Spontaneously planned road trip

Picked the road (see the earlier post with details of the route) supposedly to avoid the clog of cricket devotees pouring out of Colombo to Dambulla. Curiosity turned an obscure ancient site near Sigiriya into a justifiable destination. All legitimate excuses to get out of town even if it wasn’t a long weekend.

An alarm clock malfunction delayed the supposedly early start. No time for breakfast. Just enough for a cup of hurriedly brewed caffeine and to abduct a bottle of boiled water. Lack of the usual supplies (Napoleon invaded Russia with less) leads to a search for “devilled” cashews. It takes 3 stops along the main road to the airport (the A3) before we finally find a shop selling a packet that met our specifications. A less difficult find was a Perera & Sons selling vegetarian Chinese Rolls.

Thus supplied we miss the turn off to route A33 at Ja-Ela the first time. After backtracking we creep onto the A33 which looks more a like side road in a not too prosperous commuter suburb.

Then some promising landmarks. Specifically the Ekala air force base with its alarmingly light defences of a few casual sand bag bunkers. There is of course the pedestal mounted airframe by the main gate which seems to be a required feature for an force air base.

Feeling confident we adventurously follow a speeding bus that is steaming to somewhere near Kurunegala. We whiz through various Y and T junctions, preferring to think that we are on the right track despite a growing need to confirm our bearings.

Each small town we pass straddles a cobweb of roads branching away from our route. The signage (if there is any) only refers to obscure immediate places. Eventually we pull over and accost the locals for directions. A post middle age lady in cloth and jacket. A young guy on an old bicycle. They are all taken aback that we are going ALL the way to Kurunegala. We get surprised yet happy smiles out of them when we thank them for the directions.

Turns out we were on the right track all along. The key is to avoid turning into side roads. Keep going forward - essentially along the B15 road (though I doubt the locals call it that).

The scenery keeps getting rural. The road narrows and tunnels through lush greenery. Other than an odd truck we are the only thing on the road. Cows lounge in the shadows of not too well kept coconut plantations like dim members of a shabby country club. On a particularly green stretch, a dog is thrashing about on in the middle of the road, using the tarmac as a scratching post. Paws waving in the air. It gets out of the way at the nick of time. Perhaps it heard dog loving Mrs C’s deafening squeals of panic. Its shocked look at the sight of a vehicle on a Saturday morning recedes in the rear view mirror.

Lamp posts have left us by this point. A subtle warning in the glorious late morning light that this section of road would be difficult to drive at night. Not that Sri Lankan roads are uniformly well lit to begin with. The road surface so far has been smooth though we get ambushed by the infrequent pot hole. Best leave the Aston Martin at home.

To be continued tomorrow..

Sri Lanka travel tip: time saving route to Sri Lanka’s ancient sites

Traffic/road conditions on the route from Colombo to Sri Lanka’s ancient sites at Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya or Dambulla can stretch travel time to take up the whole day. This post describes a less congested alternative route via some of Sri Lanka’s under-utilised secondary roads. Hopefully it might help some one avoid wasting their holiday in traffic.

Mrs Cerno and I found that this route got us from Colombo to Dambulla in just under 3.5 hours at an unhurried pace. We managed this despite a delay caused by a frantic search for reasonably priced roasted cashews on the Ja-Ela road, stopping to ask for directions along the way, and a leisurely Nescafe break at the half way point.

First some context

Most of the congestion on route to Sri Lanka’s ancient sites occur along the A1 and A6 roads between Colombo and the transit hub of town of Kurunegala. The Colombo-Kurunegala road is one Sri Lanka’s mostly two lane colonial era “highways” (also called “Trunk roads”). It shares the traffic to/from Kandy (up to the turn off to Kegalle), the outer suburbs of Colombo and the commercial traffic between Colombo & the northern parts of the country. Particularly lumbering cargo trucks linking Colombo with the produce markets of the north central province. Holiday traffic adds to the clog whenever long weekends are “created” by a public holiday (Sri Lanka has quite a few). Cricket matches at Dambulla stadium is also a major traffic generator.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the A1, A6 “highway” become the main street of each small town it passes through. The military and politicians use this route adding a security consideration into the mix. Another obstacle to the traffic flow are checkpoints. Road repairs or an accident will slow and back up traffic even further.

The usual method to the avoid traffic on “A” class roads is to leave Colombo at 3-4am. Such an early wake-up has its own problems along with the video game of night driving in Sri Lanka. It is a time when speeding truckers and inpatient express busses hit the road.

The Map

The solution is to use Sri Lanka’s “B” class secondary roads. Specifically the route described in the map below:

You have to head north out of Colombo towards the International airport to reach the turn off to this route at Ja Ela. A short drive along route A33 gets you to route B15 at Ekala. The B15 takes you through the un-congested towns of Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Giriulla. At Giriulla you switch route B27 that takes you via Narammala to Kurunegala. From Kurunegala, you join the A6 to Dammbulla and beyond.

There are a few draw backs to taking this road.

Perhaps this could be an issue with secondary roads. Finding public toilets is a big one. Specially if your bowel control isn’t very good. Those squeamish about pubic facilities in Sri Lanka may not find any to be squeamish about. The only option to going behind a tree is trying your luck barging into a roadside shop.

Food

Food is another factor. We have yet to find the equivalent of a rest house along this route. If there are boutique hotels they are certainly well hidden. We have stopped at two cafe/snack bar places. One is the “Wijewikrama Pastry Corner” near Giriulla. The other is a kiosk attached to a function hall outside Narammala. Both times it was not for a main meal. Luckily the short travel time on this road will make holding on to hunger pangs a lot easier.

Roadside assistance is another big unknown. Most likely you’ll have to ask the help of friendly locals to haul your stalled chariot to the nearest “garage”. Perhaps someone who knows more on this will chip in. Ideally the best way to avoid roadside break downs is to making sure your chariot is in good working order. Otherwise postpone the trip, get it repaired or get another chariot. Something that was totally ignored on road trips in my parents’ generation.

Safety

Writing about this route is not a guarantee of its safety or even its road conditions. The disclaimer on the map applies to description was well.

In all the years I’ve travelled in Sri Lanka - I’ve never been mugged. I’ve yet to hear about such an experience from anyone I know. Highway robbery is something that I’ve only heard about in relation to retail. The terrorism factor should be a natural consideration when planning travel. For Sri Lankan, it is subconsciously integrated into any all aspects of life. A new added danger could be the vigilante factor. Visitors to the country would need consult associated travel warnings etc.

There is another route along the north western coast on route A3 via Wilpathu park to Anuradhapura which runs into risks from terrorist attacks. The Australian government has a travel warning (dated 10 May 2008 ) against taking this route. The warning also mentions route B33 from Chilaw and Wariapola in Kurunegala district. I have no idea why. I suppose this eliminates the other  route to Anuradhapura from Kurunegala via the A10 and A28 through Wariapola. I have never been on either of these routes.

Best part about the route I have described (to end this post on a positive note):

It takes you through an alternate Sri Lanka. No checkpoints or signs of war (this may change based on the prevailing political weather). You can actually enjoy the lush scenery scrolling past the window without worrying about the threat of maniacs on the road. It is a refreshing change from the scenery along the “usual” route - which has been ground to bland familiarity by countless trips since childhood.

To be continued: more posts on travels down this road

Terrorist boat trailer

Boat trailer in the image below is used by the LTTE’s “Sea Tigers” to transport their boats from jungle hideouts to the sea. The image was taken by Isak Berntsen who was part of the SLMM. He has generously made the image freely available via wikimedia commons site.

For some background info, the Janes defence web-site has a 2001 analysis of the LTTE’s maritime combat capabilities. A February 2008 article summery covers Sea Tiger surveillance radar capabilities. The Lanka Herald cites a supposed Janes article that proclaims the LTTE’s downfall inevitable. The article has some references to the setbacks suffered by the Sea-tigers. The most elite arm of the Seatigers is supposed to be its suicide terrorists. “lrrp”, author of the Camp Steel Wire blog has an interesting post that claims to be an extract of an interview with a Seatiger suicide terrorist captured by the Sri Lanka Navy.

I heard somewhere that the LTTE get their combat craft built in Japan. Or maybe its the engines. Hopefully a better informed personage will chip in. You know where the the comment box is

For those who like pictures, Wikimedia has a pic of a LTTE boat taking passengers on the beach and in the water under the ceasefire flag. Rajarata’s flickr site also has plenty to ogle at. Obviously  there’s more if you bother to google so I won’t do  all the mouse/keyboard work for you .

Yes that’s all I got for now The speed of life is ramping up. Hard to blog after long days at work looking at the screen. Back to the toil now..

Illegal street racing Colombo Sri Lanka

Postscript: The video clips in this post were taken around 2004-2005

illegal street races occur in Colombo -as with any city on the planet. The video clip below is a thin slice of the action. which makes illegal street racing yet another thing to watch out for when driving in Colombo - particularly at night.

As with most Colombo high income subcultures, the street racing scene is not huge but it is active - as the video below indicates. The video below does a good job of sampling a variety of racing situations to a very appropriate “gangsta” sound track.

From the Honda Club Sri Lanka events page, the more legitimate “car enthusiasts” scene with its harmless meet-ups seem quite social. Certainly brings out the babes. With that sentence I’ll be sending them a lot of traffic Interestingly, their home page has the following disclaimer:

WARNING ! Street Racing is a Dangerous Activity which could harm you as well as innocent by-standers and others on the street. Please refrain from street racing unless it’s in a safe controlled environment. Drive Safe, be a designated Driver..!!

Existence of risk in the scene naturally gets a mention in the papers. Usually in the supplemental pages that feature social problems such as culture (no that was not a typo).

The Sunday-Times’ article “The midnight roar” talks about the obvious law enforcement issue/pubic safety issue behind the partying face of street racing. However, the more telling discussions are on autolanka .com’s forums. A prow through the topics seem to indicate that the police is not a problem. Speed and the cost of fuel on the police budget keeps the law at bay. My spies (they are everywhere) tell me that the Police presence in the streets end after 3AM (Police officers don’t get overtime after this hour). I have never been able to verify and don’t intend to. Perhaps one of those rare owls who prowl the streets sober can chip in.

At the core of the issue is finding closed off strips of straight wide SMOOTH roads in Colombo. Duncan Udawatta ’s article “Drag Racing in Sri-Lanka” on autolanka .com suggests a win-win reconciliation between the needs of racing talent seeking an outlet for expression and the public safety.. Namely to formally close off tree lined section of Ananda Comaraswamy mawatha (also called Greenpath) for organised late night races. Its the sort of idea requiring skilful persistence patience to convince sceptical people with very different world views. In other words - details details. Until then Colombo’s illegal street racers have plenty of other venues along with Greenpath.

Behind the politics there ARE real issues of life and death. I know of one fatality by a racer on Galle road. I was a kid at the time so the details are fuzzy. The driver was using the pavement to overtake when he killed a pedestrian who worked with my farther. The driver’s folk’s apparently offered the victim’s family a few thousand rupees. The figure that lurks in the fog of memory is Rs5000/-. That was sometime in the last decades of the 20th century.

Who are these racers? I don’t know any. My only encounters with them boils down to the two cars that whizzed past me on one of the rare occasions I was on the roads after midnight. The video below is what it felt like

Such ignorance is fertile ground for sweeping assumptions unencumbered by facts. Hopefully such blind word shooting might motive someone knowledgeable to correct me.

Indulging in any kind of racing (in the third world in particular) you need very large amounts in hard currency. The kind of money that in Sri Lanka’s tiny universe also places you among people with influence. Influence is also necessary to smoothen the flow import duty burdened chariots. Not to mention esoteric parts and the ability to buy the mechanical skills if you don’t want to get your paws dirty.

The utility of influence that comes with such wealth is apparent if you do get into a problem with the law. The kind where charges (if any) can are dropped with a phone call and the constable responsible suddenly posted to Vauniya beyond the reach of a court appearance.

The other luxury is time. Its not just about avoiding the morning commute after a hard night’s racing. You need the time to tinker and spruce up your chariot. The rich brat factor will certainly buy you out of the need for a triviality like a job.

I have speculated dangerously to paint the racers as part of the eternal elite that stands above the law in most human societies through history. Specific people come and go but the Nomoklatura is forever. Better stop (note I didn’t pull a bad pun like “slam the brakes”) before I trundled off the topic from cafe talk speculation to the sloppy social commentary and political rants.

There has to be somebody better informed than me reading this. I’m sure they can find the comment box below.

Air conditioning: third world’s biggest status symbol

Air conditioning is the most common indicator of social status in the third world. Your degree of access to an air conditioned environments indicates how close (or far away) you are to the vast underclass of permanent poverty. Mosim Hamid’s masterpiece “Moth Smoke” brilliantly describes this divide as the separation of the “cooled” elite from the “uncooled” masses. This divide is part of life in the third world to the point most people don’t realise it. Sri Lanka is no exception.

At the broadest level, air conditioning in the third world is an act of defiance. It is a controlled cocoon of comfort from the chaos, pollution and poverty of the “out side”. Access to it mean you move in the world of resources and wealth that can afford the electricity or the gas to stay cool.

The cooled and the uncooled meet everyday in traffic. The later sardined and boiling in the bus up ahead. Trapped on the road with you on the evening commute. Waiting for the traffic to move another centimetre. The uncooled on motorcycles try to wiggle through the gaps. With a handkerchief over the face to avoid inhaling smog. Wife holding the baby on the rear seat. Sandwiched in the middle is the eldest still in his/her school uniform.

Inside the cocoons of the cooled the air is dry, the Celsius in the upper twenties. There’s Nusrat (please don’t tell me its remixed) or YFM in the speakers. Interrupted (hopefully not too frequently) by a news flash about a bomb blast. A perfectly mixed eggplant martini floats effortlessly in the anti gravity cup holder. Even if your chariot is a much dinged Maruti it air-conditioning will make it feels like an Aston Martin.

Naturally the world of the cooled has an internal hierarchy. I will make the reckless assumption that most of the Sri Lankan blogoshere’s inhabitants can find places within it. Your place in this pyramid is defined by intersecting factors. What those are, and the stratification they create, will have to wait for another port.

In other words, to be continued…