 After spending a couple of days in Weligama, a beach side village in south Sri Lanka, Yolanda (from Spain) and I decided to split travel expenses by a sharing rooms and tuk tuks or taxis. She also had no real plan of what to see or where to go, so after consulting the oracle (The Lonely Planet), we figured that we couldn’t miss out on seeing the hill country. One slight hitch in that plan was how to get there. Travelling long distances in local buses isn’t recommended and after hearing some tales of treacherous driving and overcrowding we decided to find a private car and driver. (I’ve travelled in many local buses since due to necessity and they’re not so bad.) Our luck was with us and the charming Sunny, who is Nadia (from the mediation week) and Colin’s landlord, offered to drive us the 5 hours up to Ella in hills. As it also turns out he is the most caring and knowledgeable travel guide. We spent a beautiful morning, driving through large bustling towns and small rural villages, taking shortcuts and watching the greenery and lushness move past us. Sunny acted as horticulturist and pointed out various plantations. Groves of mango trees, clusters of coconut palms, rice paddies, tea plantations and the ubiquitous native cinnamon tree filled the landscape for hours. We drove past Uda Walawe National park and one of the elephants decided to hang out on the roadside.
We stopped to view a waterfall and then continued to climb, up up up towards the former hill station of Ella. Sunny casually navigated switch back after torturous bend and managed to stay clear of oncoming trucks, tuk tuks and crazy local buses. We let Google maps guide us to our lodgings located on a mountain on the other side of Ella. We soon realised that the place was inaccessible by any vehicle (other than a mule) and we couldn’t imagine spending two days hiking up and down and into town. Sunny to the rescue again and he phoned a friend who had a guest house in the best location for less than the price we were going to pay.
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 I'd heard and read about the lace makers in Weligama. These ladies continue a traditional craft that was introduced by the Portuguese in the 1500s. I met the beautiful Leela in her beachside home along the main street of Weligama. She was sitting outside in the dust busily creating this intricate doily. Check out the little video to see her weave. She explained how to me how she survived the 2004 tsunami by clinging to a tree. Her family were all swept away and killed. She still lives in her original home and her only income comes from selling her beautiful creations to tourists.   Two of our new friends moved on the next day and Daniel from Sydney and Yolanda from Barcelona decided to hang with me. We hatched a plan to head south and meet Nadia who had just left, at the beach side village of Weligama. We caught the 5am commuter train from Kandy and had an early morning taxi ride to the station. The place was already swarming with people and crazy tuk tuk drivers and hawkers selling yellow, spicy, deep fried morsels. It had been flogging down rain for the past few days. The kind of rain that is so very wet that not even the best brolly or hi-tech jacket will keep you dry. The colourfully dressed ladies moving about at the station swinging their oversized handbags and gorgeous saris still managed to look elegant and unfazed by the dirt and mud sloshing about under their hems. We bought our second class tickets ($3ea) to Colombo and made our way onto the platform to find the correct carriage. Nothing was clearly signed, so we just picked one that looked fairly empty. The carriages resemble the old Sydney red rattlers and had pairs of bench seats facing each other that would seat three people. We hoisted our packs onto the overhead racks and spread out on the seats. No time to get comfortable though. The train started to fill with early morning commuters and by the third station we had squashed together to make room for the locals. By the fifth stop the carriage was filled to overflowing and people were hanging out the doors. At my eye level I had crotches, bums and oversized handbags banging into my face and body. A few more stops and my body was objecting to not being able to move, so I stood up and offered my 300mm square space on the bench to a lovely lady, who was very grateful. I popped my ear phones back in and listened to some tunes and sang to myself and did a little dance on the spot to keep my legs from going numb. All of this was very entertaining for the locals as we three were the only whities in the carriage and I was getting lots of large toothy smiles. Crazy, dancing, white lady with pink hair. The folk were all very patient and co-operative as more people crushed on and oversized handbags and backpacks were shared about to be minded on people’s laps. My new friend who I’d given my seat to was quite insistent that she nurse my small pack and kept wanting me to sit back down. We smiled in agreement that she stay seated and I jigged and swayed against the warm bodies for the next few hours. It was a pretty tough ride; hot and sticky with little relief from the open windows and doors and two ancient overhead desk fans that were bolted to the carriage ceiling. I could only think about these poor people having to go to work all day and then crush back on to the train for the return trip. I could glimpse a very beautiful and serene vista through the open window and it was all very lush, green and hilly with low cloud hanging in the valleys. Three and half hours later the train belched in to Colombo Fort station and spewed out the majority of passengers giving us left behind some breathing space. Then the hawkers arrived bearing their baskets of delicacies of which we had no knowledge. The only thing I recognised were chickpeas, so I bought a bag for 20 rupees and ate them while they were still warm from the steaming. Cooked with chunks of fresh coconut, they were delicious. Daniel had one of everything and as it turned out, it was a pretty good choice. Light flat breads rolled in banana leaves and filled with tasty relish and little deep fried dahl nuggets. We were entertained during the next three hours by the variety of food and drink on offer and guessing what might be in the baskets and how many rupees each little thing may cost. There was also some random bizarre performances. 7hrs after starting our journey, we pulled in to Weligama and were met by the lovely Nadia and Colin, her French sea captain boyfriend. They are the quintessential poster couple; tanned, exotic and gorgeous. They escorted us to our accommodation and then took us to lunch in their favourite cafe, The Hangtime rooftop bar. Vegan/vego and totally yummy. We wandered back to their little villa on the river and we three girls sat on the grass, chatted and did Osho Tarot readings, while Colin went surfing. We had a beautiful afternoon and then watched the sun go down at our beach side villa. |
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