Travelling by train in other countries makes me acutely aware of how poor our UK railways are. Second class Sri Lankan trains are by far superior to standard class South Western Railway trains – more comfortable, more spacious and, of course, much better views. And the windows open, so you can control the air conditioning 🙂 Admittedly, they run significantly fewer and slower trains, but it’s a small price to pay. Especially when journeys are so long – three and a half hours to get from Mirissa to Colombo (about 150 kilometres), and we were moving much faster than the train to Ella.
Oh, and they’re ridiculously cheap. An equivalent distance in the UK (say, London to Brockenhurst in the New Forest) would take only 1h 40m but set you back £45.40 if you bought a ticket on departure. Mirissa to Colombo was £1.10. Third class (which also looked pretty good) is even less. And there’s free WiFi in all stations.
SWR, please watch and learn.
Talking about comfortable train seats, Eurostar had mastered good train seat design, but then took a step backwards when they refurbished – the head wings on the their seats have been reduced, so you can’t rest your head. Gone are the days I could board in Brussels, sleep for two hours and wake up in London. And the seats are lower, so sound travels round the carriage more, making a quiet journey a thing of the past, too. Bad design is bad. Bad design that used to be good is even worse. Eurostar, please employ an ergonomist.
Anyway, back to Sri Lanka. Observations from the very pleasant, comfortable and interesting journey are as follows:
Palm trees are different here – instead of the overlapping pieces on the trunk that became so familiar when I lived in Florida, these have more “conventional” trunks, and are taller and thinner.
I don’t have a view either way on tattoos. Wouldn’t get one myself, but I’m intrigued by others’ and often ask about their story – every tattoo has a story. But it never ceases to amaze me what people will permanently ink on themselves. My stalker cam captured this one today (it says “Catch one’s heart / Never Be apart” – complete with the gratuitous capital B):
Gentle, but deliberate. We’d stopped at Galle (a major stop) and a large group was passing the open window, upon which my arm was resting. It was a gentle, but deliberate touch of the arm. I looked out, and saw a procession of Sri Lankans who waved, said “hello” and looked shy as I waved back. Once again, we’re the main event in town. It’s a little unnerving, but they’re friendly and curious, not intimidating, quietly fascinated by “the white people”. It’s occurred to me more than once that these people have no idea what our lives are like – they probably make it up based on US films, music videos and popular rumour. I’m guessing that it’s way off. The closest film to my life is probably Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 😉
Train travel is soporific. Soporific (“sleep-inducing”) is one of my favourite words. Trains are one of my favourite modes of transport. Just an observation 🙂
Passing the outskirts of the various towns en route, the hierarchy of Sri Lankan society became clear – the richer you are, the better you can protect yourself from the water. Shanty towns, or rather small villages, had been built in marshes – corrugated iron shacks with little to keep out the torrents of water that descend during rainy season. A lump in my throat as, yet again, it strikes me how poor some people are, and how unfathomably lucky I am:
But you simply can’t beat the views from some of the real estate:
[tba]
Whilst we’re on the subject of dwellings, let’s talk about Asian house engineering. Or the lack of it. As with SE Asia, houses are single skin, concrete breeze blocks – exactly the sort of thing you don’t want in a wet environment. Houses age quickly as damp appears on external and internal walls and the paint peels. Obviously, they don’t require its insulating properties, but surely cavity walls are the way to go. Initial costs might be higher, but it means you’ll only have to build one house. But I’m no engineer, so I stand to be corrected…
Approaching Negombo, it was a relief to see this was going to be a very different city from Colombo. Christianity was brought by the Portguese and the plethora of churches strikes you immediately. It’s also less dirty and noisy. Not a town you’d want to hang around in, but much more preferable to the capital, and Badulla.
Getting the local bus from Colombo instead of the express meant the journey had been just over two hours, but we needn’t have worried – we had plenty of time to do most of what Negombo had to offer, starting with the Old Dutch Fort (currently the unlikely location for a random photo shoot):
Progressing through St Stephen’s Church (a simple, but very pleasant building):
Via the Old Dutch Canal, with a well-stocked bat population feeding off the insects near the water:
To St Mary’s Church, which appears to be the main event in town – a beautiful building with a purposeful but calm ambience:
And we were done.
Random stuff from today:
I liked the Chillax Garden Bar’s slogan: “No working during drinking hours”.
Misquoted t-shirt of today: “Easy comes, easy go”