Heading up north


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Asia » Sri Lanka » Northern Province
December 31st 2016
Published: January 2nd 2017
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Today we had booked first class train tickets to Jaffna, a town right on the northern tip of Sri Lanka. It looked to be the best spot to try and get to the start of Adam's bridge for photo two and large enough to find a party for New Years Eve.

Our train was the Colombo to Jaffna Express and extremely modern. First class had much more comfortable seats than the previous trip although the trip was only 3.5 hours so I will hold back on saying they were great.

Sri Lanka changes considerably up in this northern area. It's very flat and desolate, it sort of felt like heading to the end of the world. The roading and rail infrastructure is new, having been rebuilt and extended recently resulting in an increase in tourism. The area following many years of fighting from the 80's through the naughties is enjoying a period of peace although we did see many army barracks and naval installations whilst we were looking around.

Our hotel, righwt beside the railway station was an excellent choice. It had a large New Year buffet dinner planned with a live band playing. We hit the pool on arrival but Shelley got a bad vibe about the considerable number of leering drunk men in the bar beside it so didn't stay long. Later we found out from an Australian couple we had dinner with that there had been an office NY lunch party in the restaurant that involved a few bottles of scotch. The Australians view point was classic. He reckoned they were better behaved than any bunch of Aussie blokes would have been. After organising a car for the next day to visit Mannar Island so we could capture the second of our Adam's bridge photos we had a late afternoon nap and a great New Year dinner with a couple of drinks. We were in bed by 10.30pm.


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3rd January 2017

Second class traveller!
Oh wow, lovely to see you in the first class option. That is something we didn't experience in Sri Lanka! Great to see your Facebook post from Sigiriya. That is somewhere we didn't get to, yet heard so much about! Next time.... ?

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