We got up dark and early on the morning of the 20th to catch the Jaffna intercity train at Kurunagalle departing at 0735. This particular train is called the Yaal Devi. It was attacked by the LTTE on January 19, 1985 and did not reopen again until October 13, 2014, 29 years later. Even 5 years after the relaunch of the service, the track is very poor in some places.
We left my place at 0515 and got to Kurunagalle in record time at 0600. Better early than late. The train station is quite new. We had enough time to have a good look around and have a chat with the station manager. They had some lovely old photographs on the walls of the old station as well as landmark trains.
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| Waiting for the train. The big bruiser suitcase is Judith's. |
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| The station master's office complete with token boxes. When a train enters a station, the driver gives a large token to a station employee who swipes it through the token box. No train can enter a station without such a token. This ensures that trains do not collide. |
When we did our dummy run to Kurunagalle we had been told very clearly that the train would depart at 0735; not 0730 or 0736. Much to my surprise, that is precisely what happened.
We were in the first class AC carriage which was the second last car from the end. From Kurunagalle to well past Vavuniya, it was a very bumpy and swaying ride. On the return journey, our carriage was right behind the locomotive and still on some sections of track it felt like we were riding a roller coaster. Two days after our return journey, the last 4 cars of the Yaal Devi derailed causing many injuries. The accident was due to the driver going well beyond the posted speed limit. Indeed both our drivers, going up and back, were shooting through very poor sections of track like they were driving a bullet train. We were very lucky to have made it through both ways unscathed. We had both packed some food and drink, which we enjoyed, but which proved to be unnecessary as there was a restaurant car on the train.
As always, you meet interesting people when you travel. There was an American woman from Ft. Meyers, Florida who is married to a Sri Lankan, traveling with her Sri Lankan friend who is a native of Jaffna, now living in the US. The friend was making one of her regular visits to check on her property just outside of Jaffna town. The American woman was crocheting something which turned out to be a pot scrubber crocheted from tulle. She very kindly gave me one of the pot scubbers and told me how to find the pattern. I now have tulle and the required size hook and will start producing pot scrubbers en masse in the new year.
The trip took about 5 and 1/2 hours but was very interesting. For a relatively small island, Sri Lanka has a very varied landscape. From the hills of Kandy, we drove to the flat land of Kurunagalle. This area is very flat and dry but still has the giant outcroppings of bedrock of which Sigiriya is most famous. From Kurunagalla to Anuradhapura it is flat and dry. From Anuradhapura north you start seeing acres of paddy. The paddy fields continue all the way up to the northern tip of the island.
The bird watching on the way was also great. We saw painted stork, lots of egrets, white herons, grey herons, Brahminy kites, peacocks, cormorants, pied hornbills, brown kingfisher which are not very common in Sri Lanka, ibis, Western Reef heron or Indian Reef heron which looks very much like a giant grey heron, some kind of eagle, and more I can't remember. The only thing we didn't see, which I was most anxious to see, were flamingoes. Maybe next time.
We arrived around 1230 and were picked up at the train station by Mohan, a tuktuk driver that our friend Patricia Melander had recommended. He proved to be reliable and lovely. We had him for the entire time we were there and would highly recommend him to anyone who is going up that way.
I had been trying to phone Patricia from the train with no luck. They kept saying the number was not in service. As we were looking for Mohan outside the station, a man approached us asking if we were with the British Council. We were not, of course, but the two ladies sitting across the aisle from me were. I asked them if they knew Patricia, who works for the British Council, which they did. They very kindly delivered a message to Patricia who promptly phoned apologizing that she had given me the wrong number.
Mohan delivered us to our hotel, the Jaffna Heritage. It proved to be very nice, although they tried to stick us in a smaller room than the one we booked. Judith soon set them straight on that. Then we had the usual ritual of getting the room fitted with proper light bulbs instead of the 5 watt jobs all Sri Lankans seem to use. They gave us a nice vegetarian lunch which was followed by a nap and a bit of a float in the pool.
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| Nice pool. Besides floating, I got in 2 swims of 50 and 60 lengths respectively. |
We met Patricia for dinner at the Green Grass that night and had a fabulous meal of Jaffna crab. The food was so good that we went back for our last meal as well. The food in Jaffna is totally Indian in style and is much more flavorful than Sinhalese cuisine, in my opinion.
During the afternoon, we had asked the hotel manager to send someone out to get us some beer as we had forgotten to do so and the hotel was dry. The beer duly arrived and we went out for supper. Upon our return and almost immediately after locking our door, I heard something that proved to be someone knocking at our door and trying to open it. It turned out to be the night manager who had fetched the beer for us earlier. He was drunk and looking for us to give him one of our beers which he promised to replenish the next day. Judith was carrying on a conversation with him through the door which she was about to unlock when I stopped her. He was bombed out of his mind. I told him to go away or I was going to call the police. Judith then phoned the front desk which he must has sprinted down the stairs to answer. The discussion continued on with Judith trying to reason with a very drunk person until I hung up the phone. We were not bothered again, but I did have a chat with the manager in the morning. The night manager did not lose his job, but he was very sheepish thereafter.
Next morning, I was up bright and early for a swim. After breakfast, we set out with Mohan to explore the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. The first island was Kayts, the largest of the islands. It is connected by a very well repaired causeway. All the causeways are only inches above the water. It is a rather surreal feeling to be driving on what feels like water with the lagoon and the Indian Ocean all around you.
All the railway lines and most of the roads from Vavuniya north were destroyed during the war. The government has spent a lot of money laying new track, rebuilding train stations and repairing causeways.
Our first stop on Kayts was Mankumpan Pillayar Kovil which is desanctified except for a small shrine due to reconstruction. They allowed us to go inside and have a nice snoop provided we took our shoes off. This is a very large Hindu temple; one of hundreds from Vavuniya north. There are one or two kovils on every block.
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| The entire outside of the temple has been restored including this main gopuram. It had been bombed and destroyed by the Sri Lankan army during the war. They were working on the inside when we were there. |
From there we went to Velanai and across another very long causeway to Punkudutivu. Mohan had misunderstood my instructions and ended up taking us to Kurikadduwan Jetty where you can board a ferry to Nainativu. We did not want to do this as Judith is terrified of water and the ferry boat is a rust bucket. We skipped Delft for the same reason plus the fact that it is a 3 hour ride to Delft and you are not allowed on deck. In any case, the detour to Kurikadduwan gave us a chance to get a good look at island life.
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| The causeway to Kurikadduwan Jetty. Not in such good repair as the main causeways, but still pretty good. A fishing boat is moored by the causeway. Needless to say, fishing is one of the major occupations in the area. All the seafood is fresh and great. As we were stopped here to take this picture, a man came along with a bucket wanting us to sell us his freshly caught large single fish and/or his single crab. They were still wiggling. |
We made our long way back to Kayts as our next stop was to be Casuarina Beach on Karainagar. From Kayts the most direct route is by cable ferry. Much to my surprise I managed to Judith on the thing.
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The ferry. Both Judith and I thought this was the jetty. Wrongo Rhino breath. It was
actually the vessel; steered by an underwater cable and powered by a small outboard motor. |
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| Hammenhiel Fort from the ferry jetty. A long ways off. |
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| Enjoying the ride beside our luxurious tuktuk. |
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| Everybody piles on. It can take motorcycles, tuktuks and small cars. Even Judith enjoyed the ride. The crossing takes about 5 minutes. |
The Tamil people here are very friendly and helpful, not only to tourists but also to each other. While starting to board the ferry, I went back to the tuktuk to put my camera away only to find two ladies with a small baby inside. Mohan had invited them in to get out of the sun and to ride while seated for the voyage. Very nice.
Casuarina Beach had been recommended by Jez as being a lovely beach. It was disappointing to say the least. In stark contrast to the rest of the area, the beach was littered with the usual remains of human occupation. You could not swim as the navy rescue station had posted yellow and red flags. Even the shell collecting was thin. Apparently, the beach is heavily used at weekends by the locals. It showed.
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| A casuarina tree after which the beach is named. |
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| Partial hull of an old fishing boat. |
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| Fishing nets out to dry. |
By this time we were getting hungry and there was no place nearby to eat. I spotted the naval rescue station that was staffed by some young men. I went to inquire if they could recommend someplace to eat. They promptly pointed to a nearby poster that I had missed advertising Fort Hammenhiel Resort. This resort is operated by the navy and is located on their naval base. It turned out to be fabulous for two reasons: the first was that one of the young sailors was the best looking man I have seen in Sri Lanka to date; beautiful face, dark skin with a lovely smile of perfect white teeth, the second was the food and service at the resort was wonderful. Of course, we were the only ones there. Tourism is still down because of the Easter bombings and not many people go all the way up to Jaffna anyway.
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| Fort Hammenhiel from the resort hotel. The navy run a motorboat over to the fort for free if you want to go, which we didn't. We just wanted to enjoy our beer and delicious fish and chips. |
Then it was the long ride back to our hotel. We connected back to the main island by causeway. This was interesting as it is a route not frequently used by anyone other than the local residents. The area was much poorer than other parts we had seen. Here as in other parts of the islands, we saw partially completed housing developments built in the middle of nowhere. These have either been built to accommodate people who were displaced by the war or for Sinhalese settlers. It was not clear which, but very few of the 80 or so buildings we saw were inhabited. Most of the older large homes were abandoned as well.
We stopped at a wine shop to get booze. It was very well appointed and stocked, unlike the wine shops in Kandy, and the prices were less as well.
We were too tired to meet Patricia as we had planned for supper, so it was early to bed.
Our second day was dedicated to the town and environs. First stop was Jaffna Fort.
Jaffna Fort was founded by the Portuguese in 1618 who held it for only 40 years until the Dutch drove them out in 1668.
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| 1751 Dutch map of the fort after they had considerably expanded it. The design is obviously a star. Know as bastion forts, they came in various star formations. The 5 pointed star was the most favored design by the Portuguese and Dutch in Sri Lanka. |
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| Aerial view of the fort today. |
As can be seen from the old image, the fort held many important buildings in its heyday including a cross shaped church. The Sri Lankan army had a base at Jaffna Fort during the war over which a long siege and battle were fought. The Fort was heavily damaged by mortar and Pasilan fire. All that remains of the church is rubble. The Sri Lankan Archeological Department is working to restore the church using as many original pieces as they can find.
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| Entrance through the outer wall. What was once a drawbridge has been made into a causeway over the moat. |
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| You can see the date of 1680 above the portico. The exterior wall is part of the Dutch expansion. |
We may have been one of the last people to enter the Fort free of charge. They were building ticket booths in the side of this entrance. Makes sense as they have to finance the restoration.
Next stop was the Public Library that was almost completely destroyed by fire during the war. It has been beautiful restored. Unlike any other library I have ever been to, this one does not encourage visitors. Non-card holders can only enter from 1630 to 1800 and according to Patricia it is very difficult to get a library card. She finally managed after many months.
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| The Goddess Saraswathi, Goddess of Wisdom and Education guards the entrance. |
As we travelled to the next site, Mohan made a small detour to show us a huge statue of Hanuman, the Monkey God. Hanuman is much revered by Sri Lankan Hindus as he is the one who rescued Sita from Ravana, the evil king of Lanka, in the Ramayana. You find statues of him all over Jaffna town including four at the compass point surrounding the ubiquitous clock tower.
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| The Jolly Green Hanuman |
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| The British loved their clock towers. Every town in Sri Lanka has one. This one was designed by the government architect of the time, J.G. Smither to commemorate the visit of Prince Albert, Prince of Wales to Ceylon in 1875. One of the four Hanuman statues in the foreground. Presumably they were added later. |
In this sea of Hinduism, there is one outstanding Buddhist site, at Kantarodai. Here there are a collection small degobas which are thought to be monks' tombs. The site is thought to be about 2000 years old and is only partially excavated.
After this short Buddhist idyll, it was back to full metal jacket Hinduism with a visit to the largest temple in Jaffna, the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil. It was built in 1734 during the Dutch era. With 3 gopurams including the newest and largest Raja Gopuram erected in 2011. The kovil is dedicated to the Lord Murugan or Kataragama. He is the God of War, a point that was not lost on us visiting this long war ravaged part of Sri Lanka. It hosts an annual festival as does the other Kataragama temple located in the south of Sri Lanka. The festival in Jaffna last 25 days and sees thousands of pilgrims flocking here. The main hall of the temple looks as if it could easily hold 10,000 people.
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| The main entrance |
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| The Raja Gopuram. Unlike many Hindu temples which are colorfully painted, this one is all painted in gold. |
On the way to a much anticipated lunch, Mohan took another detour to show us an old derelict house. It, like so many others in the area is abandoned.
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| Built in 1890 it is now home to intrusive vines and wandering animals. |
Lunch was at the Malayan Café which has been serving lunch to hungry Jaffnans for 70 years. Strictly South Indian fare of wada, dosa, thali, etc. We were the only white people in the place which was hopping with people eating, getting take aways, and buying pastries. Unlike the Sinhalese who tend to stare and be a bit rude, the Tamils paid us no heed and just went about their business as we did ours. I was immediately transported back to India. A most pleasant experience and another great meal. I even bought some snacks for the train ride home.
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| Street scene across from the Malayan Café. Saris, motorbikes and peddle bikes. Might as well be in Tamil Nadu. |
The afternoon was closed by a trip to buy Palmyra products. Proving yet again that Sri Lankan was once part of the mainland, the Palmyra palm which grows everywhere in south India also flourishes here. Natives make use of every part of the tree: fronds are used for thatching, the fruit is delicious to eat, the tree is tapped for making treacle and jaggery, the roots are dried and cut into small round snacks or pounded into flour. I got some of everything. The treacle is very much like molasses which is great as you cannot get molasses here. The snack is inedible in my opinion but a boon for dentists as it is rock hard. I also got some Jaffna wine as grapes also flourish there. The wine remained closed until New Year's Eve when I opened it only to find that it is the worst stuff I have ever tasted. Tastes like watered down bad sherry. It might just pass for cooking.
It was off to the Green Grass for our final dinner with Patricia and then on to the train after breakfast at the hotel. Departure promptly at 0925. The return train journey was over 7 hours long as it was a local run as opposed to an inner city. It stopped at almost every station of which there are many. There were only 5 of us in the 1st Class carriage until Anuradhapura when hoards got on. The journey went faster than I had expected. Snoozing, listening to music, watching the landscape roll by, being entertained by the endless string of vendors selling food and drink. We got back to my place around 1830 after being picked up by Ashoka, Judith's driver at the Kurunagalla station.
All together a very enjoyable trip. I would go again.
