Costs of dining out and hotel/resort prices in Sri Lanka

Icaruswept had written an interesting post on restaurant prices. This is something I have been thinking about myself, along with the related subject of hotel/resort prices.

Dining out is expensive and the reason is not just food cost. We are getting ripped off in the coffee bars in Colombo and the resorts outside Colombo, something I have complained of before.

Let me share a few recent experiences on trips outstation.

Just returned from Unawatuna from a great little guesthouse in Unawatuna called the Summer Valley Boutique Villa. that charged us Rs.3600/- per double B&B. Thats 1800/- a head, including a breakfast. My friends were shocked at the price we got and were expecting the worst, some sort of flea infested dive.

Contrary to the worst fears of the party, the place was very clean and comfortable. In the evening my friends were debating where to go for breakfast the next day. I remided them that breakfast was included. They were shocked again. How could they afford to give us breakfast as well? They expected it to be crap and suggested that we may not want to take the risk.

Come the next day our party decided to check what was on offer. A pot of tea, and a tasty omelette, along with some delicious 'kade' paan, butter and jam turned up. The 'kade' paan in Colombo is positively insipid compared to what we got and it was polished off with relish.

More surprises were in store when a bowls of fruit salad turned up and an excellent peni pol pancake to finish off.

In Colombo that breakfast alone would have cost us anything between 800-1200.

When I stayed at a similar, spotlessly clean guesthouse in Galle called Leisure Holiday Resort, they charged me Rs.2,750 for the room. Breakfast was not included but could be ordered for Rs.350/- and they offered a similar menu as in Unawtuna although portions of fruit and bread were much smaller. Still, very good value and quite adequate, especially compared to prices at coffee shops in Colombo where no single item costs less than about Rs.300/-.

I visited Kandy a couple of months ago and stopped on the way for breakfast at a place recommended by another friend. Just beyond the Ambepussa Resthouse they offered a full buffet for Rs.350/-. This included paratas, string hoppers, dhal curry, fish curry, kiribath and a few other dishes. It was, in short, a steal compared to prices in Colombo.

We got a good indication of food costs when we stayed in Batticaloa just before Avurudu. We rented a bungalow and we bought the provisions and had them cooked by the staff. The food cost divided amongst the five of the party (and excluding the two bungalow staff) worked out to around Rs.1400/ per person per day (for three meals plus morning and afternoon tea). The meals included prawns, fish, crabs (on on occasion) and beef on another.

We have got used to paying Rs.8,000-10,000 full board to a hotels – and that too on a deal. Bungalows, which used to be pretty cheap to rent (5,000-10,000 for the whole bungalow about ten years ago) have followed suite and now routinely charge 20,000+.

In Colombo the only alternative to coffee shops are the members-only clubs but thankfully in the outstations there is now a whole set of budget properties that have come up. The problem in the past used to be 1) finding the properties, a subject of much vexation 2) checking on how good the place was.

Now, thanks to a booking site called booking.lk (or booking.com) its possible to get a list of all the properties and prices at a given location. Even better, the reviews are verified and controlled by the site.

Both the places I listed above I booked through booking.com. Since I was very happy with the places I wanted to give them a good review and searched on the site for a place to do a review. There was nothing. It is not possible to get on the site and just do a random review of a place.

What happens is that after someone has made a booking and completed a stay, an email is received from booking.com inviting the visitor to review the place. This way reviews are restricted to people who actually book.

If a place has a good number of reviews and the overall ratings are good then the chances are it will live up to expectations. Even better, as a part of the review, the visitor is shown the pictures of the property displayed on the booking site and asked to review if the actual place was better than/worse than the pictures.

Therefore, thanks to booking.com, a whole range of budget properties can now be accessed with some certainty of what is on offer, which is a great boon to travellers and I would recommend going through them the next time you want to travel.

Scenes from my childhood

I had to pay a visit to one of the company's sites today in Embilipitya. I had not realised quite how far this was, somewhere off Ratnapura and the site itself yet further into the interior.

It was pretty much off the main tourist track, the only thing of any note being an abandoned paper mill.

I enjoyed the ride on deserted, slightly bumpy rural roads, hedged on either side by a sort of semi-dry zone forest. I could not make up mind as to whether it was wet or dry zone, it was in the region of Uda Walawe so it may have been a bit of both. It took me back to my childhood memories of travel, seeing roads lined with trees, not necessarily forest, but trees, trees and trees. Lots of coconut trees, but also plaintain trees, jak trees and all sorts of wild greenery.

Buildings in rural areas were wattle and daub, thatched with coconut. Bricks and tiles were mostly in towns and for bigger buildings. Now the scenery seems dominated by signboards and glitzy glass-fronted shops.

On the way back we passed by some stalls selling curd. When I expressed an interest in buying some, my colleague who is a regular visitor to the site (it was my first visit) told me of a stall run by a family who produce it from their own herd. We stopped there and I bought a couple of pots, which turned out to be very good. Not as thick as some varieties, but with a rich creamy flavour. I was told that I needed to finish them fast, since they done use any additives. We sighted a herd of buffalo on the paddy fields as we drove past.

It struck me that the buffalo is now largely extinct, as a beast of burden. When I was little the farmers would be working their fields with buffalos, now they have been replaced almost completely by the hand tractor, just as the outrigger canoe (or catamaran) has been displaced by the motorised boat at sea.

The triangular sails of the catamarans used to dot the horizon when looking out from the seashore. Now they are only found as decorations in hotel lobbies or beach side restaurants.

I have a very good memory and I even remember seeing bullock carts and even the odd rickshaw, which used to take children to school.

That these have disappeared is a sign of progress, people are better off now and they using modern equipment, which is a good thing. A part of me however remains an incurable romantic and sight of some of these older scenes leaves wallowing in a nice, warm,  nostalgia.

There are a few nice pictures on an album on Flickr

Also picked up a few pictures from the web, for the benefit of anyone who never saw these. Hope you like them, does anyone have any colour pictures of similar scenes?

The joy of travel is dimming

I used to love to travel and in the past was the main organiser of trips for groups of friends. Bungalows on estates were a favourite destination.

I just returned from Bandarawela, we stayed a couple of days at an elegantly appointed bungalow, with a lot of history preserved, well laid out with some fine views. The food and atmosphere were excellent, so whats the complaint?

Its the drive. The roads are now a nightmare. Its not that the roads are crumbling, its just that the traffic and driving are maddening.

I always leave early and generally after getting a few miles outside of Colombo the traffic peters out and the rest of the drive is very pleasant. If one leaves early in the morning the Colombo traffic is avoided altogether and the whole drive is a breeze. There are occasional blocks in towns or a slow moving lorry or bus will hold things up for a while but that was about it.

Now, come the long weekend, half the country seems to be on the move. Many don't seem to know how to drive, wandering erratically around the road with no clear signalling and there are heaps and heaps of trishaws and "batta" vans on every single road, holding up traffic everywhere.

Until recently trishaws were generally concentrated around towns and "batta" vans did not exist; now both are found all over the main trunk roads. Add to that the aforementioned Sunday drivers who tail slow vehicles without overtaking and the trip becomes a bit like dodgem cars, constantly seeking gaps in the road trying overtake these miserable creatures.

Mind you, I was not even driving on this trip, (or on the last trip, when I first experienced the problem).

All this frustration while only doing the backseat driving, watching the road like a hawk, shouting instructions to my Uncle to overtake, overtake and keep blowing that damn horn! I couldn't even enjoy the passing scenery, usually so pleasant and almost a part of the holiday itself.

I ate far too much on this trip, especially the puddings, but I'm off now to look for more comfort food-home made bread pudding. I think I deserve it, don't you?

A model for managed wildlife tourism

I have ranted about the problem of overexploitation of wildlife reserves here, and here.

Sashi Jayatunge has written of her experience at Pench National Park, an Indian wildlife reserve here.

What a contrast with Sri Lanka's parks. Some of the highlights of the system include:

1. Jeeps with a very quiet engine, to minimise disturbance.
2. Limit on the number of vehicles allowed into the park, in this case 50 per day.
3. To minimise intrusion still further, strict routes assigned to each jeep through a draw. This will spread the (already limited) traffic through the park so that there is no congestion or noise.
4. Routes are planned so that only 2/3 of waterholes are covered, which ensures that the animals always have area free of human activity at all times.
5. The park closes during the rainy season to further minimise stress on the ecosystem.  
6. No mobile phones or cigarettes.

These are just the highlights, there are a few more at the link above and the story itself is well worth reading.

We can continue to ravage our parks in the name of tourism (but actually in search of a quick buck and a cheap thrill-sight a leopard and upload to Facebook) or we can pose the question as to the founding purpose of a nature reserve, whether we intend them to exist in the long term and start to act; even now.

Dr R L Spittel, who played such an influential role in the establishment of our parks would surely turn in his grave if he were to see their current state.



PS. Found some of R L Spittel's photographs here.



  

To the @#%Q^!! morons who run small hotels and guest houses

Now look, you are supposed to be trying to sell your stupid guest house/bungalow/hotel, right?

Why can't you have a website with your contact numbers? Surely you know that there are no telephone directories around now, how are people to know how to contact you? If you don't want to spend money, have a blog site, its free.

Ok, you are listed on a booking site, but why not take what traffic you can direct? Especially when the damn booking site does not answer the phone either?

Its very frustrating, one has to trawl the web looking for numbers, hoping that some past visitor put the number somewhere on the web. With older places there is a fair chance of picking up a number, with new ones its hopeless.

A few places do have websites with phone numbers. On more than one occasion I have found the number is listed incorrectly.

Having tracked down the number with difficulty, when calling I tell them that the number is wrong. The standard response I get is: oh we only changed the number a month/couple of months ago so the website is not updated.....or a variant: we don't update the website very often.

Another friend related a story where he had bumped into the owner of a place he had tried to contact unsuccessfully. The phone was not working. When he mentioned this the owner said "oh I don't use that number anymore. Lots of people kept calling and it was such a hassle I switched it off"!!! Can you beat that for customer service? 

As far as the upcoming weekend is concerned I gave up trying after a few desultory efforts. There is hardly any time anyway so I've decided to visit friend's estate for a night, enjoy some traditional cooking and spend the rest of the time at home.



 

Another leopard run over in Yala, is a boycott the only option left?

When someone suggested that a boycott of the Yala wildlife park be organised after a leopard was killed I was not in favour. I thought what was needed was a proper system of visitor management. What a fool I was. Several more leopards have been killed by visitors since then, in the latest instance the carcass being fed to the crocodiles to cover their tracks.

The jeep drivers who are responsible for this are connected to a powerful politicians from the South and cannot be disciplined. The park rangers and Wildlife Department have no power to administer a proper system of visitor management, even if one were designed for them.

The only option now left is to boycott the damned place, let the jeep drivers and their mafia rot in the tropical heat. They will eventually turn to poaching, I reckon, but that was also inevitable. Every conceivable resource is being raped, anyway, why should the wildlife parks be exempt?

In any case, traveling in this country is proving to be a nightmare and the constantly rising fuel costs make it am unaffordable luxury. Even the outstation roads are crowded with in-disciplined trishaws, vans and buses; negotiating the roads is extremely stressful and sometimes quite dangerous.

Many of the most picturesque locations have been defiled by construction and signage. Illegal, ugly, badly constructed beer gardens, restaurants and hotels dot every nook and corner; telecom towers and windmills sprout like mushrooms.

There is growth all right, but it is an ugly, unhealthy growth, like the toadstools spring up overnight. Ceylon may have been paradise, Sri Lanka may have been nice, but now that we have developed to the stage of New Banana Republic, its looking downright ugly.

I would urge responsible citizens not to feed the monster, find your amusements elsewhere and leave those animals alone.

Tourist arrested for having a tattoo of a Buddha?

This is what was reported on this site. Other news sites carry similar stories.

The question is, under what law was she charged? Presumably something twisted to fit the purpose. It was only a few months ago that tourists were arrested for taking photographs of statues.

More worrying is that this seems to demonstrate a new level of hyper-religiosity, which in the context of the on-going anti-muslim campaign seems to suggest that an explosion is around the corner. Is anybody still even talking of a 'peace dividend'?

We should also carry a warning to tourists, perhaps it should read: Beware! The natives are not friendly.

Kotagala - Nuwara Eliya Road (A7) in a bad state

Just a travel update, the Kotagala - Nuwara Eliya road (the main A7 road, see map) is under repair and in a very poor state. The heavy rain and recent landslides seem to have washed away most of the surface of the road leaving it a mass of pot holes.

The road is not impassable for cars but it is very bumpy and can take a severe toll on the suspension. Would advise anyone contemplating travel on this road to do so in a high clearance vehicle (van or 4WD). There is an alternate route, through the Fordyce Estate (see map) , a longer route on estate roads (which are not great either) and difficult to navigate (as I am told it is not well sign posted) so get clear directions from someone familiar with the area or have the route premarked on Google maps. On the plus side, this route is supposed to be the prettier of the two.

The repairs seem to be part of a huge exercise in road widening so are likely to take some time to complete.

One of the mysteries on the road were short stretches (of 2-3km) that had been repaired which were sandwiched between long tracts of rutty road. The worrying thing was that on several of the rutty stretches there were no building materials or people in sight, although there was some visible activity on others.

To Galle, by train

I am a regular visitor to Galle during the Literary Festival but never visit otherwise. I have been meaning to explore the town further so accepted an invitation from a friend living in Galle to spend a few days with him.

I was too lazy to drive and thought it would be a change to take the train instead. It is a fairly short journey and the ride could be fun.

The greatest difficulty with the train is obtaining proper information. Seat61 is one of the best sources of information. If you want to cross check anything try the  Government information service number 0112-191919. They are helpful but their information is sometimes a bit dodgy (when I went to Haputale they told me that advance bookings for the observation carriage were possible 10 days ahead, but it turned out that they were open 14 days ahead and tickets were sold out when I went to book). You could also try calling the CGR directly ( I got the numbers from the Government Information Service and did that, just to make sure). Anyway by a process of triangulation, it is possible to get a fair idea.

I wanted to take the morning train (at 6.50am) but my brother warned me that I should get to the station by around 6am, because the queues may be long. It was a good thing that I did because the queues were long and I stood in the wrong one.

There are two sets of ticket counters, one right at the centre of the station which only issues warrants. Warrants are free passes available to Government Servants. They do not sell tickets to the public. As these are the most prominent counters and no others are visible from that place (there should be an arrow pointing to the other counters at least), it is possible to waste time standing in the wrong queue.

Lesson No.1: avoid the set of counters that says "warrants only". After reaching the head of the queue I was informed that I should move to another set of counters that were on the other side.

The queue there was even longer and one needs to be quite firm to maintain ones place. The concept of personal space does not exist so don't stand too far back from the person in front, people will just step in front of you; naturally this also means plenty of poking and shoving from behind.

Once I had got my tickets I went over to the platform. The train pulled up on time and there seemed to be a lot of people in it. I though people would get off, but no one did.

Lesson No.2 - get on the train at the starting point (in this case, Maradana) if you want a seat. 

 I scrambled into carriage that looked less crowded, but there were no seats. I looked across at the other carriages, they seemed worse so I decided to stay put. I was comforted by the fact that there seemed to be little heavy baggage; I guessed most people were on short journeys and once someone got off at Panadura or Kalutara I would get a seat.

Imagine therefore my growing horror as more people boarded at Dehiwala, still more at Mount Lavinia and even more at Moratuwa.  After we past Kalutara with no one getting off I had given up any hope of getting a seat. In a compartment with 28 seats I counted 20 people standing in the aisle or perched on the arm rests of seats. There were several families with small children and babes in arms. There seemed to be an unspoken arrangement whereby children who were in the aisles were slowly herded with families who had seats, the children sharing seats, sitting on armrests or standing in between the rows of seats.

Into this overcrowded carriage followed a procession on vendors setting vadai, soft drinks and snacks, not to mention numerous beggars. 
 
Mercifully, the morning was cool, there were fresh sea breezes blowing through the windows but as the windows are set fairly low, for standing passengers, no view. After a while I stopped worrying about the nuisances.  People started getting off in stages from Ambalangoda onwards and my mood lightened considerably. The train was quick and ran on time, arriving at Galle at around 9.40am. Overall it was a tolerable journey but not fun. Had I got a seat I would have quite enjoyed it, but deprived of a view there was nothing positive to focus on.

The cost of the ticket was cheap Rs.180 for 2nd class, it would be acceptable value for a single person or a gang of youngsters but not recommended for families.

On the return journey I took the Expressway bus (a bus every 15 minutes) , it cost Rs.470 to Maharagama but I got a seat. The bus was comfortable and fast. I took an ordinary bus from Maharagama to get to Colombo, which was not crowded and cost only Rs.27. The total journey took me 2 hours including the ride on the 138 to Colombo. The bus was by far the better option of the two modes of transport.

Apart from the hassle of getting there and the somewhat damp weather I had a good holiday in Galle, one of the highlights of which was the discovery of a very nice restaurant called "Refresh" in Hikkaduwa-excellent ambiance, a great place for a drink on the beach, watching the sunset.






 

Speeding on the Southern Highway

I was in Ahungalla yesterday on a workshop. Went there by coach but returned with a friend who had driven down. He had been charged with speeding yesterday but had been unable to pay the fine since it was poya day.

This morning we tried looking for a post office to pay the fine, but being Sunday they were all closed. Faced with the prospect of returning another day to pay the fine and collect the license we decided to talk to the policemen at the police post at the the Expressway entrance, to see what could be done.

They were sympathetic and very helpful. They said we could probably get the postmistress at the agency post office to collect the fine. One of the policeman accompanied us and we drove to the agency post office, about 10 minutes away. It was a part of a shop and while the post office was closed the shop was not. The postmistress was not around but the policeman made inquiries and a message was sent to her. She turned up shortly afterwards and took the money and wrote the receipt for the fine.

We returned to the police post, handed over the receipt and collect the license. My friend offered the policeman who accompanied us some money for his assistance but it was refused.

All in all, a surprisingly good experience.


ps. The speed camera's are not automatic they are manually operated. They are usually stationed around the overhead bridges or where there is shade. They usually impose a fine only if the driver is above 125km or so.      

The basic rule for travel in Sri Lanka

I like travelling around the country and have organised many a journey with my friends. When planning a journey of more than two or three hours, there is one golden rule I think should always be followed: leave the city early.

This is something that I learned first from my grandfather's travel arrangements, he would have departed a long time before we woke up and we would wonder where he went in the middle of the night. When we were older and were taken on trips the time of departure was usually about 4.30am or 5am. As children waking up early added an extra element of excitement and mystery to the trip.

As I grew older and started travelling with friends it seemed only natural that the same rule was followed. When driving one realises the benefits of an early departure: avoiding the traffic and the heat of the day. It is good to get a good part of the journey done by about 8am in the morning, before the tropical sun makes the journey uncomfortable.

In the days before air conditioned cars this was very important and now, even with the benefit of air conditioning, extended travel in the afternoon heat can be very tiring. 

All my friends thought on the same lines and I assumed that this was the way in which everyone travelled. Friends from abroad however are quite aghast at the thought of leaving this early in the morning. For them, 6am is early and 5am, a  very reasonable start by our standards quite alarming.

There is something very pleasant about an early morning drive; the cool morning air, the deserted streets. Watching the soft light of dawn brighten the rural countryside, breakfast by some wayside tea shop, these are all the delights of an early morning start. We would stop for breakfast somewhere between 7.30am and 8.30am, depending on the length of the journey and the availability of some desirable breakfast spot. Post breakfast, we would be driving in normal daytime traffic but by that time we would be well into the rural areas where traffic is light and the driving more sane so there is no strain on the car or the nerves of the driver.

There is another option that is sometimes used: night travel, where the journey starts some time in the evening and one drives into the night. I have tried this once or twice but never liked it. Although it is still cool enough it is not as cool as the early morning. There is a lot more traffic and as most of the roads are either unlit or not properly lit, its a lot more of a strain to drive and more dangerous. There is also the added danger of falling asleep at the wheel which can happen on a long drive.

Does everybody like the early morning start or am I a minority here ?
  

   

Where do Sri Lankans go on holiday?

This is a question that was posed to me by a Sri Lankan friend who now lives overseas. She was visiting Sri Lanka and was going to travel around the country. She was quite shocked by the prices that hotels and bungalows were quoting. Surely ordinary Sri Lankans could not afford to spend so much?

I have just spent the morning on the web and the telephone trying to track down a reasonable place but with almost no success. At one time a renting a bungalow and taking ones provisions along was a a cheap option. Although it is still affordable it is no longer cheap.

The rate for the Thotalagala bungalow that I stayed in about eleven years ago has jumped from Rs.8000 per night (for the whole bungalow) to Rs.30,000 a night. At that time Thotalagala was the most expensive bungalow by far, now if one can find one for Rs.10,000 a night one has to be very lucky. A cheap bungalow that I stayed in twelve years ago at Rs.2000 for the whole bungalow was being rented at Rs.8000 a couple of years back. It is now withdrawn from public bookings, reserved for the chairman of the JEDB.

The other consideration now is the cost of petrol which can add a good 10,000-15,000 to the total trip, per vehicle.

So where DO Sri Lankan go for on an affordable holiday?

Tourists arrested

According to the Daily Mirror a group of tourists were given a suspended sentence for taking photographs while posing in an unbecoming manner in front of a Buddha statue.

The charges in such instances are apparently brought under the Vagrants Ordinance, which was originally intended to deal with beggars and vagrants who were a nuisance to the public. It is a bit of a stretch, to my mind, to charge people for taking photographs under this law, but hey this is Sri Lanka where things are beginning to look rather surreal. 

Knowing how slow the procedure is I wonder how long it took for them to be produced in court? Were they arrested and held in custody or were they released on bail? Either way the experience must have been fairly traumatic, but more so if they were held in jail.

The other interesting fact is the righteous attitude of the studio manager who reported the tourists. Truly a card carrying member of the ThinkPol.

It was only earlier this week that the Daily Mirror reported the indignation with which the External Affairs Ministry said that it will challenge a recent travel advisory that warned of an upsurge of nationalism, sexual offences and anti-western rhetoric in the country.

This incident only serves to confirm the validity of that advisory.

Great marketing Sri Lanka Tourism.





Note: For anyone interested the full advisory is here. BBC report on the incident here.
 

Colombo to Haputale by Rail

There is something special about train travel. Perhaps it is the fact that the passengers are seated high above other traffic, perhaps because trains have priority over road users, possibly the immense power of the engine itself or the graceful shape of the train as it wends its way across the horizon. It is hard to pin down but when riding the train many will feel it.

I had read about the train journey in the observation carriage from Colombo to Badulla, all the travel guides advise visitors to do it. I finally got around to it a couple of months ago and it was well worth the effort.

Prospective travelers have three options; first-class observation car (Rs.750, one way), the air-conditioned Expo carriage (Rs.3,950, return) or the ordinary second-class compartment.

The observation carriage needs to be booked 14 days (not 10 days as advised by some websites) in advance of the journey. Tickets sell out fast so one needs to be there at opening time on the prescribed day. When I tried to book it 10 days ahead it was sold out so we had to take the Expo carriage. Booking the Expo carriage is convenient, it can be booked online or at a travel agent and at anytime. Second class travel is an option for the adventurous and should be fine, provided the journey is kept short, of which, more details below.

I think I was fourteen when I last went on a train, which was a long time ago. Walking into the Fort Railway station, things seem to be worse than I remember: overcrowded trains and a dirty, smelly station. I had opted to go from Colombo to Haputale, a journey of eight hours according to the time-table, looking at the crowded second-class carriages I was glad that we had decided to take the Expo carriage.

The Expo carriage is painted nicely but looks a lot better on the website than in real life. It has clean, airline type seats and is staffed by two helpful stewards who will offer breakfast, lunch, and tea. There is free bottled water, a decent lavatory and air-conditioning. The air-conditioning is not really necessary when travelling in the hills but it is welcome when on the plains. Unfortunately the windows are sealed shut, so it’s not possible to open them to feel the cool upcountry breezes. The windows were not very clean, there were black streaks that seemed to be some kind of waste from the engine but luckily they were not dirty enough to spoil the view.

Although clean, the seats are not very roomy and the overhead compartment is not very big so it is best to travel light. Some of the lids on the overhead lockers don’t have good springs so they have a tendency to close while one is taking things out or putting things in.

The food is like airline food, nothing great but edible. For me food is an important component of any trip and having read reviews which said the food was bad, I took my own sandwiches. The Keells at Crescat has some good whole wheat bread and some nice hams, cheese and other meats that can make a good sandwich. The bread had just come out of the oven when I went at 11am. Being particular about my tea I took a flask of strong home-brewed tea with me, the Expo staff were happy to supply me with cups, milk and sugar.

The train set off on time from the Fort station at 5.55am. The lights in the carriage were a little bright so it was difficult to see out of the windows at first, but as soon as it became light we could see the suburbs slowly waking up beneath us.

Life in rural areas tends to cluster around the road. Shops, houses and businesses congregate thickly near the road and thin out as one moves inwards on the lanes and by lanes that spread out from the main road. When one is on the road, one is a part of the activity on the road. The railway however, is away from the road. It travels on a higher elevation, parallel to or across the road. With its increased elevation, passengers on the train find themselves looking down, like distant observers, while daily life unfolds below them. It’s fascinating, almost voyeuristic at times. Children going to school, people walking to the shops, talking in the street, sweeping their doorsteps, watering their plants, digging their gardens, the suburban townscape can be very interesting.

(Click on the pictures for the high resolution image)

As the train starts move away from the suburbs the scenery changes. My childhood memories of the first part of the journey to Kandy were of paddy fields with farmers working the fields with buffaloes. There were far fewer fields and no buffaloes but the scenery was still pleasant and once the train starts to climb there are good views of the hills, especially past Kadugannawa.

From Peradeniya onwards the climb gets steeper and the views, progressively better. Once past Hatton the views are superb and past Nanu Oya, especially when approaching Ohiya, quite spectacular.

The approach to Ohiya skirts the Horton Plains reserve and the colours of the natural forest and vegetation are stunning: trees in deep greens, reds and orange, the grass in light green and yellow. Bella Sidney Woolf, in her book How to see Ceylon bemoaned the encroachment of tea estates on the natural vegetation. I never understood what she meant, until now. The tea estates have a beautiful green that looks very pretty but the glory and variety of the forest puts the cultivated estates in the shade.

The only problem with doing the whole journey is the time taken. Moreover the train tends to run late so the journey gets even longer: Colombo to Haputale was scheduled to be eight hours but we were an hour and a half late when we arrived at Haputale. On the way back we were 45 minutes late. According to people in Haputale the train is usually an hour or two late.

Haputale Station

Haputale Station, with the mist rolling down at about 10.45am

The beauty of the scenery means that the journey is a must-do, but for best effect I would suggest that it be done in stages. Since the best of the scenery is towards the end, travelers could do Hatton-Haputale or Nanu Oya-Badulla. For someone with a large budget it is possible to take the seaplane to the Castlereagh reservoir, which is a couple of kilometres from the Hatton town and then take the train from Hatton. Someone intending to do the journey from Nanu Oya could take the seaplane to Nuwara Eliya and then take a taxi to Nanu Oya. Alternatively, people can drive to either Hatton or Nanu Oya and take the train from there. On a shorter journey (three to four hours) a less comfortable carriage would not matter so much, so either the Observation carriage for even second-class should be fine with the added advantage that the windows can be opened, so it is possible to enjoy the fresh, clean air.

The Colombo-Peredeniya leg, not to be sneered at, could be done separately. The next time you need to go to Kandy, just take the train and enjoy the scenery.

Tips on the Expo Carriage

Not all seats on the Expo carriage have equally good views. Fortunately, provided the train is not crowded the stewards do allow one to switch seats. The best views are mostly on the right hand side of the carriage, so pick a seat on the right but keep a sharp lookout for good scenery on the left.

Rows 4,6,and 9 are good.

Row 7 is about medium.

Row 1 has smaller window, a messy tray table and limited legroom.

The worst seats are rows 3 and 5, only half a window to look through.

Exporail Website

General Tips

Take some sandwiches and water, especially if travelling on the observation carriage or 2^nd class.

Do the journey in short legs.

Take a book to read while waiting for the train, it may be late

Journey’s of three to four hours are:

Peredeniya Junction to Hatton

Hatton to Nanu Oya

Nanu – Oya to Haputale or Ella.

Haputale to Badulla

For timetables and further info, have a look here.

Some scenery of Hatton and Dickoya

Travelled to Dickoya early this week. Here are a few pictures (click on the picture to get the high quality image).


The entry to Hatton



Late morning sun



Christ Church, Warleigh. The little stone churches in the hill country make such pretty pictures



Castlereigh Reservoir



The Castlereigh reservior, from further up the hill



Misty mountain



Mist, mountain and road



Tree clad hills..



...and winding roads




This is a picture of Queen Victoria's statue, at the back of the Colombo Museum. Took it last year and meant to write something suitably Victorian. Found it in my phone with the others so uploaded it anyway.

Racing in Yala

I visited a friend in hospital last night, he was nursing a rather nasty gash that he had received while on holiday in Yala.

He had been in the park with some friends in a hired jeep. The driver was going very fast and the jeep hit a rut, he was thrown up, hit his head on the iron cross bar of the jeep and was left with a pretty nasty cut. After visits to the Tissamaharama and Hambantota hospitals he has now been transferred to Colombo.

The park had been packed last weekend with large queues waiting to get in. Traffic jams within the park are a frequent occurrence and judging from the descriptions people give me it seems that the parks contain more people than animals on busy long weekends.

The jeep drivers, eager to earn money are hell bent on trying to show their clients as many animals as possible, so as soon as word it received of a sighting everyone races to the spot. Quite apart from the dangers to passengers, the roar of engines must surely be disturbing the wildlife, not to mention wildlife being run over by vehicles .

My concept of visiting a sanctuary is to spend some time in quiet contemplation of nature. It seems that the jeep drivers work on the basis of trying to show as many animals in as short a period of time as possible. Regrettably some visitors seems to encourage this, a trip being rated on the basis of numbers seen rather than an overall experience.

Tourism is a good industry, it creates a lot of employment but it must be managed in such a way as to bring in long term benefits. Thoughtless, short term exploitation can ruin the product.

There is a need to regulate the number of visitors and vehicles in the park. A park that resembles the Bambalapitya junction, crawling with vehicles and people is not a park. People will be put off. Some people already asking if the experience is worth it. A visitor on the Lonely Planet website commented:

"In general, I find the Sri Lankan national parks to be over priced and where there are animals to be seen, I find them over crowded.

In Yala , before the Yala East section was opened up, I was very surprised that even when we came across an elephant, the driver or " tracker " would phone all his jeep driver mates to tell them exactly where the animal was and in a few minutes there would be so many jeeps competing for position that the animals were scared off anyway."

In the interests off all concerned, not least the animals, I hope the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society will a take a lead in regulating visitor numbers.

For some ideas on this check the link below:

Tools for visitor management

See also this appeal to photographers.

Haputale

Driving up the hills from Ratnapura.



Further along the drive



Adisham, in the afternoon light



Dawn breaks on the forest









The road up to Lipton's Seat



The view of the valley, partway along the route to Lipton's Seat.



Adisham, in the afternoon light.



The headstone on W.S. Senior's grave

Haputale has some stunning scenery, about the best there is in the country, equalled only by the scenery in the Knuckles mountain range. Fortunately it to too far off the main tourist trail to become as despoiled as Nuwara Eliya. It has deteriorated in the twelve years since I first visited, especially on the road up to Adisham where part of the forest has been felled and two ugly hotels and a number of small guest houses have mushroomed.

The ruthlessness with which any opportunity for a quick profit will be exploited by Sri Lankan's needs to be seen to be believed. Endemic corruption ensures that the few building, environmental and safety regulations can be ignored and one finds spindly, ugly buildings clinging to hillsides offering board and lodging or refreshments. Why this entrepreneurial spirit cannot be channelled more productively is a mystery. Some of the hills were being logged heavily, with backhoes and other equipment leaving great bare patches on the hills. It is no wonder that with the heavy rains there are frequent landslides in the hill country.

Despite the best efforts of the rent-seekers, there is much beauty to behold and it is easy to see what captivated Sir Thomas Villiers, who built Adisham at a particularly stunning spot and Walter Stanley Senior.

Senior's love of the place was such that although he retired to England his ashes were interred at the churchyard of St Andrews, Haputale. The inscription on the headstone, taken from his own poem Lanka from Pidurutalagala reads:

Here I stand in spirit,
as in body once I stood Long years ago,
in love with all the land,
This peerless land of beauty’s plenitude

Followed by the words:

He Loved Ceylon

A fitting tribute to the craggy, smoky mountains and deep valleys. The rolling mist, which descends suddenly, together with the sparkling sunshine is a photographers (or painters) delight, possibly even worthy of Turner.

There is little do do in Haputale except breathe the crisp clean air and enjoy the magnificent scenery. An ideal place for solitude, which is probably why the Benedictine Monks turned Adisham into a monastery.

Large groups of noisy tourists please go away.

The holiday organisers burden

I have organised many a successful holiday for groups of friends. Everybody who travels has a good time and suggests doing another one, so the organiser, forgetting momentarily all the headache that he went through starts planning the next journey.

This must start with locating somewhere that is nice yet cheap. This is not an easy task but if one starts early enough there is a good possibility of finding something. I had a little trick up my sleeve - I would get in touch with a printing firm in November or December and get the list of holidays for the forthcoming year, before any calendars had been printed. I would pick out the long weekends and start calling around and getting rates, take a straw poll amongst potential trippers and book, paying whatever advance was necessary.

Since we are booking three to six months ahead everyone is enthusiastic and confirms.

About a month before the date I start calling people to remind them and then the trouble starts. Some people have extra work in the office that they need to finish, other people are going abroad, some people can't come because its lent (April is always a problematic month), others have weddings, some people are not speaking to each other anymore, other people's parents object to them going alone.

When organising an outing, a rough transport plan is also at the back of ones mind, a few people with company cars (hence free fuel) providing the transport but with the drop outs, the transport plan will also be thrown into turmoil. One may have people but no transport or the converse.

All the problems do not come together, its starts gradually and builds up over the weeks until a few days before the journey the organiser is left with just a couple of people, which means a last minute round of frantic calling to try and find replacements.

The last time this happened was in 2007, when I was left with two or three people for a bungalow in Nuwara Eliya booked for eight. Thanks to the kindness of the owner, we managed to postpone the booking, which eventually had to be re-postponed once again before the trip finally took place in September. A couple of times I have ended up giving away bookings to other friends-bungalows are much in demand close to the dates booked so have not really suffered financially but its the frustration of having a great place but not enough people to go with.

Traveling in a group is fun and cheap - if a bungalow can be filled to capacity the cost per head works out quite cheap. I dislike hotels and these days they are far too expensive so a bungalow is the only viable option, the problem is in finding people who can make a commitment. A commitment for a holiday, that's not too much to ask for, is it?

Reluctance to utilise leave

Has anyone noticed a strange phenomenon?

Sri Lankans hate to take leave, unless it coincides with a long weekend. At this late stage (I should have booked in December for April) I have starting looking around for somewhere to get away from the heat. Naturally, everything is full but a few places are available on weekdays. The thought of taking a few days off mid-week, is difficult, almost repulsive, I would say.

I cannot seem to work out why this is so, do other people feel the same?

Oh dear

A visit to the tea country is something I usually enjoy. Rolling hills, clothed in greenery, the fresh mountain air, charming old buildings and usually tasty cooking to go with it.

Unfortunately this visit was lacking in most of the ingredients. Visited two estates owned by the JEDB and was greeted by acre upon acre of decrepit fields. A friend once told me that tea should look like a velvet carpet. These carpets were looking distinctly tatty with many holes, the few tea bushes present in an unruly state, weeds and undergrowth everywhere. Many a field seemed to have been taken over completely by thick grass.

A good testament to the follies of the state engaging in business.

It will take years of work and lots of money to restore these to good health. The contrast when we crossed over to the privately managed estate next-door was welcome. There were still gaps in the fields but they were smaller, the bushes had been pruned and plucked. There was tea everywhere and some sense of order being imposed on nature, instead of the untidy growth.

Going back to a question I have posed before: how did the people benefit from the nationalisation of what was then the most important industry in the country?

Were the state coffers filled with the treasure that the foreign owners were pocketing? No. The estates have been losing money almost continuously for years. Increased market share worldwide? No, it has been declining. More value addition? Yes, but entirely from the private sector, the best work being done before they were allowed back ownership.

More or better employment? Don't know but the workers on these estates were complaining about not enough work and that their EPF and ETF had not been paid for years.

Anyway, got a few pictures of the nicer bits of scenery, not great photographs but hope you like them.