Train trip to the East

This past week I had an adventure. Two folks visited me from ICMA (one from Washington DC and one from Thailand) to see how things were going on the program. They were here on the 20th and 21st of February. This was right after spending a week in North West province and North Central province doing training. We were scheduled to do training in the east beginning February 23rd. The crew left Colombo on the 22nd, but I had some work and personal things to attend to, so I decided to take the night train on the 22nd to arrive in Batticoloa on the morning of the 23rd at 4:00 AM. That would give me a few hours to get myself cleaned-up for the day. I know I’d be OK since I got tickets for what I thought was an air conditioned “sleeper”. I arrived at the Colombo Fort train station about 30 minutes before the train was to leave… just to be on the safe side. I arrived and made my way through a throng of humanity and found the track and boarding location. I wasn’t sure I was in the right location because my ticket was written in Sinhala. So when the train pulled up, I jumped on with my luggage and started asking for help from some of the locals. Guess what, I was on the wrong car.

So I tried to make my way through the train, only to find a locked door between cars. I found a helpful railway employee who had me get off the train and wait by the side of the track as he said my car was going to be opened when the engine was connected to the head of the train. Sure enough a few minutes later an engine backed up to the train and a few minutes later the lights on the dark and locked car came on. He opened the door and showed me my berth. What was supposed to be an A/C sleeper was in fact a sleeper. I had the lower berth. I put my luggage next to the bed, under the window. What I noticed right off is that the place was a pit. Looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since independence some 58 years earlier. There was a clean towel over the naugahide pad on the sleeper though and a pillow. And NO AC. The place was very hot. There were two fans on the ceiling, but only one of them worked. By berth partner showed up and he was about 50 pounds overweight and had to hoist himself up to the upper bunk. I was a little worried about the condition of the car with all that weight above me.

Then the conductor came in and told me to move my luggage from away from the window, as someone might put their hand through the window and grab it while I was sleeping. I pointed out the bars on the window and he indicated it didn’t matter, I should move the luggage. So my compartment partner got himself down from the top bunk and we re-arranged the luggage under the sink to hold both of our belongings.

Just before the train was about to leave the station, nature called so I slid into the toilet area shared with the adjoining compartment. WOW, what an awful pit. The place stunk, and was very groady. When I got back into my compartment, I thought seriously about cooling myself with a drink from my water bottle, but then I remembered I’d be on this train for 9 hours… and I really didn’t want to use the toilet anymore than I might have to….. so I held back on drinking.

I passed the time reading a novel by flashlight since the reading light didn’t work and with little cat naps of about about 30 minutes at a time. The train was hot, noisy (ka-klank, ka-klank, ka-klank and rattle, rattle, rattle, and bam, bam, bam) let alone rocking and shaking with each turn and change in grade. Slowly but surely the long night turned into an arrival at my destination. I was greeted at the station by a driver who took me to the hotel that was an $18 dollar a night place that seemed to be clean (at least in comparison to the train) where I had a 2 hour nap… arising for a shower and breakfast so I could do training all day.

It turned out that the hotel was only about 5 minutes by car from the location of the training, but was very isolated from town. So for the 6 days I was in Batticoloa, I ate all our meals there, with the exception of the box lunches that were provided to the trainees and instructors. Saturday was not a day of rest, as there was a special meeting we had to conduct for Local Authority leaders in a neighboring town. However, the highlight of the day was an opportunity to go shopping for a batik sarong. This is a piece of batik material (about 1 meter by 2 meters) that is sewn into a circular piece that Sri Lankan men usually wear as bedclothes and some wear as daywear. Basically it’s a skirt that ties or tucks around the waste so it doesn’t fall down. Turns out it’s surprisingly comfortable! I haven’t had the nerve to have my picture taken with it on yet.

Sunday as a free day and I took a long walk along the beach, did some exploring around the town. I found an Internet café and paid a whole 60 cents an hour. Prices for internet cafes range from this rate to $4.00 per hour. Don’t ask me to explain it…. That’s just how it is.

After two more days of training and a second special meeting for local authority leaders on Monday night, it was time to return to Colombo on the Tuesday night train. Our local person bought the ticket for me and I was heartened to hear that it was an Air-conditioned sleeper car. About an hour before I left for the train station however he said that the sleeper really wasn’t available and that it was a very comfortable chair, but that he’d made arrangements for me to be upgraded,

I got to the station about 30 minutes early,,, just to be safe. The train was an hour late for the departure. And, there was no upgrade… and the comfortable chair had about 10 inches for my feet. Luckily, there was nobody in the seat next to me, so I could at least sit diagonally in the seat for a little more legroom. The car was tired, but passable for Sri Lankan standards. The toilet started out as OK and as the trip progressed became worse and worse. By the time it was half over it smelled like a septic tank. I have to tell you I was ever so thankful to be a man so I could stand and pee!

Again I cat napped and read the night away… and the 9 hour ordeal stretched to 10 as the train was even later than the one hour delayed departure.

I don’t think I’ll try the train again. Sarong to the train!