John's account of Return Trip to Colombo

The day came to leave the wonderful Galle Fort and begin our journey home via a night in Colombo.  Following a hearty breakfast we set out to find a Tuk Tuk.  Having been asked if we wanted one every 5 yards throughout our trip, we did not think this would be a problem. Guess again, the most important holiday in the Sri Lankan calendar had begun.    However with the help of our hotel we were soon on our way to the local railway station where we planned to take the train to Colombo .  2nd class tickets in hand, we sat down in the sweltering mid morning sun with the other European and Australian tourists confident that we would get a seat when the train finally arrived.  A young boy decided John was something to take an interest in and soon we were surrounded by the whole family and posing for pictures for the family album.

The train journey was planned to be one of our trip highlights as we both love trains and the view is meant to be amazing as the train travels along the coast.

Now when the train arrived an hour later we had expected people to get off and then we would take our seats.  Unfortunately people in  Sri Lanka  have a strange habit of getting on and off trains at exactly the same time. This all has to be accomplished through narrow doors and you have to climb up three or four huge steps to reach the carriages, like something out of a John Wayne movie.  Our task with huge rucksacks attached to our backs was to shove our way onto the train. This was finally achieved with John standing wedged between a number of people, his arms and legs at strange angles and his head bent to avoid being decapitated by a fan giving air to the stagnant carriage which was now well above 40 degrees Celsius. He soon discovered any move by him meant loss of what little space he had.  Eva meanwhile had managed to negotiate access to an actual seat and was tucking into food supplied free of charge by the locals. Eva later confessed the conversation went something like this to get a seat:

Eva: Can I have seat?
Locals : No
Eva: Can I have a seat?
Locals: No
Eva: can your children share a seat?
Locals: No
Eva: Can I have a seat?
Locals: Yes
Finally she wore them down.

Three hours into the journey from hell (for John) and minutes from our final destination two terrible things happened.  The fans stopped working and the train run someone over killing them instantly.  Following a period of intense activity and a significant delay the train finally completed its now sad journey into Colombo.  This time it was the reverse as we struggled against a sea of people to force our way off the train.

Grand Orient Hotel

Another Tuk Tuk and we arrived at the Grand Orient hotel.  This is an amazing fading but still impressive building. We had booked it because it had a nightclub and bar and we thought we would spend our last day drinking the odd beer and cocktail and dancing the night away.  Whoops it was New Year. Not only were the bar and nightclub closed because it was the holiday, alcoholic drinks were also not served.  Resigned to this sad state of affairs we explored our hotel to see what it had to offer.  We sat in a library (not much fun and few books)  We went to see if we could get a massage but the staff had all the charm of the ugly sisters from Cinderella so we decided to give it a miss.

The Library

The hotel was doing a buffet meal in the evening and when we arrived there was an amazing singer and a man playing the Saxophone.  A truly huge buffet was laid on for the 4 people who seemed to be staying at the hotel.  We sat with soft drinks looking out at a view across the port and watching an electric storm light up the night sky. (stunning)



Final Meal

So our trip to Sri Lanka was at an end but this has been an enjoyable journey through such an amazing and extremely varied country.  Special thanks and good wishes to our travelling buddies Elaine and Theo for making this an extra special trip.