千里之行 始于足下

Sri Lanka Adventure [10 - 18 June 2010]
Part I: Pre-Trip [Singapore, 10 Jun 2010]
Part II: The Long Shuttle [Singapore - Kuala Lumpur, 10 Jun 2010]
Part III: AK255 [KUL - CMB, 11 Jun 2010]
Part IV: A Slice of Cultural Triangle [CMB - Dambulla, 11 June 2010]
Part V: Temples [Dambulla - Kandy, 12 Jun 2010]
Part VI: Into the Hills [Kandy - Haputale, 13 Jun 2010]
Part VII: Trekking to World’s End [Horton's Plains National Park, 14 Jun 2010]
Part VIII: Retracing the steps of Sir Thomas Lipton [Lipton's Seat & Tea Factory, 15 Jun 2010]
Part IX: Leopard! Leopard! Leopard! [Haputale - Tissa, 16 Jun 2010]
Part X: Will this journey ever end? [Tissa - Negombo, 17 Jun 2010]
Part XI: Goodbye Serendib [CMB - KUL - Singapore, 18 Jun 2010]
Part XII: Epilogue

After three nights at Haputale, it was time for us to move on.

We settled our bill for our stay with the manager (1950 LKR per person for three nights; 1300 LKR for a double room) and headed to the bus station. While we had an enjoyable stay at Srilakview, I couldn’t help but feel that the management could spruce up the rooms and maintain them even better.

We made good our promise to the fruit seller and got his address (to send him photographs) before leaving. The 8:30am bus to Wellawaya left ahead of schedule and it meant that we had a little more time in Haputale.

While out walking in town the previous evening, the two photographers made an acquaintance with the owner of the provision shop at the bus station. He told them that he could tell they are from Singapore from their faces.

It turned out that he had worked at a factory in Singapore for seven years and is now back in his hometown running the provision shop. We stocked up some snacks from his shop and he told us that the next bus would leave at around 10:00am.

After consulting more people, we realized that we might not be able to stick to our original plan of making the afternoon safari at Yala National Park. We would need to make two transfers (at Wellawaya and Wirawila) to reach Tissamaharama, the gateway to Yala NP. Some guy came and offered us a ride with the van driver whom we had to Horton’s Plains NP.

After some friendly banter and hard bargaining, we settled on a really good price of 4800 LKR (for us of course) and set off in the van for Tissamaharama or Tissa for short.

Route: Haputale to Tissamaharama (Tissa)
Distance: 96km
Time taken: Approx. 3h
Mode: Van
Cost: 4800 LKR

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As the road winded down the hills, the lack of air-condition in the van became more apparent. We cooled off for a while at Diyaluma Falls, the second highest waterfall in Sri Lanka at 220m.

It was a slippery climb from the road to the base of the waterfall; I didn’t feel that the effort was worth it since we had seen Baker’s Falls. The terrain flattened out near Wellawaya and we declined the driver’s offer to visit Buduruvagala temple in order to reach Tissa earlier.

The van driver drove us to Travellers’ Home and the owner showed us the triples available. The owner was keen to have us and offered to negotiate the rates. Srilakview’s manager had recommended Regina Inn in Tissa and we decided to take a look there as well. After viewing both places we decided to pump for Travellers’ Home whose rooms were brighter and seemed cleaner.

Some British backpackers were leaving the guesthouse as we were checking in. They were on the morning safari and told us excitedly that they managed to spot a mother leopards with her two cubs. As time was running short, we got the guesthouse owner to organize the jeep for us. He quoted 4200 LKR for each person, an offer which we accepted.

The driver was a smiley young chap and readily accepted our request for a stop to stock up on some food and water along the way. We passed by a big lake on our way to the national park.

Before reaching the park entrance, our driver drove us off the road to point out a baby crocodile nesting near the lake. It was really hard to spot. Buffaloes were all over the grassland surrounding the water body.

We reached the visitors’ center and our guide went to settle the fees while we took a look at the small museum. There were interesting exhibits and short information about the species present in the park but we were more interested to see the wildlife in flesh instead of specimens.

We stopped shortly after leaving the visitors’ center. Our driver had spotted yet another crocodile.

Our driver was really sharp in spotting animals.

It’s digging for something…

Then we came into contact with some giants.

The pair of elephants were actually of a bigger herd who wanted to cross the track to the water body. However, the horde of jeeps scared them and they didn’t dare to cross.

It put on a show for us.

We moved on and as usual our driver was on alert for moving objects.

We were driven to the river bank and told by our driver that we could walk around the area for pictures.

They are left behind by predators.

Until now, we had pretty much seen what we expected to see except for the biggest prize: leopards.

Our driver received a phone call from a fellow guide who had news of leopard sighting and we were off in the jeep again. Our jeep was stationary at a spot in anticipation of any sighting of the big cat but no luck there.

We drove away from the jeeps into one of the deserted tracks and suddenly a leopard appeared right in front of us sitting on the side of the track. The driver was shocked as well but quickly reacted by reversing and then cutting the engine. The leopard strolled leisurely back into the vegetation again.

What a lucky sighting! The driver drove us to a nearby water body as he estimated that the leopard was heading to one. Alas it didn’t mean to and we left disappointed after waiting for another 10 minutes there.

Just as we thought that the highlight of the trip was behind us and were discussing the animals at the back of the jeep, Feijie suddenly let out a cry.

“Leopard! Leopard! Leopard!”

His sharp eyes had spotted a huge cat to our right as the jeep drove pass. Our driver was looking the other way and were equally surprised as the rest of us. He pulled over and reversed; our view of this big cat was finally unobstructed.

What a beauty.

It moved inside the vegetation after a while but our driver correctly predicted that it would cross the track behind us.

You could tell that it didn’t give a damn about the approaching vehicle at all.

Our luck didn’t run out there as we spotted an elephant with tusks walking towards us on the track minutes later.

The driver remarked that we were really lucky; there were only a total of 35 leopards on record in the national park and the last elephant that we saw was one of the only nine with tusks. Safari was definitely money well spent.

It was getting dark as we made our way out of the park. We could tell that the place was about to come alive with all the sounds from nature.

We asked our driver if there were any good eating places in town but he was under instruction from his boss to bring us back to the guesthouse. Tissa town was quiet with most of the shops closed when we drove past.

The food at the guesthouse were more than expensive than what we were used to in Haputale. We ordered our dinner and told to return in an hour’s time. In the meantime we went back to our rooms where things were to get slightly more interesting.

The guys in the other room found two bed bugs on their beds and complained to the owner. The owner insisted that there were no bed bugs and told them, “This is Asia.” We were already irritated with his hard-sell tactics with the dinner and his response riled us even more. In the end we couldn’t do much except to stay on since it was already quite late and it was for only one night.

The dinner was forgettable and overpriced for what was served. The owner’s wife redeemed themselves a little by allowing us to watch the World Cup game between Spain and Switzerland in her living room. I observed that their own living quarter was more spartan than the rest of the guesthouse. Switzerland produced the first real upset of the tournament by winning against Spain.

And we watched it from a random living room in Tissa, Sri Lanka. How interesting.

Sri Lanka Adventure [10 - 18 June 2010]
Part I: Pre-Trip [Singapore, 10 Jun 2010]
Part II: The Long Shuttle [Singapore - Kuala Lumpur, 10 Jun 2010]
Part III: AK255 [KUL - CMB, 11 Jun 2010]
Part IV: A Slice of Cultural Triangle [CMB - Dambulla, 11 June 2010]
Part V: Temples [Dambulla - Kandy, 12 Jun 2010]
Part VI: Into the Hills [Kandy - Haputale, 13 Jun 2010]
Part VII: Trekking to World’s End [Horton's Plains National Park, 14 Jun 2010]
Part VIII: Retracing the steps of Sir Thomas Lipton [Lipton's Seat & Tea Factory, 15 Jun 2010]
Part IX: Leopard! Leopard! Leopard! [Haputale - Tissa, 16 Jun 2010]
Part X: Will this journey ever end? [Tissa - Negombo, 17 Jun 2010]
Part XI: Goodbye Serendib [CMB - KUL - Singapore, 18 Jun 2010]
Part XII: Epilogue

Only the two photographers were game enough to wake up at 4.45am in the morning to catch the sunrise at Lipton’s Seat. The rest of us chose to sleep in and go at a more humane timing later in the day.

Lipton’s Seat, located 18km east of Haputale, was where famous Scottish plantation owner Sir Thomas Lipton used as a lookout to survey his vast plantations. On a clear day, one could get a 360 degree view and even catch glimpses of the coast from there.

To get there from Haputale, vans or autorickshaws were available for hire. The road wasn’t in the best condition so vans would be better for the butts. The alternative will be taking the public buses to Dambatenne Tea Factory and then make the 7km trek through the tea plantation to the viewpoint.

The two early birds took an autorickshaw to the viewpoint and then walked down through the tea plantation towards the factory. Plenty of opportunities for photography along the way.

These tea pickers are mainly Indian Tamils whose ancestors were brought in by the British planters to work on the plantations since the 19th century. It was backbreaking work and the pickers had to work eight hours a day. We had differing accounts of how much a tea picker earns; the figure lies somewhere between 100 to 200 SGD per month.

The photographers were kindly invited into one of the locals’ house.

The plantation provides most of the amenities that the community needs. Schools and clinics are examples of them.

While the photographers were busy taking photographs, the rest of us had taken an autorickshaw to Lipton’s Seat, admired the view, toured Dambatenne Tea Factory and returned to Haputale. Ashraf had arranged our return trip on autorickshaw for 1500 LKR.

Dambatenne Tea Factory conducts tour for 200 LKR per person and a staff would guide us through the entire tea-making process. It would take 24 hours to turn fresh plucked leaves into the finished product that we are familiar of. The guide was quite informative and tried to answer all of our questions. We were told that the tea estate is about the size of 700 football fields and a total of 1500 tea-pickers work the land. There is 60 working in the factory and the tea is chiefly sold to the likes of Unilever (Lipton is one of Unilever’s brands). All of us bought some tea (top grade: Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings) to bring back to Singapore.

The photographers had better luck when their guide allowed them to take photographs of the process.

While waiting at Haputale for the photographers to return, we patronized the internet cafe located on the road to train station. With just three terminals, we had to take turns. The speed was still acceptable at 60 LKR/hour and I got to check my e-mails. A train passed by while I waited for others to be done with the computers.

It was mid afternoon by the time all of us regrouped back at Haputale. We then discovered the sinfully delicious samosas from Risara’s Bakers.

The photographers went around the town looking for more pictures while the rest of us stayed behind at the guesthouse for the World Cup game between New Zealand and Slovakia (1:1).

During dinner at the guesthouse, a lawyer who was in town to settle some labor disputes sat in the table across from ours. He was enthusiastic in sharing with us his favorite places in Sri Lanka (Arugram Bay, Trincomalee, etc) and we were appreciative of his helpful tips.

If his description were accurate, we might be back in Sri Lanka sooner than we thought.

Sri Lanka Adventure [10 - 18 June 2010]
Part I: Pre-Trip [Singapore, 10 Jun 2010]
Part II: The Long Shuttle [Singapore - Kuala Lumpur, 10 Jun 2010]
Part III: AK255 [KUL - CMB, 11 Jun 2010]
Part IV: A Slice of Cultural Triangle [CMB - Dambulla, 11 June 2010]
Part V: Temples [Dambulla - Kandy, 12 Jun 2010]
Part VI: Into the Hills [Kandy - Haputale, 13 Jun 2010]
Part VII: Trekking to World’s End [Horton's Plains National Park, 14 Jun 2010]
Part VIII: Retracing the steps of Sir Thomas Lipton [Lipton's Seat & Tea Factory, 15 Jun 2010]
Part IX: Leopard! Leopard! Leopard! [Haputale - Tissa, 16 Jun 2010]
Part X: Will this journey ever end? [Tissa - Negombo, 17 Jun 2010]
Part XI: Goodbye Serendib [CMB - KUL - Singapore, 18 Jun 2010]
Part XII: Epilogue

We didn’t give Kandy much of a chance to redeem itself with our plan to take an early train out to Haputale.

The rate for a double room without view was 1500 LKR nett; rooms with view cost an additional 500 LKR.

The train would depart Kandy at 8.24am and we set off early from McLeod Inn to avoid missing it. Along the way, we stopped at a bakery for breakfast.

After passing by the chaotic Goods Shed bus station, we reached Kandy’s train station very much in time for the train.

In fact, we were too early and the ticket counter wasn’t opened yet. Hence it was time for breakfast and photos.

They tasted good albeit a little too spicy for my palate.

More pictures from the train station:

Only one first class ticket to Haputale was available so we had to settle for second class seats.

Route: Kandy – Haputale
Train name: Podi Menike (Little Maiden)
Dep: Kandy 8:24am
Arr: Haputale 2:09pm
Time taken: 5h43m
Distance traveled: 125km
Mode: Sri Lanka Railways
Cost: 210 LKR (2nd class seats)

We boarded the shuttle to Peradeniya Junction from Platform 1 before it started to rain. The train left slightly behind schedule and we had to transfer to a very crowded train across the platform at Peradeniya Junction under rather heavy rain. It was standing room only in second class carriage but some of us would get seats when the conductors came around and sent passengers with 3rd class tickets to the even crowded 3rd class carriages.

In many less developed parts of the world, the concept of personal space differed quite sharply from what I was used to. The local Sri Lankans didn’t seem to really mind body contact in crowded situations as in the train carriages. Despite the crowded conditions on the train, the scenery was wonderful outside the windows.

Despite being stuck in close proximity with strangers, the locals almost always smiled for our photographers.

The guy was a really friendly chap and even helped a fellow passenger to take care of her kid while she was busy. From time to time, there were vendors who sold peanuts and vaadai coming on board the carriages. We even had a busker for a while as well.

The mist began to descend as we neared Haputale.

We were only around half an hour late arriving at Haputale. Six hours was really a long time to cover a relatively short distance of around 125km.

Learning from our lesson at Dambulla, we had pre-booked our accommodation at both Kandy and Haputale through phone. Someone from our guesthouse, Srilakvieww Holiday Inn, picked us up from the train station. The walk from the train station took around ten minutes.

We had requested for two triple rooms and were shown those in a separate building detached from the main wing. They seemed unused for quite some time already and the staff were busy cleaning them up when we arrived. Feeling tired from the traveling, we decided to take the rooms despite apprehension about number of bugs in the building.

After settling down, we headed out to town to search for lunch. While walking around the small place, we discovered that this town was really charming and full of friendly locals.

We decided to have lunch at a place which served rottis, chapattis and pratas. It would become our favorite haunt for the rest of our time at Haputale.

By the end of our lunch the mist engulfing the town and the surrounding valleys had cleared up.

We would take a long walk around the town and back to our guesthouse through the tea plantation.

The locals were unbelievably friendly and genuinely interested in talking to us. Many of them happily posed for the photographers when prompted.

We made a faux pas with the grandma by greeting her “ayubowan”. She smiled and told us that she’s Tamil, not Sinhalese.

The elderly man gamely posed for us with his goat.

We got up close with the tea plants while walking through the plantation.

We just laughed off the suggestion and walked away in the direction of our guesthouse. Ashraf, the friendly guesthouse staff, approached us about dinner. The chef took a long time to prepare and we would need to order at least an hour in advance.

While some of us decided what to eat, the rest of us engaged Ashraf in some friendly banter. We got him to give us some recommendations of places to go around Haputale and he promised to fix transportation arrangement for us.

He noticed about our worry about the problem of mosquitoes in our rooms and offered to check whether there were other alternatives. He then showed us three twin rooms in the main building which were in better condition. We took them without hesitation and spent the time until dinner moving our stuff over to our new rooms.

This was the first place in Sri Lanka where we didn’t feel that we were the only guests of the establishment. A French lady who was on the same train from Kandy with us also stayed at Srilakview as well. The restaurant was packed with European tourists during dinner time and we had our dinner over the World Cup game between Serbia and Ghana (0-1).

Ashraf arranged our following day’s transportation to Horton’s Plains National Park, leaving at 5:00am. It would turn out to be the highlight of the trip.