Transport to Batticaloa

Suddenly I decided that I was going to Batticaloa, just to see anywhere else in the est (apart of Arugam’s bay) and looking for not tourist beaches, as the south I’ve been told it was going to be quite busy. And also the name, Batticaloa, it sounded so different that invited me to go ;-)

I caught the bus and then I met Eva, who is an Indonesian girl which is travelling by herself. In fact we guessed we were the only backpacker girls travelling by ourselves in Sri Lanka and we also were the only foreign people in the bus.

We started to talk about Sri Lanka and other countries, especially Morocco, where she is planning to go in a couple of months, and we enjoyed a lot talking and talking. She decided to join me to Batti and later going together to Arugam’s bay.

The trip on the bus at the beginning was really hard as we had a crazy driver and we were going down the mountains and there were many curves in the way. Both of us got sick as we didn’t have a seat and standing we felt much more the hard and risky movements of our driver.

We stopped for lunch and I couldn’t eat as I didn’t feel well, but after lunch time fortunately the mountain finished and we’ve got a seat, so the trip was quite better. Then I took my camera and started to take pictures of the landscape and my neighbours in the bus and I started to feel completely well ;-)

Eva is also an engineer, chemical engineer, and she lives with his boyfriend in South Africa. She has been working in many countries in Africa and she also has travelled a lot in Asia, and many times by herself. Now she has quit her job and plans to travel almost during a year. She is very nice and friendly, and very very easy going. We didn’t realize and when I write these lines we have spent almost one week travelling together. We share the room, the food, the way of travelling… as if we knew since a long time. It’s similar than the feeling with Taka, Kat, Purdy last year. We became friends so easily…. It’s very simple but not easy to explain. It’s one of these things that you only experience when you travel by yourself.

We reached Batticaloa around 5 pm. so we have exactly the time for finding an accommodation before was getting dark. We decide to go to the beach and don’t staying in the town, but we couldn’t stay in the place we liked more, close to the lake, as it was full, then we stayed in Chinesse cottages, a strange place. We were in the last bungalow and although the owner said it was full it really seemed that they have very few customers.

That night it was late (around 11 pm, which here is very late and most of the people sleep) and in the silence of the night (as we were in the countryside) someone came to our bungalow and says: “madams, madams”! We were very surprised, we thought that he was the man who worked in the guest-house and answered from the bed: “Yes, what do you want?” At the beginning we didn’t have any answer but the man was knocking the door and saying again “madams, madams”. Again we asked him about what did he want and finally he said: “I was wondering if you need blankets” We were almost sweating as the bungalow has just a very small window!!. Actually, we have talked about that with the men when he showed us the bungalow. We decided not to open the door. Next day the man didn’t say anything and we leave with all our staff to town.  Things that happen, travellers ;-)