Monday 15 February 2016

We leave Jaffna today for Colombo. The train departs Jaffna at 1:42pm and arrive in Colombo at 8:00pm.  I have organised our driver for the last few days, Ria, to take us to the Jaffna Railway Station.  At the other end in Colombo, I will need to confirm with Jagath while on the train about our transport from Colombo Railway Station to our accomodation.  I know Jagath will come good.

Our morning was relaxed.  We were mostly packed except for a few items.  We had a leisurely breakfast and headed back to our rooms.  Just before 12 noon,  Sangaran got a call from his sister informing him that my mother had passed away in Singapore.  This was a sad end to the trip however I felt that my mother’s death was not unexpected.  I heard my mother was not in good health of late and I just resigned to the fact that it was her time.  I shared the news with the rest in the group.  I could not do much at this stage as we needed to check out of the hotel and get to the station.  Logan had generously volunteered to look after the final financial matters as I needed to make a few phone calls.

Ria met us at the hotel at noon.  We packed the van and headed to the station, well ahead of time.  Better to be early than late.  Many things went through my mind while waiting for the train but I was also figuring a way to change my flight to get to Singapore for the funeral. I had a flight booked with Charles to fly out of Colombo at 1:10am on the 17th Feb.  The flight would arrive in Singapore at 7:40am.  I however felt that the funeral might take place on the 16th.

The train was slightly late.  We boarded the train and stacked our suitcases as before without much trouble.

After a 10 minute wait we were on our way.  The smoothness of the ride was going to be in reverse now.  It will be smooth out of Jaffna and then rocky towards Colombo.  When we were about an hour or so on the train, I tried calling Singapore Airlines to change my flight.  Communication on the mobile phone was tricky while on the train.  After several attempts and speaking to a few people, I was told the earlier flight was full.   A bit later I was able to get Jagath who had confirmed that transport had been arranged to pick us up from the railway station.  Jagath was on tour with another group and therefore could not meet us in Colombo himself.

In Colombo we were booked for 2 nights at Tiesh by Lakmini.  It is an apartment block above a jewellery shop and the owners of the shop were also owners of the apartments above.  It is a new building.  We were booked into a 3  bedroom apartment.  The apartment is modern with modern facilities.  It was big difference to what we were staying at in Jaffna.  Logan and Vasantha were back staying at the Sea View Hotel.  A few in the group went out to get some food.  After dinner we all headed for bed.

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.