"Oh, gems," I say.
"Yes, gangs, this is what I say."
Andrew and I are on a bus in the heart of Sri Lanka en transit between Colombo and Ampara. We boarded the bus at 5 p.m. and payed for our tickets (640 Sri Lanka Rupees, $6 U.S.) At 8 o'clock we looked at our receipts that told us we were traveling 370 Km and realized that 370 Km, with 370 people packed on a bus, averaging 30 Km/hr with all of the stops we were making....we would get to Ampara around 2 in the morning. The large monk looked at us as we laughed and kept his vow of silence at our lack of preparation.
To anyone who has looked at a map of Sri Lanka, this is perfectly clear. Unfortunately, Andrew and I are not in that category. We altered our travel plans in India for a spur of the moment side trip to Sri Lanka at the urging of our friend Philip. Philip and his dad were coming to Sri Lanka to relax and surf at the Hawaii-esque Arugam Bay near Potuvil on the eastern coast of the Island. We booked the earliest flight available so we could meet them before they left Colombo and ride with them in the car they had booked for a week. Andrew and I slept in the Delhi airport, caught a 6 a.m. flight, and were in Colombo by 2 p.m. Unfortunately Philip's driver refused to have more passengers so we arrived to a text telling us to take a bus and that they had already left Colombo.
"Hey Baba, be flexible," I said, imitating out mountaineering instructor Dilip from the NOLS course.
So.....this is how we came to be on a Sri Lanka Sardine-mobile hurtling around corners, breezing past the cows and water buffalo loitering in the road, wondering what language is even spoken here, and generally trying to scare the living hell out of every man, woman, child, and goat within reach of our sycophantic bus driver's proximity of terror.
"This bus driver is crazy, no?" said Temir, who makes this ride often to receive management training. "You are brave. Most Europeans won't take the bus, especially at night.
"For Temir, a native Sri Lankan, to tell me this bus driver was crazy by his standards validated the conclusion I had already reached. The following morning I would recount to Philip's father, "72.....that's the number of times I thought I was going to die."
"Have you found it easy to get around so far?" asked Temir.
"Yes it's been very easy. Everyone assumes we have no idea what we are doing or where we are going, which is true, so they have been coming up to us and helping us find where to go."
We did make it though, arriving in Ampara at 2 a.m. We got our packs and the bus left. So did everyone else who had been on it. Gone, disappeared into the night and our friendly and helpful Temir had gotten off at a previous stop so there was no familiar face of which to ask which way to the hotel. We were able to find a few people sleeping in the streets and asked "Hotel?" along with the action of putting our heads on our hands as if it were a pillow. We were directed first to the police department and then to the hospital. Ampara is tiny and none of the locals spoke English so we did what we had been doing for the past month and a half in the Himalaya....we pitched a tent in a nice grassy spot behind the Town Hall.
We woke up to my booger being baked by the 100 degree sun (that's what I call my small 2 man tent that is a lovely booger green.) While we were packing, a woman and her young son watched in fascination as the crazy, bearded, white boys emerged sweating from the booger-sauna and walked to the bus station. Following the direction of Lonely Planet (which we looked up online in the Sri Lanka airport,) the best way to find your bus is to walk around and yell where you want to go. It worked well in Colombo, with only a few redirections to other buses, and it continued to work well in Ampara, and then in a town between Ampara and Potuvil.
"Potuvil?" we ask. "Yes, Potuvil" "When does it leave?" "10:00." It was 9:40 and we had no breakfast. I stayed with the packs and Andrew went to grab some roti (triangles of flat bread stuffed with various combinations of potatoes, curry, and greens.) Not 1 minute after Andrew got off the bus the driver turns the key and starts to pull out.
"Wait wait! I thought you said leave at 10:00?"
"Oh.....it's ok, we leave early."
I ran into the station not knowing where Andrew had gone, but a panicked white boy draws attention in these parts and people began pointing towards a shop across the station. I couldn't see Andrew so I yelled his name. Inside he threw the money down, grabbed the food (It's ok if we leave Andrew, but I wanted that food) and came sprinting back. We got on the bus and the driver laughed at his joke and we were on our way.
It was nice to see the countryside in the daylight as the whole ride the night before had been in a darkness, sleep deprived, knee-jammed blur. Today was much more leisurely and we soon arrived in Potuvil and the Arugam Bay.
We dropped our packs at the Stardust hotel where Philip and his dad had told us to meet them (txt from Philip: We only made it halfway. Meet you tomorrow) and walked along the collection of stores on the main road. A man stopped and asked us if we wanted to rent motorbikes. My mother's voice and worst fear was in the back of my head as I asked "how much?"
Though I am not normally an advocate of motorcycle travel due to safety, there is very little traffic in this part of the country and the roads are in excellent condition. $10 a day secured Andrew's and my rides for the next week. We had a crash course (haha....crash course) in driving as Andrew had never ridden a motorcycle before and I had only driven a dirtbike. Now we are enjoying the beach and the countryside, more to come later...
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