One one things

Leg 2: Tissamaharama - Ampara

We began the fourth morning of our journey with a jog around the Tissa Weva at the crack of dawn. It was a gorgeous setting and I got a few photos of the early morning fisherfolk, kids going to school and ppl beginning the day. What struck me was how all of the villagers seemed to know one another, whenever two ppl cross paths they would nod and smile and give a warm greeting by name. It seemed to be rather idealic but with a quick glance over the shoulder you see the tiny cracked mud huts which these guys call home. At one point a 3 wheeler swept past carrying 7 kids to school, 3 seated, 3 standing and one on the driver’s lap. Made me appreciate what I have been blessed with. We left Tissa around 9 in the morning after a refreshing shower and made our way along the new Kataragama road towards Ampara via Sella Kataragama, through Yala block III, Buttala, Monaragala and Siyambalanduwa.

The drive was absolutely brilliant. There was no traffic and the road was relatively new and therefore of decent quality. There are a few times in life when you wouldn’t want to exchange places with anyone in the world, that drive was one of them. We stopped just outside Yala Block III to pick up some corn for breakfast. Each cob was 10 bucks, I have no idea how those guys make enough money bc very few ppl use the Kataragama road at this time of year. We gave them something extra and continued on our way. At Buttala we finally came across an urban area and the daily pola was in full swing. I took over the wheel and unfortunately 5 minutes down the road I get flagged down by a cop. I got down and crossed the road with my ID and licence. The cop says “mahaththayage wegaya 72″ I thought he was being bloody anal since the limit is 70 and I made a fuss but apparently this was still within the urban limit of 50kmph! The cop was surprisingly nice, he said that I probably didn’t even notice the speed bc its a nice straight road and that he’s only doing his job. He didn’t even take my licence and allowed me to pay the fine in Colombo and post the receipt to the Buttala police. With a bit of my faith in Sri Lankan coppers restored we hit the road again. The road from Buttala declined in quality but was still good enough and there was no traffic upto Monaragala. The town of Monaragala itself is spread over a wide area but there is very little development within it. There are a few scattered shops and government offices but not much else.

The next town was Siyambalanduwa where another daily pola was the highlight, I had to slow down to walking pace to avoid knocking ppl down. Siyambalanduwa is an important junction in the Uva province where three roads to Ampara, Pottuvil and Monaragala meet. We took the Northern road to Ampara. After an hour or so of wonderful countryside scenery we got to a tiny village called Wadinagala and as soon as I took the turn to Ampara I ran into a road bump that had no markings on it, I saw it just in time and managed to slow down but the impact was still quite strong. After passing the bump I tried to accelerate but I felt no feedback from the engine, shit. I told my friend that the engine isn’t responding and I parked on the side of the road. There wasn’t a cat in sight, the sun was baking down, our car had died and there was no phone signal. As I mentioned in a previous post, I can’t make head or tail of vehicle mechanics. Apparently my friend was the same, bad bad news. The two of us blindly poked around the engine looking for anything looking suspicious and we guessed that there would have been a lose connection due to the jerking of the car when hitting the bump. So all we had to do was find a mechanic, get the engine sorted and get back on the road, should have been a one hour job at most. A couple of friendly chaps aimlessly walked towards us and we asked them if they knew any mechanics, apparently there are no mechanics until Ampara which is 20km away. The ppl in Wadinagala were extremely friendly and nice and several of them had a look at the engine and gave their own diagnosis. Mahesh, one of the first guys we met, allowed us to keep the jeep just outside his house and promised to keep an eye on it whilst my friend and I took a bus to Ampara. The bus came within 10 mins and had a dodgy clutch of its own. After an hour long bumpy ride we got to Ampara town and managed to call our friend who works in the hospital there. He convinced his boss to give him the afternoon off and he came to the bus stand to pick us up. We then went to find a mechanic who accompanied us back to Wadinagala in my friend’s pickup to examine the jeep. After a few minutes of poking around he looked up at us and frowned. He had no clue as to what was wrong. He suggested we tow the jeep back to Ampara and show it to Nimal Aiya, who apparently is the man when it comes to car trouble in Ampara. After a two hour trudge upto Ampara we got to Nimal’s garage. Nimal seemed to be a man of sunny optimism, he said he doesn’t quite know what’s wrong but that he can fix anything. Sure. We figured the best plan of action would be to keep the car with Nimal overnight, let him figure out what’s wrong and fix it over the weekend while the we’re in Arugam Bay and hopefully we can pick it up on the way back home.

The whole ordeal left us with little energy and many worries so we headed upto the rest house where we were to stay overnight called Monty’s guest house. The place had rooms priced from 450 a night to 10,000 bucks a night and it seemed to be the favourite haunt of the large NGO community that operates in the area. The car park was full of Prados, Land Cruisers, RAV 4s and other fancy 10 million buck vehicles flying the flags of their respective NGOs. It seemed a tad ironic that such expensive vehicles are used by agencies who claim that every Rupee can contribute towards uplifting the state of poor ppl. It’s a shame bc so many NGOs do a lot of brilliant work to help those in need of it but so much more could be done if the money is managed in a better manner instead of spending millions on flash cars and the fat salaries of consultants. Anyway, enough of that. Our planned evening excursion to the Gal Oya National Park to see Elephants had been effectively scuttled so the three of us cleaned up and went to a dodge looking Chinese place for dinner. We hammered some fried rice along with devilled chicken and beef washed down with a bottle of suspicious looking mineral water. The food wasn’t very tasty but we’d have eaten anything after 24 hours with only a corn cob each in our stomachs. That night we finished the last of the Unawatuna MJ and being really tired I got quite affected by it all!

I woke up early the next morning hoping to capture some of the sights and sounds of early morning Ampara but the town was still quite dead. A couple of hours later we wandered off to Nimal’s only to discover that he hadn’t yet started work so we grabbed some Malu pang and Egg roti and had breakfast on the Ampara Weva bund. The town has very little to offer beyond one street called D.S. Senanayake Road which is lined by all the shops. With little scope of amusement I went to watch One Shot at the Ampara Regal Cinema with my friend until our other friend finished his morning ward round. The next 2 or so hours was an experience in itself. For a weekday morning the Cinema was surprisingly full with several young and middle aged ppl who seemed to have taken an early lunch break. There were three power cuts that interrupted the show each of which was greeted by much hooting and jeering and the odd comment like “Aney apita show eka pennanna ko!” One Shot itself was a simply unique film. At the end of it we were trying to figure out whether Mr. Ramanayake had made a comedy or a serious attempt at cinema, or if he was exceedingly clever and made what would be a comedy for some and a serious movie for others, thereby appealing to a very wide audience. Either way it left me thoroughly entertained.

That afternoon we left Ampara after savouring most of what little it had to offer and headed for the greener pastures of Arugam Bay for the last leg of our journey. We were hoping for a change of fortune after what was a difficult but very educational trip to Ampara. On hindsight I guess it’s part of the whole experience of travel that you run into obstacles and try to make your way around them without compromising the enjoyment of the journey. I think we managed to do that quite well.