Sunday, January 17, 2010

Train Ride from Kandy to Colombo

I have traveled by train to different places, but for some reason or the other the train journeys I have had between Colombo and Kandy are almost always memorable.
Foreigners are usually surprised to find this sort of trains in operation still.They might have seen these machines either in vintage films or portraits. Usually the condition of the train is not the best. The seats are not too bad, but very often the train is over packed by more than double its capacity and seats made for two people for two will have around three to four people and you might find another few people almost about to climb unto your back. Don’t expect the windows to have automatic controls, you need to put your mechanical thinking hat on to make out how to lift the lever and open the windows.
It can be funny if you try to compare this with the facilities in other countries. Singapore MRT usually keeps on replaying the message “be aware of the gap between the train and the platform” when ever a train is ready to load passengers. Plenty of safety announcements are being made there while having less than a half an inch of gap, but ironically here you would find that there will be a foot gap further people should climb down a fragile ladder, but still no safety announcement or for that matter even not a single notice to educate about safety, but still life goes on and more than that people still have wide smiles and travel around happily!
Given all these circumstances still I will assure you one thing – taking a ride in one of these trains is worth it. The sceneries are just breathtaking; especially from kadigamuwa to kadugannawa it’s simply amazing! The train line, which is a British architecture carves through the rocks and makes a steep rise within a short distance! You just get seduced by nature and the shades of green on display. Its one of the pleasing sights you can come across. The bible rock stands at the center of the attraction and it makes you feel if you are taking a ride around it. The train rides on the edge of a rock while a collection of mountain ranges are far at display. I for one don’t have that vocabulary to put the beauty of it in words. So instead I present it in pictures!
Below you can find an aerial view of a train winding its way through one of the tunnels in the route

Bible Rock

4 comments:

Vimalaharan said...

Your Photographs are great (At least, You have justified yourself for buying the expensive camera :) ). I loved the way you have compared our Trains with the Singapore MRT. We do not need such a fancy Announcement when we have more educated, intelligent and acrobatic people in our Country

Unknown said...

haha Vimal the irony of your comment is not lost!

Nee said...

We don't need announcements because we have a lifetime of experience. We can jump onto speeding buses and hang on the foot-board. We see that in western countries as well - but only at the movies recorded with trained stunt people!! I often laugh at the 'wet-floor' signs thinking how funny it would be if such signs were mandatory in SL.

Anyway, I digress. The train rides are certainly a unique treat. I love travelling that way and seeing the beauty of our land. Only regret is not doing it often enough.

Unknown said...

Very true Nee, I think I would not have seen the Wet floor sign in Sri Lanka more than 5 times!

btw oops I didnt know that u were one of the people who is aware of this url. :D