When one arrives from India, one can feel that Sri Lanka does its utmost to enchant the tourist and make his/her stay pleasant, everything there being rather easy-going and well organized! But there is a little touch of crazyness which brings some spice to this perfect holiday lifestyle: local transport! It must be said that we did not meet many tourists during our trip on the island, because many hire a driver or rent a car for ease, as the local transport is indeed quite intense! But it is in these buses and trains that beautiful and original meetings with the locals take place and it is quite another side of the country that we discovered while driving at a brisk pace on the small roads of the country. Those local buses offer an incredible festival of colors: there seems to be a competition as to which of these vehicles can be the most kitsch ! Each bus has more or less a particular display of colors, all flashy of course, ranging from bright orange to fluorescent pink, and sometimes huge drawings or frescoes: horses running in green meadows, roaring lions or other fantasies. I let you imagine the interior of these kitsch shuttles … whether it is a huge picture of tigers and elephants and other representations of the fauna and flora of the island, or else garlands and glittering neon lights which drive us along in a sort of a rolling disco! And of course, to be consistent with this vibe, the buses are extremely well equipped with sound systems so that passengers can groove to the sounds of the latest hits. TV screens are usually also present to warm up the public with video clips of concerts where different artists parade in the middle of female dancers in a staging that is not very inspired! To all this, add an impeccably fast driving, without any respect of the road’s signs and you have all the senses awake, and even your guts!
If the Sri Lankan railways are famous as amongst the most beautiful in the world, it is also necessary to be very well organized to be able to appreciate these trips! Our first trip enabled us to understand how tricky it was to succeed in having a seat: you have to come at least an hour early to get on the train and reserve your seats. But it’s not always so easy! Sometimes the train is not at the platform an hour before departure, and only arrives at the scheduled time … and this is yet another struggle! My parents and my sister joined us during this Sri Lankan month, and as a welcome gift, Sri Lanka gave them a very warm welcome, one could say an almost carnal one!! We took the train from Colombo down south towards Galle, a former Dutch colony, by the ocean. My father dreamed about this very beautiful train trip, following the coast to the nearest beaches and coconut trees, with the sea as the horizon … pure romanticism. So we arrived well ahead, hoping to get on an empty train. And it was an empty train that arrived, but on a crowded platform: everyone ready to jump and rush in to grab a seat! Imagine this bunch of tourist with their huge bags elaborating THE perfect plan to get the right places to sit and enjoy the scenery … a plan which failed miserably. I got scared and did not get onto the train fast enough to grab the seats, Nacho and my sister however managed, but one went left, the other one went right, which enabled, in spite of everything us to get seats for the five of us, but not those we had hoped for, as they were not at all on the right side to get the great views. The train was more than crowded, with so many people standing up. To the stifling heat add ten people per square meter and you will get an idea of the oven in which we spent several hours, hoping desperately to catch a glimpse in between two close up bodies of a bit of sea or sunset through the opposite window. The prize of this martyrdom goes to my poor father, who had dreamed so much about the landscape on this trip, and who was not even able to catch a single sight of the trip, and at certain times we even wondered if he managed to breathe at all . He would disappear behind the bodies that were clutching close to him to hold on to a nearby seat.
After this experience, we got much better organized for other train trips, to the point that we even woke up at dawn to take a bus in order to reach the starting point of the train and make sure we got onto an empty train with few people! And we got very lucky in the end because all the other train trips we made, we spent sitting by the window enjoying the beautiful landscapes that Sri Lanka has to offer!
Unfortunately, we do not have any pictures of the crowded train, conditions were not at their very best! However we do have nice memories to share about the amazing landscape we comfortably journeyed through!
Text : Iris Kneubuhler
English translation : David Cassard
Video : Ignacio Quiroz
inspiration viajera 