Heading south
I’m pretty amazed that there are 11 pages before this one and I’ve only just got to the end of week one, pretty much. Bored yet?
The first week was designed as frantic tourism. The second week as rest and recreation. The plan was simple: Head for three nights in Tangalla and then three nights in Galle, timing the arrival in Galle to perfection as the India/ Sri Lanka Test Match crowds had left.
To be fair, we hadn’t known about the cricket when we planned the trip! Odd, really, because Al’s the cricket fan, and he planned the itinerary!
Two different stories about the bus. "It leaves at 7:30" or "It leaves at 8:30". Either way there is one bus per day to Matara. Or more than one bus per day. Or not. But, however many or few there are, missing it is not an option.
The trip is seven to eight hours to Tangalla.
We had to leave before breakfast, so we paid the bill the night before and were given breakfast packets. Cheese sandwich (we avoid meat when refrigeration is unlikely), banana, hard boiled egg and a bottle of orange squash. Oh, and a pre-sliced tomato. I managed to drop them as we left the hotel. Oops!
We found the bus. No air conditioned luxury this time. The was one of the two bus workhorses, a Tata. The other one is a Lanka Ashok Leyland. The bodywork is pretty similar, the mechanicals are rustic and easily maintainable with a big hammer. These are the true sports cars of the Sri Lankan highway!
We left just before 7:30. Great bus boy, full bus. Yiu reserve your seats by putting something of yours on them, that means you can, if you need to, brave the bus station toilets confident that your stuff will travel without you if you’re late back!
What can one say about a bus trip? Long, hot as soon as we got to sea level, varied scenery, signs of tsunami destruction, three army checkpoints to check baggage for bombs and weapons, and a 15 minute lunch and piddle break where the bananas we bought we just not quite ripe.
Lunch is a rush. There’s an ’all you can eat for 100 rupees’ buffet, which Al did very well at, but Mel and I weren’t hungry. The photo’s at the lunch stop. Boys are lucky at piddle breaks. We have bushes. Being a girl must be a right royal pain.
The bus was rammed full the whole way. This bus made a profit. The fare for the 7 hours or so? 220 rupees per person!
The interesting this is one of the expedition people we met said "The girls don’t have enough money to visit the south. It’s outside their budget." The correct word for this is ’bullshit’. There is something about these expeditions that really rankles.
We arrived early in Tangalla. We expected our hotel to be after the bus station. Instead it was before it. Douglas Adamas did a better job with his book! Ah well.