All Aboard!

    First weekend...first weekend getaway! The first day I had arrived at MEF, Katie and Tali kindly swept me off on the bus to Rambukana to buy tickets for a train to Ella the coming weekend. We had difficulties getting what we were wanting but eventually ended up with 3rd class tickets for an overnight train there Friday and 1st class cabin tickets back on Sunday. The main purpose of the 8 hour trip there being the beauty of the ride itself!

    

    Friday night, 9:45, came and the three of us were sitting on the platform waiting for the expectedly late train to pull into the station. As it finally did, car by car zoomed pass it us the train was coming to a stop, each absolutely packed with people, practically sitting on top of each other...all men. Immediately felt freaked out. The first car we tried getting on, the attendant wouldn't let us and sent us down to the next car, which we did get on, but had nowhere to go. We couldn't move much passed the entrance to the cabin as people were standing and sitting in every possible square inch. We were stuck standing in that spot, practically between two cars until we eventually gave in and sat down on the floor. Eyes fixed on us, shamelessly, from every direction. About 45 minutes in to our 8-hour train ride, a giant teddy bear-like local came over to us to say he had 3 seats for us. Cautiously, we followed him into the next car to find 3 seats waiting for us, slightly seperated, but seats nonetheless. A few stops later, a few on and offs, and we were sitting all together in a booth-like group of seats with 1 stranger. Much better.

   

    6:30AM slowly rolls around and I am a woken from my half sleep because I'm freezing! I looked outside and we had made it deep into hill country (1150m above SL) and we're now so high up that the morning temperature had dropped down to about 10 degrees Celsius,  all windows still wide open. We came around a corner and all of a sudden I was blinded by the incredible sunrise. The entire sky was pink, orange and purple, creating a gorgeous backdrop to the never-ending surrounding hills, green carpets of tea plantations and pine tree forests! Yep, I guess because we were so high up, it was almost a completely different climate and suddenly there was not a palm tree to be seen and I felt like I was back in northern Ontario.

    Overall observations from my first train ride -

• Not sure I would choose to do that train ever again but it was definitely an experience. The number of people decreased significantly as we made stops along the way and by the time we made it to Ella, we were the only ones in our car;
• Waking up at 1AM to singing, chanting and dancing in the next car was a little startling;
• Though majority of the people on the train made the three of us girls feel quite uncomfortable, there were some very friendly, (concerned?), people as well who subtly stuck around us as 'protectors' until their stops;
• In the  end, our 8-hour train ride turned into 10 hours, might I add, with no bathroom to be found....
• Finding  enough room, comfort, breathing on a 3rd class Sri Lankan train to get some shut eye? Impossible.

First overnight train - CHECK.

XXX Nicky