The Train Journey to Habarana

We arrived bright and early the following day to wait for our train. We found it hard to know where to go.  There are 11 platforms at Colombo Fort, but they are not clearly marked and we found that we had to ask for help from local travellers, as there are no Railways Staff to ask either. 

(On a later trip, to Negombo, we were variously told to wait at platform, 2, 1 and 9, while the one information board in the station said platform 11, and even when we found staff we were just told to listen for announcements - the train eventually left from platform 1).

We boarded the train, but it was really hard to work out which carriage we were supposed to be in. An enthusiastic local helped us (but wanted money to support a supposed charity).  

There was no electricity on the train until a locomotive was connected which made it very difficult to see seat numbers, but we got there in the end.  Thank goodness for the torch app on phones!

Our train to Habarana left Colombo Fort station more or less on time.  The carriage was old, dirty and unairconditioned.  There were (ineffective) electric fans in the roof - and its saving grace was that we could open the windows.  This meant that, despite the frightful heat, there was a good breeze through the carriage.

The train trip was fairly uneventful. We weren't entirely sure we were seated in the right place until the guard checked our tickets, a couple of hours into the journey.  

It didn't really matter because, despite the Tourist Information Office's advice that the trains would be jam-packed because of the Ramadan holidays, the train was mostly empty.

The trip to Habarana was long: close to seven hours.  We saw the landscape change from the lush rice paddies and jungles of the lowlands to the drier interior of the north.  

We saw cows, birds, people and towns, rivers, hills and the jungle, as well as a large number of broken railway wagons, left by the side of tracks to disintegrate.

We could more or less track where we were on our big map of Sri Lanka, but it didn't have all the station names, so we again found ourselves wishing that there was an official map of the railway network.  It really would have made life easier for us.

A steady supply of refreshments was available on the train.  There were people selling water and a variety of fresh snacks, tea and (instant) coffee. 

The snacks, ranging from pakora-style fried vege patties to rotis, were delivered in baskets, with little apparent regard for basic food hygiene.  But the food was fresh, vegetarian, delicious, and we suffered no ill-effects.  We enjoyed it.

The train ride was long, and it was hot.  But it was a great part of our trip, and far more fun than a chauffered car.

We give our rate 8/10. Recomended !, if you want to feel the real local of Sri Lanka.

Colombo Fort Station - Beware "The Tourist Information Office"

We determined that we would travel by train in Sri Lanka.  Having experienced the joys of near-suicidal driving in places like Pakistan, India and China, we weren't keen on the idea of long-distance buses or cars, so we opted for the train.

We were bound for Sigiriya, in the North Central Province.  We tried to plan our rail journey  before we arrived.  This was hard for two reasons.

First, there is no official map of the Sri Lankan railway network, so it's hard to work out which train you need to catch.  There is a helpful official timetable on line - but it does rely on you knowing where you want to go.  

We couldn't find a map of any description that actually showed all the stations - so it took a bit of figuring out how to get to Sigiriya. 

There seems to be an expectation that tourists won't travel by train (when we emailed the hotel asking which station to get off at, we were told we needed to talk to a sister company for excursions). 

Persistence prevailed, and we learned that we needed to get off at Habarana, on the Batticaloa line.

The next issue was booking tickets.  While you can book railway tickets up to 46 days ahead, you have to do that at a railway station. 

You can't do it from abroad (except from some tourist train that go to kandy). We were arriving on a Friday, and leaving for Sigiriya on Saturday, so we had to go to Colombo Fort railway station on Friday afternoon to book our tickets.

We caught the bus to Colombo Fort Station.   It was a bustling and busy place.  

At the front of the station is "Tourist Railway Information Office". We went in and explained to the helpful man that we wanted two tickets for tomorrow to Habarana.

He told us that there were no trains to Habarana the following day. He then told us that it wouldn't be possible to catch any other trains to the north because they were full.  "Everyone wants to travel by train for the end of Ramadan," we were told.

As it turned out, this was either a bare-faced lie, or the man knew so little about what he was talking about that he should not have been working in a tourist information office. 

He did offer us an alternative - he could arrange a first class ticket to Kandy for us tomorrow, and then arrange a driver to take us to Sigiriya for four days.  This would cost us the princely sum of USD 316, not far short of our total budget for two weeks (we had prepaid accommodation), so we graciously declined his offer.

Instead, we went in search of a ticket counter where we could buy a ticket to Habarana.  The station has separate ticket counters in separate places for separate lines. 

They are not well-signposted.  We kept being told we were in the wrong place and that we needed to keep moving down the station.

We eventually found the ticket counter for Habarana (if you are ever in search of it, its ticket counter 16 - start on the left hand side of the station as you look at it).  

We had to queue for a bit (and guard our place in the queue carefully, because Sri Lankans don't like to queue very much), but we eventually secured our tickets to Habarana. 

There was no first class service on the day in question - s we settled for second class tickets at LKR 640 (USD 4.80) - substantially less than the USD 316 we had been quoted for travel via Kandy with a driver.

Hotel New Amirtha , Pure Vegetarian Restaurant Colombo

To be honest, we struggled with food somewhat in Colombo.  Although we saw at least two McDonalds restaurants, we found it difficult to find other restaurants because they weren't well signposted, and there were only a few on the map we were given by our BnB.

We tried to eat at Barefoot, at 704 Galle Road, a funky café close to our BnB, and attached to a groovy clohes, fabric and souvenir shop.  Unfortunately, on the night we went, it was closing early at 5pm, so we had to search further afield.

We ended up a short walk away, at the Hotel New Amirtha ("hotel" meaning "restaurant"), a South-Indian style pure vegetarian restaurant. 

The restaurant was pretty basic to look at, but it appeared to be clean.  It offered both dine-in and takeaway options, with a large supply of supply of pre-prepared snacks at the front door. 

We opted for a dosai and daal, and some snacks.  The dosai was served on a stainless steel platter, with different sauces served up for dipping.  We rounded off the meal with tea.

It was a really nice meal.  We hadn't eaten properly for about 36 hours, so we were pretty hungry.  The food was fresh, and really yummy.

It was also really cheap: we paid LKR 230 (less than USD 2) for two people to eat.  It wasn't the flashest place around, but the food was good and the service was friendly.  

If you're in Galle, we'd thoroughly recommend Hotel New Amirtha, and we'd rank it 8/10.

Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

The Gangaramaya Temple at 61 Sri Jinarathana Rd, Colombo, was on our list of key things to do in Colombo.  After our adventures at Colombo Fort, we headed there.

We paid our LKR 200 each for admission (this was to prove one of our cheaper Sri Lankan experiences), deposited our shoes on the racks, and went in.

The temple is more than 120 years old, and is packed full of interesting sculpture and other artwork telling the story of Buddha's enlightenment.   

The sculptures were interesting because of their almost-Renaissance style, and the way they seek to tell a story.   Unusually for a Buddhist temple, the sculptures depicted far more than just the Buddha.

The first hall, in particular contained massive statuary on the walls and ceiling.

As expected, Buddha is everywhere.

And, as in Thailand, there were some very cute friendly dogs and chickens. Mrs. H was curious what the conection betwen Buddhism and chickens, because in some of the Thai temples we visited they keep chickens inside too.

We were disappointed to see an elephant chained up front and back, so that it could neither move nor sit down.  We weren't sure why the Temple needed to do that, but it seems unnecessarily cruel.

How to go there ?, after book ticket from Fort Train Station we take tuk tuk meter and pay 250 Rupee to reached the temple.

We give Gangamaraya Temple rate 7/10 .

Bandairanke International Airport to Colombo Taxi Review

We arrived at Bandairanke International Airport, Colombo.  The terminal was clean, fairly modern and well-presented.  Immigration and Customs were a breeze.

We emerged into a hot and sunny Colombo day.  And couldn't find a taxi.

We had researched our transfer options pretty thoroughly.  There were three alternatives.  One was to catch a shuttle-bus to a bus station, and then a bus to Colombo. 

The second option was to catch a shuttle to the bus station, and then a bus to a nearby train station and then a train to Colombo. 

The final alternative was a taxi.  Given the complexity of changing buses/ trains, and an uncertain timetable, and the fact that Mr H had been travelling for 30 hours, we decided on a taxi.

Our pre-arrival research had indicated that the best deal on taxis was from Kangaroo Cabs - at a rate of LKR 1,750 one-way.   We had visited the company's website, and enquired whether there was a taxi stand at the airport or whether we needed to arrange a pick-up.  

We were told there were cabs at the airport - but, while we found lots of taxis, we couldn't find a Kangaroo Cab.  In hindsight, we should have booked, but a quick phone call had a car despatched to us.  It eventually arrived, and whisked us into town.

The car (a Toyota Prius) was modern and well-maintained.  Our driver was generally good (although he was a bit enthusiastic about trying to push through urban traffic jams with little thought to the quality of his paint job or the lives of pedestrians).  There was an expressway for much of the way into city - although this cost us an additional LKR 300 in tolls.

Even with the snarl-up off the Expressway, it took us about an hour to make our way to our BNB in Galle.  The timing was pretty good and we recommend Kangaroo Cabs for those needing a taxi from Colombo Airport.

One word of warning though - there are metered taxis with kangaroos plastered all over them.  These are not Kangaroo Cabs, although if you weren't paying attention you could easily be fooled.  We didn't try these - but we heard that they were much more costly.

We did wonder why a Sri Lankan taxi company would name itself after Australia's most famous marsupial.  We never quite hopped to an answer.

We rate Kangaroo Cabs 8/10. Recomended !

Drift BnB Hotel Colombo - Review

Drift BnB in Galle, Colombo, is a funky kind of establishment.  It hides several flights up (although it does have a dumb waiter for carrying bags) and is basic, but well-appointed.   It's close to a small shopping centre and the beach (we loved the small beach view from the open windows in the bathroom), and it was clean and tidy when we visited.

When we checked in, the staff were really friendly and helpful.  They gave us a handy map of the area, complete with local restaurants, cafes, shops and points of interest.  

They told us how to catch a bus and what it would cost (LKR 30), as well as giving us an idea about tuktuk charges.  They were really honest and told us it would be about LKR300 to Colombo Fort railway station in a metered tuktuk - and told us not to bother trying to haggle with unmetered drivers.

If you want to take an early train from Fort Station, we think this is the best place to stay. Just 8 minute away from Fort Railway Station with tuk tuk.

We did an afternoon walk, and easily found a supermarket, the famous gift shop "Barefoot" and a shopping mall nearby.

For the first time visitor, it's bit difficult to find this hotel, because you access it from down inside a small alley.  A bigger sign on the outside would help people can find it easily.

We only stayed for one night, and left unsociably early to catch an early train north - so we didn't get to sample breakfast.  It would be great if the BnB provided tea and coffee facilities in the rooms to make it easier for both guests and staff, but we would stay here again, and give it 8/10.

Air Asia X Review - Kuala Lumpur to Colombo return - D7 182 and D7 183

To be frank, Mr Herbivore was a bit worried about flying on an airline with an alphanumeric airline code.  There's something faintly solid and reliable about airline codes like BA, QF and SQ.  He'd only ever previously seen alphanumeric codes on domestic Russian airlines flying old Soviet-era planes, so he was relieved to board a well-kept and shiny A330-300.

For Colombo we will fly with Air Asia X. It's different type of plane than the one we flew to Chiang Mai. Air Asia X has bigger planes and flies longer-distance routes like to Japan, Korea, Jeddah, Nepal and Australia.

You don't fly on the Air Asia family for service.  It's a budget airline.  You have to check yourself in online, and print your own boarding pass.  You have to select how much baggage you want at the time you book your ticket.

If you don't do these things, you have to pay an extra fee.  (We're not quite sure what the point of the check-yourself-in requirement is though: if you have checked bags, you still have to queue up for long periods to drop your bags, the staff still want to review your travel documentation, and on our return flight, they even gave us nice shiny new Air Asia boarding passes).

So Air Asia is a no-nonsense kind of airline.  It doesn't offer movies or entertainment, and it doesn't offer food (although you can buy food on the plane).  But it does leave on time.  Passengers know that if they are not on board at the right time, they will miss their flight.  Overall, this is a good thing. On D7 182, and our return flight D7 183, we left on time (although we were late arriving back in KL because of a strong headwind).

On the outbound leg, we had tried to eat breakfast and get coffee before we left KLIA2.  This had been a shambles.  We cleared Emigration before we ate, in order to avoid the queues, but while there are several landside cafes, the airside choice is quite limited.

We tried to eat at the airside food court, but despite being some of the very few passengers there, the service was extremely slow, to a point where we began to fear missing our flight.  We gave up trying to order coffee, after 10 minutes standing in a queue of three.

We knew we couldn't take bottled water through security at KLIA2, but we were surprised that once we were through, we couldn't buy a bottle of water.  The best you could do was buy a cup for MYR 2.  As the cups appeared to have a capacity of more than 100mls, we weren't quite sure how aviation security was advanced by this.

Anyway, because we hadn't eaten properly, had missed coffee and failed to get water, we decided to buy something on the plane.

We invested in a bottle of water, a cup of tea and some cashew nuts.  We would have had a Kit Kat, but they had apparently run out, so had a chocolate brownie instead.  It was actually quite yummy.

Coming back, we ordered pot noodles.  The vegetarian option wasn't especially tasty, and contained nasty monosodium glutamate.

Both ways, we would have ordered a more substantive meal - but vegetarian options are only available if you pre-order them online.  You can't order them once you are on the plane.

This was a bit disappointing, and we think that Air Asia could better service its vegetarian customers by having standard vege meals on all its flights.

Our flight back was memorable for the world's worst-ever cup of tea.  We think the flight attendant put a tea bag in a cup and then poured coffee into it.  It was undrinkable.  We would have complained and asked for another - except the cabin crew studiously ignored us for the rest of the flight.

But we still lucky to get the best view of sunset from our window.

Air Asia offers cheap flights (we pay 400$ for 2) - but provides no service.  That's kind of okay, as you get what you pay for, and it's okay on short-haul flights.  It wouldn't be much fun flying from KL to Melbourne though.