At least on the buses I did see a great deal

My experience of public transport in Sri Lanka has been an adventure, to say the least. I booked two seats on the bus to Kandy because I knew it was going to be an arduous journey with steep inclines, and I did not feel that I could cope with someone almost sitting on top of me for 5 hours (it actually turned out to be 6 hours) as I had experienced on the journey to Trincomalee. On the Kandy bus, I was the only foreigner, so I felt even more guilt for taking up 2 seats when others were standing for hours. I did offer one of my seats to an elderly gentleman, but he declined.

Travelling by bus is definitely an ordeal, but the train I took from Colombo to Batticaloa at New Year was even more extreme. To start with, Colombo Fort station at 5 am is like going into Hades. There were hundreds of people getting off trains, even at that hour, and then many were simply crossing the lines. That did freak me out.


I thought it would be fine once  I got on the train. Unfortunately, the train looked like it was over 100 years old and it jolted alarmingly all the way to Batticaloa for 8 and a half hours. I could not enjoy the scenery so shaken up as I was. Also, had  I been planning a return journey, I would then have hadt to book anothrr ticket for the return journry. This happened to my host when he visted Colombo to meet hos mother. The first thing he did when he got off the train, was to queue to get a return. The only thing was that all the passengers on his train were doing exactly the same. Not efficient for anyone.


At least on the buses I did see a great deal as we travelled by various ancient as well as modern sights. People of all ages use both trains and buses here, but it is hard to adapt as a rather immobile foreigner.