveler, it can also present a real headache.
On the flip side, there are some major positives to Sri Lanka that I hadn’t encountered anywhere else. One was that many of the hostels we stayed in were small, family-run B and B’s. Not only did they have a more personal feel, but the experience actually gave you a chance to chat with locals who’d lived in the area for ages and had plenty of helpful advice (and often fantastic home-cooked food). Development has not yet caught up with the tourist numbers and impersonal, big-name resorts are yet to crop up in most areas. I have a feeling this will change, however. During our visit, there seemed to be a construction boom. Scaffolding and new buildings were popping up on every corner. We also heard our fair share of drilling, sawing, and nailing, which…dare I say it…reminded us a little too much of Shanghai?
In spite of the influx, there are still less traveled corners of Sri Lanka and plenty of "off-the beaten track" adventures waiting to
be had. Its also hard to beat Sri Lanka for its sheer diversity of experiences - ancient cities, national parks, hiking, festivals, great food, etc.
After and unpleasant start in Kandy, we arrived at the house in the early afternoon and within minutes of walking through the door the sky opened and a torrential downpour began. We waited it out and during a break in the storm headed into town. Had lunch at the
Old Empire Cafe, just across from the Temple of the Tooth and watched crowds of worshipers huddling under umbrellas and streaming into the temple. The rain just wouldn't let up, so we switched locations to
Queen Cafe, ordered a pot of coffee, and watched passersby battle the deluge. We took a brief walk around the lake before, cold and damp, we finally gave up on sightseeing. We bought some groceries at the local supermarket, and took a tuk-tuk back to the house where we made sandwiches and watched the sun set over the rain-soaked valley.
The next day - February 4th - was Sri Lanka's Independence Day. 2015 marked 67 years of Independence (though it remained a commonwealth until 1972). Sri Lanka's freedom came
about more or less peacefully, as part of a movement led not by poor workers but by a group of intellectual, middle class Sri Lankans who had grown tired of the discriminatory practices of their British compatriots. Supposedly in Colombo there are official parades, music, and merriment, but it seems that we missed the party in Kandy. In fact, it was quite a dour affair...most businesses were shuttered, the bars were closed down, and the streets were empty. Perhaps everyone had gone to the capitol to celebrate, or perhaps they were all at the temple.
Sri Dalada Maligawa, known by English speakers as the “
Temple of the Tooth” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the heart of Sri Lankan Buddhism. The temple contains one of the incisors of Gautama Buddha, smuggled out of India after his death and safeguarded for centuries in Kandy. The Kandyan rulers were considered the protectors of the relic, a position that, along with a great deal of responsibility, also granted them a great deal of political power. Although at times the tooth was hidden for its protection (for example, during the Portuguese invasion), it mostly resided close to its keepers. For this reason,
the temple was built within the royal palace compound.
We left our shoes on the grass outside, paid our admission, and crossed a moat into the impressive temple complex. We were immediately swept up a flight of wooden stairs by the eager crowds. Shuffling a long through halls that smelled of incense and fresh flowers, we eventually reached our destination: a gilded room, visible only through a small window. Here, worshipers muttered prayers and bowed, handing their offerings to a monk inside. I caught a glimpse of the main attraction – a sparkling box in the shape of a stupa – before being ushered along. After making their way through the line, many stopped on the periphery of the room; sitting on the floor, praying, and placing more flowers on a long alter.
Apparently, they do bring the relic out during puja ceremonies. However, as far as I can tell, the box is never opened.
We continued wandering through the temple, stopping in several alcoves, before wandering out to look at the grounds. This was my favorite part of the experience. Outside, people were lighting incense, feeding the temple roosters, sitting in the shade, and taking pictures
of their family members on the ramparts. Upon exiting the temple proper, we proceeded through a series of smaller temples and stupas to a
sacred tree.
In Buddhism, trees are regarded as sacred because it was under a tree that the Buddha first found enlightenment and preached his first sermon. Here, we watched worshipers walking counter-clockwise around the broad trunk, gradually ascending past fluttering prayer flags, and splashing water from plastic buckets as they prayed. One mother helped her little daughter to painstakingly balance her bucket – a task which the little girl undertook with the utmost seriousness – as they climbed the stairs. An older woman grasped an outstretched branch, pressing her cheek against the rough wood, and signing a soft prayer. It was a very special place.
There was much more to see and do in Kandy, but in the end we decided to cut our stay a bit short. After so much time rubbing shoulders with our fellow humans in Shanghai, we were anxious to move onto the smaller towns in the tea country and the rugged southern coast. So we boarded another train.
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Gene G. Bradbury the First
non-member comment
An Enviable Journey
Your writing was superb as always and I enjoy the man picture that capture the country well. I would have loved to sit in the Coffee House listening to the rain with you.