TRINCOMALEE - SRI LANKA

8th - 10th Dec 2011

Trincomalee from Fort Frederick.

The drive to Trinco from Sigiriya took about 3 hours. The final 43 kms, as I had been warned, is over old potholed and at times unmetalled roads. Up to there the road is new and excellent. A new highway is planned here and will be built by the Chinese in the next few years. The markers are already in place to show this. Jim was upset because it was making his car dirty.
Trinco, and the road leading to it, was one of the hot spots in the Tamil separatist 'war', so the place rather fell apart during this 30 year period. It is struggling to recover, but most tourists still stay away.

The town itself is a bit of a wreck. The streets are potholed and the buildings decrepit. The guide book, admittedly 3 years out of date, labelled the place 'Baghdad-on-Sea'. It is not that bad now. At least peace reigns and the previously abundant military/police security checks and paranoia have gone. The Main Street ( left ) is in need of renovation but it is 'bustling' again.
There is no reason actually to stay inside the town, nor any accomodation of comfort either, but it does have a few points of interest.






Such as Fort Frederick on the south-eastern spit of land. This was originally Dutch and subsequently British. The walls ( right ), along the same lines as those of the Fort at Galle, are impressively built and have lasted without much deterioration. Impromptu games of cricket are played everywhere; this bit of batting practice was being carried out by soldiers from the fort.




The inside of the old fort is now, maybe always has been, a largish military garrison and the HQ of 221 Infantry Brigade.











The guards at the impressive main gate ( right ) were welcoming and noone had any objections to tourists walking around inside and poking their noses into buildings, which was quite refreshing.
















Many parts of the garrison and battalions therein, such as the Officers' Mess, Battalion HQ buildings, offices and even the NAAFI equivalent were reminiscent of British military establishments of not too long ago. This ( left ) is the parade square.








I've seen this 'motto' before. The Sri Lankan infantry are upholding it, I have no doubt.
I wandered around all over the fort and even up onto the headland to the north-east where there was, yes you've guessed it, a temple with a giant golden Buddha outside. I did not approach within shoe removal distance.






There were many of these deer roaming about both inside and outside the fort. Notices ask people not to leave plastic bags lying about so as not to endanger the deer ( with modest effect outside the fort ). They are obviously welcome guests. They are very tame.








Being ignorant of these things I don't know what kind of deer they are. Perhaps someone can let me know.











We stayed for a quick look around the town. Not much to see, but the ramshackle bus station was quite interesting. The cows, many of them, were wandering around in here too. Daisy, Buttercup & Co have free rights to wander anywhere they want. This is a religious obligation I'm told. I presume that it is also a religious obligation not to complain when they cause the inevitable road traffic accidents or shit all over the streets.




Right: Jim posing in front of one of the red Government public 'kamikaze' buses, the ones that belch black smoke and are driven like stock-cars.










Left: Trying out one of these for size. It's probably safer to be travelling in one than driving in the vicinity of it. I wonder if the cows have sussed them out. Probably. The street dogs certain have. You don't see any squashed dogs on the roads.
As said, I doubt there are any tourists staying in the town itself. The remnants, or more hopefully the beginnings, of the tourist hotel and beach areas are at two small towns just north of Trinco namely Uppuveli ( 6kms north ) and Nilaveli ( 13kms north ). This coastline was also badly hit by the tsunami. There are many 'tsunami' pre-fab houses constructed along the coast. These were paid for and built by foreign aid after the disaster. They look quite neat and tidy; possibly better than some people had before. So obviously some foreign aid gets through and is used properly.


I stayed one night at a fairly basic but clean and tidy little beach hotel in Nilaveli; the Coral Bay. I was the only guest there at the time and had the beach to myself. Well, sort of..........










....because Daisy, Buttercup and her pals had decided to go for a bit of sunbathing here too.
The street dogs were happily clustered around the swimming pool wearing their shades and sipping cocktails.
This hotel, as with many others, was destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. They had several guests at the time and were relatively fortunate that only one of them was killed. The manager of this hotel was here then and explained the added problem, which was that there was a naval complex and some other military bases behind the beach hotels. These bases were surrounded by razor wire fences and people swept off the beach were caught up in the razor wire and drowned.
The next day I went to try out the smartest 'hotel resort' in the area, the Chaaya Blu, in Uppuveli. It used to be called the Club Ocanic in the 'war' days and was the drinking hole for all the NGOs and foreign aid workers. It involves a drive of about half a mile up an incredibly rough and potholed dirt track. Jim was having a panic attack over how this would ruin his suspension and seriously dirty his car.
It is indeed a very smart and well appointed modern hotel complex with pleasant rooms, free and fast wifi and international TV stations ( even BBC 24, for what it's worth ) plus three square-pin UK style plugs ( the normal Sri Lankan plug is of the long obsolete British round-pin variety ) , two bars and excellent restaurants, a magnificent swimming pool and beachside rooms which open out onto a patio ( right ) and the beach itself. It lacks two things ( in my opinion ); activities of an aquatic nature and, most noticeably, customers!
When I turned up I was shown the hotel 'rates' which were iniquitously expensive, I thought. I suggested a much reduced price, which was accepted. Better for them to  get something considerably less than the asking price than nothing at all, I suppose. It was indeed very comfortable and there was a speciality beachside 'crab' restaurant called 'The Crab Restaurant' which did many varieties of crab dishes ( visions of the Monty Python 'spam' sketch perhaps ). Very good too. The staff, who were numerous were, as always in Sri Lanka, remarkably polite, attentive and efficient. Apart from me, I counted four other guests that night. There were about 20 in for breakfast the next morning; mainly locals I think. I noted that in the wardrobe in the room was an umbrella and a life-jacket!


The beaches up the coast here ( left ) are superb and have so much potential for tourist entertainment such as the fast growing activities of kite-boarding and kite-surfing ( there was quite a breeze blowing for much of the time ) amongst many other things to amuse the punters. I hope some wealthy individuals or organisations with money to spend will invest here. It could be brilliant but, as things stand, it has quite a long way to go.



Back to Colombo the next day. It was about a nine hour drive including a few traffic hold-ups for whatever reason and several pit-stops for refreshments. I waved a fond farewell to the admirable Jim who had looked after me so well and drove so safely. He is going to start up his own 'web-site' soon so watch out for that. I can truly recommend his services if anyone out there is contemplating touring Sri Lanka, and I have his phone number and e-mail address.


I thought I would show you one of the ubiquitous Land Master tractor thingies which are used extensively in this part of the world for work in the rice fields, and many other places too boggy for normal tractors. Sri Lanka has many rice paddies in the centre of the country and these things are much in evidence. Dirty work but the Land Master in it's simplicity makes it look easy.


That day, being a 'full moon' was one of the monthly 'Poya' days. On these days people are expected to go and worship, and the older women, especially, dress up in white and do so.  Most shops are closed and NO alcohol can be served in any bars and restaurants. Hotels can deliver it to rooms. There are swingeing fines if they are caught disobeying this tradition/rule.
On the Monday morning I was given some terrible news by my faithful travel agent in Colombo. The smart passenger ferry, the Indian ship the Scotia Prince ( ex British ), which sailed from Colombo to Tuticorin on the south coast of India and which had only started operating to a great fanfare in June, and onto which I had booked myself when back in Singapore for departure on Wednesday 12th, evening, had been CANCELLED INDEFINITELY! I think it has gone bankrupt. Surprisingly, considering it is the only passenger carrying ship off the island to India or anywhere else for that matter, it never attracted many passengers. India does not allow any passengers, or crew, to go ashore from commercial freighters.  It looks horribly as if I will have to fly the short distance to India. Quelle horreur!
Watch this space........