Farewell to Ceylon

As I mentioned, Edward spent just over a day in Kandy and it seems that most modern tourists do it in similar speedy fashion. We spent six days there and when I told the taxi driver delivering us from Kandy station to our hotel that, he almost ran off the road in surprise. Likewise, the factotum (cook, waiter, cleaner and concierge) at the Amanda Hills Hotel touched his heart at our last breakfast and said that after six days, he would feel our departure there. I told him we would feel it there too, having had a very relaxing break.  He also insisted on making us a complimentary lunch of ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches, bananas and bottled water, to take on the train back to Colombo.

For his return, Edward rose at five o'clock in the morning...and rapidly descended the hills towards Colombo arriving about 4pm. They rested at the Royal Hotel for three hours before embarking on the coach for Galle at 7pm. The road was now wet and muddy and the horses provided appeared to have already done their work during the afternoon. Thus the trip to Galle which was expected to be reached by daylight, took until almost mid-day. Not only the horses worked hard because the coach had human runners whose job it was to run alongside the horse's heads, pulling and urging them along through difficult patches. Edward noted that one of our runners came all the way without being changed...only occasionally obtaining a little rest by standing on the carriage step. The distance is seventy-three miles. !!!

Edward then had another day in Galle before leaving. He enjoyed his time in Ceylon saying that had arrangements permitted I would gladly have remained a fortnight longer in this delightful island... for never in my life have I spent a week more agreeably than the last. He does mention though that others were less keen on the heat and humidity. Despite his disparaging remarks about the Singalese contempt for labour, he also mentions that several fellow passengers engaged as servants young Cingalese lads...good looking, merry little fellows who appear very obedient and docile and confesses that I would have taken one or two had I been going to, instead of leaving, Australia. Easily done apparently in Edward's time but today's BorderForce might take a dim view of bringing Sri Lankans back now.

The train from Kandy down to the coast once again meandered through scenic mountains on its way. Like the roads, the train traveled slowly in the mountains, averaging only 25-30km/hour. Once on the flat it picked up speed to around 60km/hour and once again it was very crowded. Old hands now, we had arrived at the station an hour before departure so were able to enter the waiting train and find seats, but only just.

Our host at the Galle Star Hotel, had mentioned that he also had a hotel, the Sun Up, at Katunyaka, less than a kilometre from the airport. As we had to be at the airport at 8.30am the following day we had decided to book in there for our last night, rather than stay in Colombo and take an expensive taxi through morning rush hour traffic.

So arriving at Colombo Fort Station we immediately took another train to Katunyaka Station and found the Sun Up Hotel, just a short distance away. It certainly was close to the airport. Trish and I walked the kilometre there to check out the lie of the land, before having dinner at a nearby restaurant. However, I'm glad we only had one night because it was not salubrious. In fact it was just a concrete blockhouse of about five windowless rooms. I commented to Trish that our, at least air conditioned and relatively clean, room and ensuite, was probably what prison would be like, albeit having a cell mate of the opposite sex.

We embarked on our plane the next morning without incident and about 14 hours later were safely home in Perth.

Rocking up to Sigiriya

One place in Sri Lanka that Edward didn't get to,but that I had always wanted to visit is the Sigiriya Rock Fortress. My father visited there on his way through Ceylon in the late 1950's and a black and white photo on his office wall throughout my childhood, always looked to me to be a mysterious and impressive place. As such it had gone on my subconscious bucket list.

Being only 90kms on from Kandy I figured a day visit was a must. After making enquiries about getting there it seemed that our hosts at the Amanda Hills Hotel offered the best price for a day trip (6000 rupees) so we set off at about 7.30am with Dularg, the 25 year old son of the hotel manager, at the helm of his father's air conditioned car. It was a good choice because Dularg must be the safest and most courteous driver in all Sri Lanka. Unlike every other driver (tuk tuks, buses and taxis) we experienced, Dularg kept to sensible speeds, never attempted a blind overtake and frequently let others into the traffic stream. Those other driver's might unkindly suggest that this was why it took over 3 hours on often relatively quiet country roads for us to travel the 90kms but I doubt if their frenetic haste makes much difference.

Sigiriya was built about 1500 years ago when Sri Lanka was a very technologically advanced culture. While the post Roman Europeans were scratching out a living in sod huts, the Sri Lankans were building impressive stone cities, mastering the arts of hydrology and irrigation and generally performing engineering miracles. Sigiriya is an unusual rock formation on which a massive fortress was built, surrounded by an impressive, moated city on the flat. What remains is still impressive in its engineering and use of natural features to become part of their built environment.

Sigiriya Rock Fortress. 

It's only drawback is that it is in a hot, inland part of Sri Lanka and that full enjoyment of it requires a significant climb up hundreds of steps, past some impressive painted frescoes, to view the ruins at the summit. Unfortunately too it is inhabited by wasp colonies that when they swarm, require evacuation of the summit, apparently not so much because they sting but because they can create panic in the crowds. We got half way up, past the frescoes, when the crowds ahead of us on the steps started to retreat with cries of "wasps, wasps, go back".  Given the heat and the climb, Trish claimed that this was the serendipitous event that one always expects of Sri Lanka, in that it allowed to terminate our ascent with honour and I had to agree. The site has a comprehensive air conditioned museum that shows you what you might have seen on the summit and in the circumstances it was a much easier way to view it. Additionally, the site is so extensive that to really appreciate all of it would probably take several days, if not more.

Part of the climb to Sigiriya summit. No place for a wasp inspired panic.

We spent several hours there before returning to Dularg waiting in the car. On the return trip we also visited the Dambulla Rock Temple, an impressive set of reclining Buddhas built into a series of temples formed from rock overhangs on a big granite outcrop. This again included a healthy climb up countless steps. Sri Lankans are very keen on steps!

In his journal Edward discusses in some depth the unhappy disturbances of 1848...for which Lord Torrington and his government will not be soon forgotten, or forgiven. Better known as the Matale Rebellion, this was an uprising by the Singalese against the British. Edward describes the Singalese as being a proud people adverse to working for others or any laborious occupation, or in any way distressing himself with toil. Unsurprisingly, the locals showed little inclination to labour on the British coffee plantations, preferring instead to just work their own agricultural plots. The British therefore decided to import large numbers of Tamil indentured labourers from India, who Edward describes as Malabars. This led to discontent amongst the locals and in 1848 an uprising took place with the rebels initially congregating at the Dambulla Temple before marching on Kandy. The rebels were swiftly and brutally defeated but in all this lay the roots of the vicious, 30 year, civil war that tore Sri Lanka apart in recent times.

Edward acknowledges that the rebellion included much unnecessary bloodshed and that Malabar and Malay troops under British command when once loosed, they could not be restrained. Interestingly given the name Tamil Tigers, adopted by the recent rebels,  he describes them as tigers in human shape, committing atrocities on unresisting and generally unarmed victims. Edward also comments on the fact that local troops didn't include within its ranks a single native of the Cingalese race. Again it is unsurprising that the locals were not keen to serve the British in occupying their own country.

On our return drive from Dambulla, we hit Kandy just in time for evening rush hour gridlock so it took over 4 hours, arriving back at the hotel just after 7pm.

More Kandy

Edward describes the Temple of the Tooth as a fine old Buddhist temple where in the inner sanctum...are kept some valuable jewels and a real tooth of the Buddha; but as the functionary who keeps the key was absent, though we went twice we could not gain admittance. Today the Temple is a huge tourist attraction for locals and foreigners alike, being one of Buddhism's most significant sites. We visited in the afternoon, initially planning to stay for the early evening ceremony that takes place daily. However, when it became apparent that that occurs in a hot, airless internal area that was going to be incredibly crowded, we decided to leave that to those to whom it would have more significance than us.

Temple of the Tooth.

Edward also visited a coffee plantation and took a keen interest in the cultivation process and the economics of the industry. He describes it as one of the most desirable investments to be met with. Certain it is, that the coffee planters boast of very great success during the last few years, and seem to be all prosperous, and in easy circumstances. As a man with an eye to the main chance I suspect Edward may have been mulling over the possibility of making an investment himself. Fortunately he didn't because about a decade later, Sri Lankan coffee was hit with a rust that wiped out most of the plantations.

The view from Amanda Hills Hotel. The golden roof just to the left of centre and in front of the tree line is the Temple of the Tooth.

We visited the local Tea Museum which provides a very good overview of how one coffee planter, James Taylor then turned to tea planting, which with the marketing of Thomas Lipton, then became the mainstay of the Sri Lankan economy. They also provided a very nice pot of tea as part of the tour.

A Taste of Kandy

Although only in Kandy for just over  a day, Edward managed to visit most of what are still the current tourist attractions; the Temple of the Tooth and old Royal Court, the Perhadinia public gardens (now known as the Royal Botanical Gardens), the Kandy Lake, a coffee plantation and Captain Dawson's tower.

A painting of Kandy showing the lake, the Temple of the Tooth in the foreground and what maybe Stainton's in the distance.

Edward describes Kandy as beautifully situated in the midst of an amphitheatre of fine hills beside a small valley, artificially dammed across to form the famous Kandean lake. He also said the air felt lighter...and the appearance of the vegetation generally was less rampant and tropical. With that eye for the ladies that Edward often displays in his journal, he also suggested that the women of Kandy are very good looking, and have lighter complexions than those of the low country he goes on to say the men are slight, sinewy, and tall, and appear even more proud than their lowland brethren.

 Captain Dawson's Tower.

We took a tuk tuk to Captain Dawson's tower, a memorial to the man who supervised the building of the direct road from Colombo to Kandy in the 1820's. He died in the process, possibly of snakebite but possibly just tropical exhaustion, and in 1829 a stark, massive, concrete tower was erected to his memory at Kadugannawa Pass, the highest point in the road. Apart from parts of Galle Fort, this tower is probably the sight least changed from Edward's time to now. There is a staircase up the inside and presumably magnificent views from the top. Some locals standing nearby offered to fetch the caretaker with the key to the locked entry gate but it looked dingy, claustrophobic, steep and not often used so we declined the offer.

Kandy Lake looking out to the prison island where the King apparently kept recalcitrant wives. Hmmmm!
Our hotel was on the hill behind.

We then spent several delightful hours in the Royal Botanical Gardens which Edward described as worth a visit. I endorse that view. They are expansive attractive gardens, laid out in Victorian times and well used by locals and tourists alike. It should be noted that Sri Lanka has hit on a revenue measure that I haven't encountered anywhere else. All tourist attractions have a price for locals and a different price for "foreigners" which is usually between 4 & 10 times as much. This does allow locals to enjoy these places because the "foreigner" price is always far above what a local could afford, at the same time providing revenue that is hopefully used in preserving the place in question.

Talipot palms. The largest of all palm trees.

On his return trip from Kandy to Colombo, Edward mentions seeing one of the rare and magnificent talipot palms, in full flower. The tree is said to blossom only once in a hundred years, and so fine a specimen as that which we saw is regarded even here as a wonder. His companion had tried to buy a piece of the flower but his offer was declined on the basis that the first flower was offered to the gods. I had no idea what a talipot palm was but took the opportunity to ask at the Botanic Gardens if they had any and they did. They weren't in flower so I didn't offer to buy a bloom but I suspect such an offer would still be declined plus Australian quarantine would probably take a dim view of such a souvenir!

Back on Edward's Track

After five days we took the train from Nuwara Eliya down to Kandy, thus rejoining Edward's track, in Kandy. It took Edward a full day to travel the 100 or so kilometres from Colombo to Kandy and again this travel time has not reduced as much as might be expected. Thanks to roads full of tuk tuks, cars, buses and trucks, travel time can often be reduced to 20km/hr or less, and 30km/hr is considered a reasonable average. Even our train from Kandy to Colombo took four hours.

Stainton/Staunton's Hotel as it may have looked in Edward's time.

Edward stayed at what he called Staunton's Hotel in Kandy. This presumably was Stainton's Hotel which was originally a Governor's mansion and barracks, then a hotel, that in 1869 became what is now Kandy's best known Victorian hotel, the Queen's Hotel. (The Queen's appears to have been rebuilt a number of times so the current interior and exterior probably bear little resemblance to what was there in Edward's time.)  I hadn't been able to locate Staunton's prior to coming to Sri Lanka, otherwise I would have booked in there and instead we stayed at Amanda Hills Hotel, a pleasant tourist hotel overlooking Kandy lake and the town.

The Queen's Hotel today.

We did, however, decide on our first night in Kandy to have a drink and dinner at the Queen's. However, while there, Trish proved herself to be a true, delicate English lady by having a fit of the vapours. We had not long embarked on what I hoped to be a prolonged and pleasant buffet dinner when Trish looked across the table at me and said in slightly strangled tones "I need some fresh air. Can you help me outside." One look told me she was serious so I came round and took her arm to escort her out of one of the french doors that led to a cloister like outside footpath that ran down the side of the dining room. I was about to help her to sit on the low wall of the cloister when she passed out. Luckily the maitre d', a waiter and a security officer had all noticed that madam was having problems and had rushed over to join us and the maitre d' sent the waiter off for a chair and a glass of water. He also offered to send for a doctor but Trish who by then had come to, said she'd be ok before slumping down in the chair in a second faint. After some water and a little while sitting in the fresh air she professed herself ready to return to dinner but once back inside, it was clear that she wasn't going to cope. The dining room while being sumptuous and reasonably well served with fans, wasn't air conditioned and was was pretty stifling, so after a cup of tea and a little desert, we paid, summoned up a tuk tuk and headed for home.

Queen's Hotel dining room. We were seated in the central row with no fan. The French Doors out are to the left.

Prior to dinner, Trish had had a double shot Tom Collins on an empty stomach and while I suggested that could have been part of the problem, she maintained it was solely her delicate constitution, and the hot, airless nature of the dining room. (I suspect others observing our little drama unfold probably thought it was just another tourist enjoying a little too much local hospitality as well.)  Whatever, the cause it was a little alarming during the event but luckily she was fine once back in our air conditioned room. Pity too because I was looking forward to being on much better terms with that buffet.

As High As You Can Get

From Ella, we took the train up to Nuwara Eliya, at just under 2000m above sea level a mountain retreat for British colonials seeking relief from the heat. With daytime temperatures of around 20C, it falls to mid teens at night and blankets are provided on the beds.

We stayed at Trout Cabins, a cosy complex of 3 bedrooms opening onto a central lounge. Although the cheapest place we stayed, at just under $20 per night, it was also possibly the nicest. It had a rustic, hippy feel that reminded me of some of the accommodation places in our local south coast forests. It was also enhanced by Danu the young man in charge of looking after guests. He was a sweet, shy, helpful boy who always did his best to provide good advice and make your visit pleasurable. He lit the fire in the lounge at night, found us an electric kettle to make cups of tea and generally provide delightful service.

Trout Cabins 

At Nuwara Eliya we again took advantage of the cool to go walking. We walked through Victoria Park (an English style park) in the centre of town, around Lake Gregory, up to Lover's Leap waterfall above the Pedro Tea Factory, and we caught a bus up to Shanthipura, the highest village in Sri Lanka. The bus up the steep, winding road took about 40 minutes to cover the 5kms and it didn't take much longer to walk back down.

The road down from Shanthipura.

As the lounge had plates and cups etc we also took to buying local fruit at the markets and having that for breakfast. At some of the other places we stayed, the provided breakfast included fresh fruits but in keeping with the Sri Lankan policy of preparing food well ahead of consumption, they usually had the appearance of having been cut up the night before, whereas we cut ours just as we were about to eat them and they were correspondingly more appetising.

Into the Mountains

In Ella we stayed at the Grand Peak Hotel, a smallish family hotel catering mainly to French tourists, the owners being fluent in French. Cooler than on the coast and in the lowland areas we took the opportunity to do some walking at Ella.

Rawena waterfall.

One day we walked 6 kms downhill to Rawena waterfall and then caught the local bus back up the hill. The falls were crowded with locals and tourists and one visitor said the waters are considered purifying by Buddhists, but these days I wouldn't put my head under water. We also walked up to Little Adam's Peak, a local mountain view point, from where you can look out over south-west Sri Lanka. We were followed almost the entire way by three of the myriad local dogs. These three seemed to decide that we were suitable new owners and embarrassingly took to defending us by growling at passing locals along the way. Have they worked out that Europeans are generous with treats? They got nothing more than a pat from us!

Looking from Little Adam's Peak across south west Sri Lanka.

This walk was our first experience of tea plantation country which is as picturesque as the Ceylon tea ads suggest. It was also where I first noticed something that would interest Edward were he to visit today. In the highland areas, often the dominant tree types are Australian eucalypts. Apparently these were first planted by tea plantation owners in the 1890's for fuel, building timber and to stabilise the hill sides. They are now so ubiquitous that a well educated Sri Lankan lady I was chatting to at a railway station, did not realise that they were not indigenous. I'm not sure why they were introduced because Sri Lanka has a variety of huge native trees that would have fulfilled most of the same functions although the gums do grow particularly tall and straight.

The road down to Rawena waterfall viewed from Little Adam's Peak.

The mountain railways twist and wind through tunnels, along death defying terraces and over waterfalls and streams, sometimes doing a complete circle back on themselves and another popular walk out of Ella is to the 9 Arches bridge, the largest on the line. Tourists and locals alike walk along the lines and even through tunnels in a way that would have Australian OH&S officers in a panic. We walked to a point overlooking the 9 Arches where an enterprising local had turned his front patio into a tea shop.

Train crossing 9 Arches Bridge.

Each railway station, no matter how small, has a white uniformed "admiral" replete with epaulets and rope lanyard whose job it is to supervise every train arrival and departure, blowing a silver whistle at appropriate times. However, promotion to this position must be a mixed blessing, especially in the hotter lowland locations where wearing the uniform must be a nightmare!

From Ella we also took the train to Badulla at the end of the rail line where tourists are few. So few that when we had lunch of tea, cakes and pastries at a local bakehouse, I queried the bill of 180 rupees as being too low. The lady re-checked it and assured me it was full price but was happy to accept my rounding up to 200.

On Safari

From Galle we deviated a little from Edward's route. At the suggestion of our host at the Galle Star Hotel we decided to visit Udawelawe National Park en route to pick up the end of the mountain railway at Ella.

Sri Lankan's are generally kind and helpful and plans they laid out for us, while sometimes seeming dubious, invariably worked out as promised. Our host suggested that he could arrange for us to catch a local long distance bus up to Udawelawe where a mate would meet us off the bus, take us to overnight accommodation, arrange for an early morning collection to go on safari through the Udawelawe National Park where we would see wild elephants and other wildlife and finally deliver us to another local bus that would take us up to Ella. So this is what we did.

If Bus Rallying ever becomes an international sport, Sri Lanka should have no problem fielding a successful team. There is no shortage of drivers skilled at hurling their machines through blind corners, squeezing smaller road users into the ditch and playing head to head chicken with other oncoming buses and trucks. Like the trains, long distance buses are cheap as chips but even more crowded (just when you think a bus is completely full, they stop and pick up five more passengers) and more frightening. The bus seats are sized for locals so two western bums find it quite squeezy on a double seat. They are very friendly places where passengers share their food around and on several occasions seat mates had no hesitation in falling asleep on our shoulders.

Our plan worked well. We were delivered to the originating bus station by tuk tuk, thus enabling us to embark on the bus at it's start and get a seat. At Udawelawe we were met off the bus (easily recognisable as the only Europeans) and delivered to our guesthouse. Then at 5.30am the next day, we were collected and taken on safari where our eagle eyed driver pointed out deer, buffalo, monitor lizards, fresh water crocodiles, jackals, peacocks and myriad other birds. The elephants while ostensibly wild, were easy to find and were clearly comfortable with the numerous visitors, walking right up to the vehicles. Edward would have undoubtedly enjoyed a safari like this but its probably fortunate that he wasn't offered one. Being a Victorian sporting gentleman, his reaction on meeting an elephant, would probably be to shoot it!

This adolescent, male elephant had no hesitation in wandering past our vehicle.

Then as promised at around mid day we were delivered to the bus stop for Ella. Our driver dropped us off, assuring us a bus would be along in the next 15 minutes which was true but this is where the one slip up occurred. When we arrived at the bus stop there was already one western couple waiting, each with a large bag. We made four and four bags. What no-one had factored in was that today was some kind of holiday so the buses were fuller and fewer and the first one to come past decided that four Europeans with big arses and big bags was too much so it rolled on past. Over the next hour three more Europeans with a bag each turned up making it increasingly unlikely that a bus was going to stop.

The safari vehicle that took us into Udawelawa National Park. An identical one later delivering us to Ella.

Eventually a driver of one of the Safari vehicles suggested that he could take all seven of us to Ella for 1000 rupees each. Bearing in mind that the bus fare would be about 200 rupees each although possibly require tickets for the bags as well we tried to negotiate him down a little but it was pretty clear we had no other option so he stayed firm and eventually we capitulated and were thus delivered safely to Ella. 

Sri Lankan Cuisine - An Oxymoron?

At the risk of offending any patriotic Sri Lankan that might read this, I need at this point to say a few words on Sri Lankan cuisine. While we did have some nice meals in Sri Lanka, it was largely only when paying sufficient to feed a small village for a week and they were mostly the cuisine of somewhere other than Sri Lanka - Indian, Thai or Italian for example. A number of tourist places offered courses in Sri Lankan cooking but I can sum up the apparent principles of local cooking in a few words.

Select your ingredients and shred as finely as possible. Then add a considerable amount of salt (ditto sugar if preparing a sweet dish). Next apply sufficient chili to kill any other flavours present. Then allow to stand for long enough for the food to become tepid and finally serve over a quantity of carbohydrate (rice, noodles, roti etc) as big as a newborn baby (thus disregarding that essential foodie maxim to "never eat anything bigger than your head").

Anyone who knows me would confirm that fussy is not a word that applies when it comes to food, and I am familiar with street food in hot, developing countries. However, I was very nervous about Sri Lankan street food. In other places, Indonesia for example, it is usually reassuring that street food comes to you straight from a red hot work, a brazier or some other current heat source, thus mitigating some of the more alarming aspects of local food handling. Sri Lankans for some reason prefer to let their food stand in a glass case or bain marie for long periods of time so that it comes to you unnervingly tepid, if not cold.

On the positive side, the Buddhist influence meant that there were many vegetarian options available and in dubious circumstances I always feel a little more secure with vegetables than flesh. Sri Lanka appears to have little red meat, fish and chicken being the more usual options, but in my mind the options more likely to result in ill effects. We did have chicken a couple of times but I applied Edward's advice vis a vis Bentotte oysters to all the fruits of the sea.

We didn't get sick at all although on a couple of occasions I came close, being too queasy to eat.
There is also some debate as to whether Sri Lankan tap water is safe to drink. The government is confident it is, as are many of the locals but others suggest it is not -perhaps those hoping to sell bottled water. As Sri Lanka, like so much of the world is drowning in a sea of plastic (perhaps literally as the ocean and waterways are afloat with plastic) we tried to avoid bottled water, drinking boiled where possible. I cleaned my teeth with tap water and occasionally refilled my water bottle from apparently clean taps and didn't suffer any negative consequences.

Galle Fort is well set up with tourist eating places and we had some good food there but outside the Fort is a different story. However, on our last evening in Galle, we turned right out of the Galle Star Hotel whereas previously we had always turned left, to head in towards the town centre. We were rewarded by discovering a little Japanese restaurant called Tokyo Ice, just a few doors down.
It was run by a vivacious Japanese lady who had been a fortune teller in Tokyo, and her equally vivacious Sri Lankan landlady. I asked our Japanese hostess what led her to opening a restaurant in suburban Galle. She said she believed she had lived in Galle in the nineteenth century and that it was therefore her destiny to return. I in turn explained my mission to follow Edward's nineteenth century visit and we agreed that it was thus our mutual destiny to meet in her restaurant. Being Japanese, her food standards were impeccable and we therefore had a delightful meal of Japanese curry.

Looking for Lorretts

Edward was so keen to go ashore in Galle that he didn't wait for the Madras to dock.Instead he hitched a ride on the canoe that brought the pilot out. His ride in was at night through vigorous surf and rain but Edward found something charmingly novel and wild in the whole adventure. Better him than me!

On land, just as today accommodation touts gather at bus and rail stations, Edward found a local guide. "Lorrett's" appeared to be my conductor's beau ideal of an hotel-so for Lorrett's we started. Edward describes the interior of Galle Fort as a perfect fairyland with magnificent trees, gorgeous flowers, old archways and gates and the whole lit by lamps in the trees. In many ways that is Galle Fort today. Because access to the Fort area is only via two low arches, large vehicles cannot enter and hence major redevelopment has been negligible. Today the Fort area is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage Area little changed over the last few hundred years.

Some of the massive Galle Fort ramparts.

However, search as we might I was unable to find any reference to Lorrett's Hotel. We visited the Fort Heritage Office and two helpful young ladies (who were clearly receptionists rather than historians) did their best to find some reference to it in their limited documents but without success. I did find a reference to a Mr Eugine Lore's hotel in the British period, and I suspect this was it. Edward appears to have written up his diary from memory &/or notes, sometime after he travelled and as a result I've noticed the odd mistake and I suspect this to be one. Unfortunately though, I was unable to ascertain where Lore's Hotel was. His description of it fits many existing buildings and while it may well still be standing, I couldn't  find it.

Edward describes Lorrett's Hotel as a long low building, of which there are many in Galle Fort.

Edward was non-plussed on being shown his room and finding a bedstead furnished with mattress and pillows, but without bedclothes of any sort. Thinking this a mistake, I called my dusky attendants, who were puzzled to comprehend what I wanted. Eventually they brought a sheet to throw over me, but seemed much amused at my foreign eccentricities. Being a hot country, bedding still remains irrelevant today, leaving Trish equally non-plussed in several of our accommodations. Today most places do at least provide a bottom sheet, often of doubtful cleanliness, but it pays to have your own sarong to use as a top-sheet.

Galle Fort is perhaps the place least changed since Edward's time due to the limitations on redevelopment so it was easy to get a sense of what Edward must have experience. Galle outside the Fort, like everywhere else has spread and sprawled and now the entire area is just typical Sri Lankan congested sprawl.

Edward mentions visiting the Galle  lighthouse which stood here. In the background is the  current lighthouse which replaced the original when it burnt down.

We spent our time there wandering the narrow streets, walked the extensive ramparts and visited the Maritime Museum in the old Fort warehouse. Most of the buildings are now tourist accommodation, restaurants or shops, capitalising on the charm of the place.

South to Galle

While travel times for getting to Sri Lanka have reduced markedly in the last 160 years, internal travel times have not . Edward travelled from Galle to Colombo, a distance of about 100 kms in about 12 hours. Railways not having arrived in Sri Lanka, he travelled by horse drawn coach, changing horses about every 12kms. Edward felt the local horses looked to be well bred but seemed overworked and underfed by Australian standards.

We took the train but Sri Lankan trains travel slowly and the same distance took about 3 hours. The trains likewise seem overworked compared to Australian ones. Edward must have followed a similar route to what the train takes today because he mentions the road following the coast most of the way, as does the railway. One big change is the cost. Edward paid 50/- for a seat on the mail coach. That would equate to at least $200 today, while we paid just under $2.

Where Edward would've come ashore, looking back to Galle town.

He describes long stretches of rural area and passing through long stretches of coconut groves. Today there are still lots of coconut trees but it is built up for most of the route. Sri Lanka had a population of about 2 million in 1854 and now has about 22 million. Interestingly Australia had a population of around 650,000 and now has 24 million so the notion of Asian populations increasing like rabbits is not so accurate. He describes large numbers of people on the roads, mostly walking but some in ox carts. Today the roads are still crowded but by cars, buses and tuk tuks although there are still plenty of pedestrians.

The old Dutch gate into  Galle Fort, through which Edward would've passed.

His pace of travel allowed Edward to observe and comment on Sri Lankan lifestyle and industry and the appearance of the locals. He comments on the lustrous, long black hair on both men and women and that still prevails, particularly with women. Most women have long hair, often long enough to sit on, and the men clearly take pride in their hair with a high proportion of stylish cuts and colourings.

There are several reasonably large rivers along the way from Galle to Colombo. Whether Edward's coach crossed by bridges or ferries he doesn't mention. The halfway station in Edward's day was Bentotte (now Bentota). On his return trip, Edward sampled fried oysters there and suffered a cholera-like gastro as a result. The first question the doctor he consulted asked "Had I eaten oysters at Bentotte?"  My answer in the affirmative seemed to relieve the worthy medico of  all grave apprehension; and ordering me some simple remedies, he told me I had nothing to fear; and he was right , for soon after his departure I got rid of my pains and fell asleep. As a result Edward advised all future travellers not to be tempted by the oysters of Bentotte.

Today Bentota is home to a number of upmarket resorts and I still wouldn't eat the oysters. In fact in consequence of local food handling standards, I'd be reluctant to eat any seafood, anywhere in Sri Lanka,but more about that later.

We arrived in Galle mid afternoon and quickly located the Galle Star Hotel where we were staying. About 1.5km up the Wakwella Rd from Galle Fort, the Galle Star is more guesthouse than hotel. With only four rooms it is the 1940's open, Asian style house of the owner's grandmother, but it was comfortable and reasonably clean.

A Fisher of Men

For our final day in Colombo we took a train up to Negombo a beachfront fishing village and tourist hotspot, 30kms north of the city. The trains are one of Sri Lanka's best features. At a cost of around 1rupee (just under an Australian cent) per kilometre they are excellent value. Generally less crowded than the buses they also feel safer than the congested roads. Passengers are entertained by peddlers selling snacks, fruit or drinks and there are a succession of busker-beggars. Blind men playing flutes, a young man with missing limbs who gave a long and clearly well practised oration that appeared to be an appeal for crowd funding his next operation (that word appearing frequently in his speech) and a trio of young singer musicians. Many of the locals give to these acts, perhaps following Buddhist exhortations to be kind to others, and the going rate appeared to be 20rupees so we followed suit.

On exiting Negombo station a friendly local quickly fell in step with us. Alura had excellent English and asked the standard questions about where we were from, how long we were in Sri Lanka etc. I assumed from the start that he was probably a tourist tout but as he was a pleasant chap with a cheerful line of conversation I didn't send him away. He did a good job as a guide, showing us where to get a cup of tea, the beachfront, the fish markets, the old Dutch fort (now a prison), the old Dutch part of town and finally a place to have lunch and a beer. Along the way he told us he worked two weeks on and two off as a fisherman, told us about his family, enquired about ours, and discussed the finer points of Buddhist philosophy and the concept of karma.

Alura and his  Negombo catch of the day.

At 8.8% alcohol, the lunchtime pint of Anchor Strong Beer was clearly an essential part of his strategy. Once lunch was over came the anticipated request for a little help to feed his family. Lightened by my beer  and impressed by the job he had done I gave him 1000 rupees which I imagine would feed his family for a week or so. Emboldened by the Strong Beer I had bought him, Alura claimed this wasn't enough and painted a picture of children crying themselves to sleep that night through hunger so I gave him another 500 despite Trish pointing out that he'd already had plenty but then she had only drunk a ginger beer. Alura persisted for a while that really he needed more but when I finally suggested that if he wasn't happy he could just give me back what I'd already given and we could call it quits, he accepted that it was over.

Negombo canal.

I suppose the lesson to be learnt from all this was to negotiate a price for anything at the start but all in all I figure for just under $15 Australian, Alura gave us a good look at Negombo and an entertaining couple of hours and I hope his family enjoyed their dinner that night.

The Grandest Oriental Hotel

As Sri Lanka's international airport is at Colombo, we landed there and covered Edward's route in a different direction to him. He landed at Galle, travelled north to Colombo, inland to Kandy and then back by the same route to Galle whereas we went from Colombo to Galle, up through the mountains by bus and train to Kandy and then back on the train to Colombo.

In Colombo, Edward stayed at the Royal Hotel which as far as I can ascertain was replaced by the GPO in the 1890s. A photo showing the mail coach, by which Edward travelled up from Galle, can be found on a pinterest site called NILAN's Beautiful Sri Lanka. Thanks to my abysmal technical skills I failed to upload the photo but if you're interested you can google it yourself.

We had booked a room in the Grand Oriental Hotel which is also in Colombo Fort and claims to be the first European style hotel in Sri Lanka.The site was originally the Dutch Governors residence which was extended in 1837 to become barracks for the British military. In 1875 it was further rebuilt and opened as the Grand Oriental Hotel with 154 rooms. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the place to stay in Colombo and claims a number of Asian leaders and other celebrities such as Anton Chekov, as former guests.Today other more modern hotels have taken the mantle of Colombo's finest but the Grand Oriental is still a nice place to stay with an air of the faded Raj and thus ideal for us to get a feel of Edward's experience.

The Grand Oriental Hotel 

In Edward's day it appears that Colombo was essentially Fort, based on the old Dutch fort and where all the Europeans lived, and the adjoining area of Pettah which was where the Sri Lankans lived. Once outside of those areas you were into the hinterlands, whereas today, Fort and Pettah are just the downtown centre of a huge, sprawling metropolis. Edward visited cinnamon gardens in Colombo which were presumably where the suburb of Cinnamon Gardens are today, a couple of kilometers from the centre of town. We took a tuk tuk, 3 wheeler down to the National Museum there which is located at the edge of Colombo's largest parklands, Viharamahadevi Park. The museum was well set out with a huge range of relics from all periods of Sri Lankan history and a good place to get an overview of that history.

We walked back from the Museum up along the coast and through Galle Face Green, built like an English beachfront promenade, in 1859, just after Edward was here. Colombo's appeal as a tourist destination is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that Galle Face Green consistently appears in lists of "Things to do in Colombo" but it is a barren, shadeless, windswept area where the grass is struggling to survive. It was too sad for me even to take a photo.

In the evening, like Edward we ventured into Pettah but unlike him we didn't stumble on any local entertainments. He came across a performance, which continued till midnight, consisted of a sort of morris dance with sticks, but not involving any great display of skill or activity. The dance was accompanied with songs and music produced from a violin and a Malay drum beaten with the fingers. Edward found the music pleasing and the novelty of the whole scene...interesting and agreeable. For our part we just found streets and alleys full of the usual bustling commerce of Asia. Endless shops and stalls selling all kinds of food, household items, clothes, tools, bags etc etc. Edward mentions tasting mangoes which he thought had a flavour of turpentine and anything but nice whereas we had mangoes on several occasions which while smaller than Australian mangoes, were just as nice and considerably cheaper.

High Jinks on the High Seas

After leaving Albany on the Madras, it took Edward nearly two weeks to reach his next destination, Galle on the south coast of Ceylon. For us, travelling by car to Perth, and then the following day by plane to Colombo it took just over two days.

After the storm mentioned in my last post, the trip became a languid cruise, the most exciting occurrence being the identifcation of a midnight rambler, who had been periodically invading the single ladies cabins and groping the residents after lights out, ever since the voyage began. The first suspect was a certain officer of the ship, who, poor wight, although a bit of a dandy and admirer of the sex, was not thought to be capable of such doings as these. However, after a determined effort to catch the offender, one of the ladies was able to observe that it was one of the Chinese cabin crew. Because these pigtailed gentry are all so much alike, she wasn't sure which Chinaman it was but eventually it was decided that it was a popular servant named Ai Youg.

Once he was pronounced guilty he was handcuffed and then attached by his pigtail to the mainmast! This was seen as the ultimate humiliation but according to Edward, preferable to any corporal punishment.This event, which one might have thought a major scandal in the puritanical Victorian times was described by Edward in terms of detached humour and almost as a case of "boys being boys".However, as the voyage was ending three of the passengers, a lawyer, a soldier and a priest who Edward later described as law, war and divinity circulated a letter casting much censure upon the officers, and calling in question the treatment of the crew, and general management of the ship, calling on other to sign it in support.

A man of authority himself, Edward clearly took a dim view of this do-goodery and clearly wasn't about to lend his signature to the letter. Finding little support the authors of the letter re-wrote it in milder terms but still got few signatures. When the Captain got wind of it, he demanded to see the letters and something of a scene took place.

Once ashore in Galle the authors of the letter, having got virtually no support for their general complaints, took up the specific cause of the mistreatment of Ai Youg and made application to the chief magistrate to institute proceedings for his redress.To Edward's undisguised delight, however, Ai Youg seeing which side his bread was buttered on and wanting to put the whole situation behind him declared  that he had no complaint to make against anybody-that he liked his captain and officers-that he did not like to be put in handcuffs, or tied by the tail, but would accuse no one of unjustly treating him; and, finally, that he came before the magistrate only because he was brought by a policeman, and had no other wish than to return to his ship and resume his duties. 
Ai Youg was, therefore, dismissed, and returned on board with all despatch; and our friends, looking extremely foolish, were left to explain their position to the magistrate as best they could. 

Our plane at Perth

Our trip was not attended by any such excitement, being wholly uneventful. Although a low cost carrier Malindo Air, a joint Malaysian-Indonesian venture, provided a good service in a fairly new looking aeroplane. Unlike most flights out of Australia there were few Europeans aboard and in fact on the first leg, from Perth to Kuala Lumpur the plane was pretty empty. From KL to Sri Lanka it filled a bit, primarily with some kind of Sri Lankan sporting team who had clearly enjoyed some success as they were carrying a huge trophy which only just fit in an overhead locker.