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Published: September 15th 2017
Both ends of the platform at Ella rail station have signs warning that it's a criminal offence to walk on the tracks. We ignored this yesterday, however as we approached the station this morning, we found ourselves walking alongside a policeman and another guy in military uniform. I was concerned about getting onto the tracks in front of them as it is actually illegal, no matter how many other people do it too.
Glyn was fearless and strode on without looking back and I followed, waiting to hear a shout that never came. Phew! Once past the warning sign, we came upon a second sign in English only, warning us that should we 'happen' to find ourselves on the tracks, beware of thieves. So basically the authorities are taking it as given that the first sign will be ignored. I still felt uncomfortable about the policeman though, he had a handgun on his hip which always makes me feel uneasy.
We were on an early morning walk to get some exercise before our 271km train journey to Colombo. This time we followed the tracks in the opposite direction to yesterday to see the Demodara Nine Arches bridge which is
an architectural wonder apparently and only 2.5kms away. This route was more overgrown but being around 7am it was a lot cooler than our jaunt yesterday. We saw a few locals and some girls that mumbled something about avoiding the train in the tunnel. And indeed there was a short tunnel just before the bridge, full of bats, but the trick is not to walk in it at the same time as the train. There is room for humans, bats and train, but I presume it would be noisy and smelly.
The bridge was just that. We took non-award winning photos and sat at the Nine Arches Cafe that was just opening. They had the best honey and curd (a national dish) that we have experienced and we also had lassis. Who should turn up but the policeman and military man, I heard no vehicle arrive, had they walked on the tracks too? A couple of locals sauntered out of the tunnel and chatted to the policeman before they walked over the railway bridge. Obviously the law doesn't uphold this particular law here as they both smiled and said hello as we reentered the tunnel to return to our
accommodation, passing a woman herding her cows along the track.
After packing our bags we returned to the station, this time to catch a train! Glyn booked 1st class as it's still very cheap and the only way you can be sure of a seat - we didn't want to be standing for 10 hours. At the back are two large windows, an 'observation deck', but someone else already had those seats. First class isn't that good, but when passing another train, I saw how stuffed second and third are and was grateful for our seats. The carriage mostly held tourists who took turns hanging out of the doors and photographing each other. Sitting in the open doorway of a moving train is a thing here.
All the windows were wide open, so the tourists (including me!) were doing a 'tea plantation' safari where we scanned the countryside for tea plantation workers to attempt to get a photo before we shot past. The train is pretty slow so it was doable if only the workers put in an appearance.
The countryside was stunning with jungle covered mountains, farms, multiple waterfalls and aforementioned tea plantations. It's all so
lush and green with not many urban areas, roads or litter. Very beautiful and I spent hours just gazing out of the windows.
After some hours it was time to use the loo and Glyn had been waiting for me to go first so that I could report back. Now it wasn't good but it wasn't terrible either, I've certainly come across worse (squat loo on overnight train in China). This was a western loo but no need to flush as it opened up directly below so the ground could be seen rushing by. There was running water too plus the usual squirty pipe to wash certain areas. Glyn felt it was safe to go.
As the train rattled on through the countryside stopping at lots of stations, the ratio of tourists to locals changed and there were only six Europeans left on the carriage. Now we were seated amongst local families including one small girl who stared at me a lot.
As we entered the more central region of Sri Lanka, either we got higher up or the clouds lowered. Either way, train and cloud met and the light became dimmer with light rain. The landscape
was still jungle, farms, tea, kids playing cricket etc. As the sun began to set, the carriage and the landscape became golden. Increasingly we passed through many tunnels as it was still mountainous and in every tunnel the children stuck their heads out of the windows and howled for fun. No one seemed to mind.
The last two hours of the journey were in darkness and we arrived just after 9pm. Colombo is much larger than anywhere else in Sri Lanka and certainly feels like a Capital city with a smattering of high rises, 3 lane traffic and none of the laid back attitude we felt everywhere else.
As soon as we were out of the station a guy wanted us to ride in his taxi saying it was 2000 lkr to our accommodation, we knew this was high as its only 4km away. We tried to get a tuk-tuk and that was 1000 lkr, still high but by now we were surrounded; taxi man dropped his price to 1500 lkr and was bickering with the tuk-tuk driver in Sinhalese. We knew 1000 lkr was over priced but we just wanted to get away. Then there was the
usual discussion where a few guys look at Glyn's booking print out and phoned the accommodation, this has happened with just about every tuk-tuk we have used. As he drove, the tuk-tuk driver kept babbling at us, saying the taxi driver was dangerous but he was a good driver as he jumped at least two red lights, cut up a lorry and made an illegal u-turn on a busy junction. He started to claim it was further than he thought and wanted 1500 lkr and we said no. He called our accommodation again and an argument ensued. After Glyn fired up google maps, we found it as our new host was in the street to wave us down. He totally gave the tuk-tuk driver a telling off: if he can't find places in the city he works he should get another job. It was a scam to get more money from us but our host put a stop to that. I paid the 1000 lkr because we'd agreed this price but it should have been half that.
Our host speaks excellent English and explained that the tuk-tuks and taxis at the station are a problem and he falls out
with them a lot. He told us that soon it will be law for them to use metres and then they won't get away with scamming any more. To be fair though, this is the only time we experienced this kind of bother in Sri Lanka.
Our accommodation is called Mini's Residence because our hosts owns a 1960s classic mini. He loves that era, having record players many decades old the size of a large chest that still work. He played us his Elvis vinyl and loves Elvis movies. He's also a big Beatles fan.
We were also told that tourism is really low even for this time of year, the Sri Lankan press says that in the UK we are under the impression that it's dirty here. I've not seen that and we have found it very clean. I think this is only the second time I've been abroad with Glyn where he hasn't had a stomach bug and lost weight as a result.
We chatted until quite late in the night, about old music, Sri Lanka and some of the issues it has today and looked at his various antiques all still in working order.
I'd loved to talk further but we were tired and needed bed!
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cabochick
Andrea
Loving your blogs! I'm going in October. Can't wait. Will keep in mind dodgy tuk tuk and taxi drivers. The train travel looks interesting! I'm unfortunately familiar with the hole in the floor.