Colombo to Kandy
From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we flew to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
This island country was first partially occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century, then in the 17th century by the Dutch. In the early 19th century the British seized the entire island, made it a British colony and named Ceylon. The country gained independence in 1948 and changed the name to Sri Lanka in 1972.
A conflict between country’s two largest ethnic groups the Sinhalese and the Tamils started under the British rule. The Tamil minority was discriminated. After decades of political clashes, Tamil youth in the north and east formed militant groups. The strongest of them was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or Tamil Tigers. The violence that broke out in the 70-s became a full-scale war in the 80-s. The Tamils demanded independence. In the 90-s the war was still raging on with massacres on both sides. The Indian Army and UN Peacekeepers were brought into Sri Lanka to stop the war. They had to leave after too many casualties. The negotiated cease-fires did not hold. The fighting continued in the 21st century when the government forces started to make a steady progress and to recapture territories from the Tamil Tigers. Heavy battles resulted in tens of thousands of killed and misplaced people. Some areas were totally depopulated and devastated. In May 2009 Sri Lankan troops captured the last section held by the Tamil Tigers who admitted their defeat. The brutal generation-long civil war was over and the reconciliation process began. Sri Lanka’s north where the Tamils are a majority continues to be under military occupation. The conflict zones contaminated with landmines have not been totally cleared. The tension between the two ethnic groups still exists.
We decided not to push our luck and limited our travel to the southern and central parts of the island. Before going there we got Sri Lankan visas online. One visa was $35. The visas were emailed us the same day. On arrival, nobody asked for paper copies of the visas. Probably because the computer system knew that we had them.
My husband Sergey made a reservation for one night in Colombo at a small hotel that in reality was an ordinary local house with 3 rooms and a reception area. The hotel was cheap and conveniently located close to the airport. We simply walked from the airport to the hotel as we often do. The room was clean and comfortable and we had a good night rest.
The hotel did not serve breakfast. Sergey can start a day with a power bar or no food at all. I refuse to leave without a meal knowing too well that I will have no energy for anything and develop a headache by lunchtime. My husband’s attempts to mold me into someone like him failed so far. Instead, he learned not to argue and to feed me at least in the morning. That’s why we set out in search of a place to have breakfast.
The area where the hotel was did not have any cafes. The only eatery was a small husband-and-wife place with a not so clean counter and kitchenware. Since there was nothing else we took our chances and ordered fried eggs. We also bought some pies with the unknown filling because we could not understand the owner’s description of what was inside them. He wrapped up the pies and we took them with us to eat later.
Colombo was our starting point for the Sri Lankan trip. The city has temples and museums, but we did not plan to stay there. Our intention was to travel to the island’s center, then to the southern beaches for a splash in the Indian ocean and to return to Colombo via a different route, i.e. to make a loop. Some people told us that it was not possible to get from the highlands in the center to the southern coast. Plan B was to go back to Colombo and to take a separate trip to the beaches. That way we would have traveled the same roads twice and we did not like this option.
Our first destination was the city of Kandy. We went to the railway station and without a problem bought tickets for seats in second class on the next train. First class did not exist. Third class sounded too cheap for us.
Our train came. It was old with rusty cars and broken seats. Foreign travelers congregated in second class, the locals mostly were in third. The windows were opaque from dirt. Passengers rushed outside to clean the glass with wet wipes while the train was standing at the platform. The scenery was expected to be beautiful and we wanted to see it. Air conditioning in the car did not work; it probably broke down ages ago and the windows could not be open. The car had several fans welded to the ceiling that pushed the hot air around.
The scenery was indeed worth taking the 3-hour ride that was enjoyable in spite of the heat. We ate the pies bought in Colombo in the morning. They turned out to be meat pies, rather spicy for my taste, but edible.
Kandy was dusty and noisy, with crazy traffic. We moved through that madness in no particular direction trying to find a place to stay and we did not see any. Every spot on the streets was a market stall. Vendors were selling all kind of stuff from fresh produce to old clothes. Some sat on the pavement and pedestrians had to navigate between them.
We walked until we came to a lake that looked like an oasis of peace and quiet in this chaos. High up on the hill there was a hotel sign. After a couple of false starts we found the road that led to the hotel and climbed to it.
The room was cheap, too cheap to be a good room. The hotel owner smiled pleasantly and pointed to the lake, ‘Great view’. The view was fine, but the room… Sure, we stayed in worse places. The hotel in India where the room was $7.50 per night still holds the record of the cheapest hotel where we stayed.
Sergey paid for 2 nights, we left the backpacks and went to find something to eat. This again was a problem. There was no decent cafe around. My husband does not like searching for food too long and I do not like eating crappy every day. This often is a ground for conflicts until one of us gives up. This time it was my turn. I abandoned the thoughts of a nice cooked meal. We bought from a street vendor more pies similar to the ones that we ate on the train and returned to the hotel. I asked at the reception if we could have tea.
The response was, ‘Of course. The kitchen is down the corridor. You will find in it everything you need. Help yourself ‘.
I wish I had taken a photo of that kitchen because it is going to be a difficult task to describe it. There were stacks of plates and glasses everywhere. The hotel probably had seen better days and this dinnerware was needed. Now it stood covered with a layer of dust. The gas stove, the sink and a few items around them looked used judging by fresh greasy stains. A metal kettle deformed from age was on the stove. Scrubbing the kettle with a soiled sponge hardly made it cleaner. I sighed, filled the kettle with water and set it to boil. Finding clean glasses proved to be impossible. I selected the best two candidates and washed them as much as I could.
We drank tea and ate the pies in our room debating if we should open the window or keep it closed. On one hand, we did not want mosquitoes. On the other, the air in the room was stale. Both beds had mosquito nets, dirty, but not that holey. Hoping that the nets would protect us we opened the window to let fresh air in. At least it was quiet on the top of the hill. The city noise did not reach us.
I got into bed under the net and tried to sleep. The pillow stank of mold and sweat. I scrambled out of bed, found in my backpack a small towel and spread it over the pillow. Still, I could not sleep; it was too hot in the room. I grabbed the pillow with my towel on it and put it at the foot of the bed which was closer to the window than the bedhead and there I could get more air. A few mosquitoes were buzzing around. I made sure that the net covered the bed well. Sergey tossed and turned in his bed suffering from the heat too. We were tired enough and fell asleep even in that dreadful hole.
There are good hotels in Kandy. It was our fault that we did not find them and we paid for it. I cannot say that we learned the lesson. We (or rather I, to be fair to my husband) fell into the same trap again.
Kandy