The thick of it

19 September 2013  

Last night, after a few glasses of what I'm going to call 'coconut love,' we decided that it was time to jump into the thick of it. Instead of getting a car or expo train (very posh train), we would take a normal train to Kandy.  

A budget taxi (roughly translated to mean 'fucking scary smart car') rocked up at 8am and took us to Gampaha station. Straight out of a Bollywood film, we were the only white faces, and children were scared of us.  

When our train finally arrived, it was packed with people hanging out the side. Our driver, who kindly helped us purchase our tickets, booked them 2nd class, which meant cramming in with the locals. We had to run down the platform to jump on, but Suze was nowhere to be seen.  

Later, we found out she was held up by a woman who'd fainted and was being carried off. We did make it, though, in the nick of time. We threw our backpacks up and set off to the stop we'd been told to get off at—Peradeniya.  

About 20 minutes into the journey, over the noise of the spinning fans and men shouting about their deep-fried delights, came what I thought was an embarrassing ringtone, but it turned out to be the driver smashing out Sri Lankan Casio keyboard tunes.  

As we got into the thicker, denser jungle, the view was jaw-dropping (a view I nearly missed by looking out of the wrong side). We were halfway up a mountain, teetering on the side, gunning it at speed, and below us were rivers, lakes, and the lush green jungle.  

We jumped off at Peradeniya station, smaller than I'd expected for a main tourist attraction and the old capital, and were quickly jumped on by tuk-tuk drivers who quoted 500 Sri Lankan rupees (£2.50) to take us to our accommodation.  

We refused, as this is quite a lot of money to go a relatively short distance.  

We were then asked by the train guard, firstly, where we were going—Kandy—and secondly, why we got off at Peradeniya instead of Kandy. Feeling a little embarrassed, we admitted we'd been given some bad information.  

Getting off the second train of the day (and arriving in a much more substantial station), we ignored the touts and decided on a tuk-tuk driver that we liked the look of. 300 rupees to our accommodation.  

My first trip in a tuk-tuk was wicked fun. We went around Kandy Lake and up into the mountains. We found the 'Drop Inn' quite a while away from the centre, and a sporty young man with what can only be described as "fucked up eyes" told our driver in Sri Lankan (not sure what language that is yet, although I've learned "please," "thank you," and "good") that there was no room and we should have booked—a fair point, well made.  

The driver told us for 100 rupees he could find us somewhere cheap and good in the centre, but it would cost us 2500 for the night. We decided that we were knackered and that was our only option. Even though it was expensive, at least it was closer to town.  

We took a sharp left on the lake and found ourselves confronted by the unbelievable Hotel Suisse. Our faces lit up. The driver, whose name is Christy, said, "Look, you see the hotel? That is a very expensive hotel," and sped past down a back alley to our guesthouse—the (not so) grand Fortuna.  

Suzie said her dad used to smoke them, so it must be a good omen.  

I had a look around and thought it was good enough, agreed on the price, and said farewell to the driver. We didn't have enough change to pay him, but he said we could leave what we owed at the guesthouse. (I'm fairly sure we've been swindled.)  

The guesthouse itself is a bit (a lot) grubby, and we have to share with a gecko. But actually, for the price this close to the tourist district, it's not too bad and has a lot of charm—namely, the manager seems to be a 12-year-old boy, and his toothless father has the dirtiest laugh at anything I say. (He's behind us in the kitchen at the moment making some really weird noises.)  

Anyway, we popped into Kandy this afternoon at about 2pm, walked around the lake, which houses water monitors. Water monitors are basically absolutely massive crocodile-style lizards. We've been told that they don't bite or poison, but I'm not testing the theory.  

Today is a national holiday. I can't remember what it's called, but it sounds like "holiday." Basically, there are people everywhere, you can't buy alcohol, and everyone is amping on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. It's supposedly the tooth taken from Buddha from the funeral pyre and is Sri Lanka's most sacred relic.  

It had also been bombed by the LTTE fairly recently, so it is guarded heavily by the army. We didn't go in, as what we were wearing wasn't appropriate (we managed to squeeze the leather chaps in our bag at the last minute).  

We went for dinner in a ropey-looking cafe/diner which had a noisy, crow-infested balcony—perfect. The food, veggie curry bits, was really good, and for £2 for the both of us, including drinks, it was an absolute steal!  

We're back inside now trying to figure out what we're doing tomorrow. Probably getting our tuk-tuk driver to take us to Sigiriya.  

I know I've written loads, but while I have the enthusiasm, I guess it's worth doing.

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