Monday 8 Feb 2016

We got up at some insane hour to catch the 5:35am train to Jaffna.  Transport was organised to take us to Colombo Station.  The hotel made breakfast boxes for us to take on the trip.  We were ready and waiting for our transport in the hotel lobby.  The morning outside the hotel was eerily quiet.  The hotel is in a very busy part of Colombo during the day.

Transport came on time and we were at the station a little after 5am.  We booked first class seats for our trip to Jaffna.  This means we got slightly more comfortable seats and an air-conditioned carriage.  The heat can be oppressive at times.  After a 30 minute wait, the train arrived.  There were others we knew who were going to be on the train to Jaffna.  It was scramble, though not a mad one, to get onboard.  Our seats were close to the exit doors and so this made it easier to move our bags into position.  Most of the bags were place behind the first row of seats.  There was enough room to stack up the large ones.  The smaller ones were placed on the overhead rack.  We settled back on the train to have a bit of a breather.  Before long, the train was on its way.  Charles walked through the carriage into the next one and managed to tracked down Jeeva and Shanta.  Jeeva had organised transport at the Jaffna end to take us to the our hotel.  We will be staying at the same hotel as our 2013 trip.  The Pillaiyar Inn is not salubrious but adequate and in a convenient location in Jaffna.

The trip out of Colombo was a rocky one.  The tracks were in good need of a realignment.  The carriages were rocking from left to right and back again.  Looking down the carriage into the next carriage through the separating glass door, we could see the extend of the tilt from left to right in the next carriage.  The rocking was therapeutic I must say.  My back got a good massage.  However, if you needed to answer the call of nature, it could be tricky and quite ugly.

Nearer Jaffna, the ride was smoother.  The tracks were newly laid here after the war.  The project was sponsored by the Indian Government and the start of services to Jaffna was celebrated with huge fanfare.  The train arrived in Jaffna at midday and on time.  We waited for short while for our transport to arrive.  The van was not quite what Jeeva was expecting.  It was smaller and could not accomodate all of us.  Therefore, 2 trips were organised.  All of us got the hotel without much issues for lunch and a good rest.  The rooms were all meant to be of the same standard but they all had variable quality.  Some were granite tiled whereas others had old carpet.  The most important thing is that the air-conditioning worked and we had place to rest.  The hotel was reasonably clean the ‘butler’ attached to us is very helpful.  The same guys were here when I came 3 years ago.  It was nice to see familiar faces.  Sangaran, Charles and I were in one 5 person room, Susie and Shantini were in one 3 person room and Logan and Vasantha were in a double room.