[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 9 August 2012. Minor edits have since been made from the original post to update some links and info.]

 

10 March 2012, Saturday: Kandy – Hatton – Dalhousie

6:05am: Morning Call
After my alarm clock (iPhone) went off, I washed up, opened the balcony doors and stepped outside to breathe in the fresh air. It was a serene and tranquil scene, with a scattering of birds and the morning mist still hanging in the air. The sun was slowly emerging behind the clouds and trees on the horizon, and the sky gradually brightened. YS was still sleeping so I used the moment to take everything in, and wished myself a happy birthday. I had turned 30.

Not long after, a bunch of hairy friends appeared. Several groups of monkeys were scurrying across the zinc roof on the adjacent building, creating quite a racket early in the morning. One of them even climbed onto the ledge beside my room, but it didn’t come any closer. A few of them also climbed across the power lines in front of our building.

After YS had woken up, we went down for breakfast, which typically, was very good. There’s always a plate of fresh fruits to start off the meal, followed by a pot of coffee/tea, then toast with butter and jam, and finally a serving of eggs – any style you want. For that morning, I chose scrambled eggs.

We left Nature Walk Holiday Resort at 7:50am via a tuk tuk we had arranged the night before (Rs 260 / S$2.938). Ten minutes later, we were back at the train station, and joined the queue to buy our tickets to Hatton, which cost Rs 110 (S$1.243) each.

The train departed Kandy at 8:20am, but it was not a direct ride to Hatton. After 15 minutes, we arrived at Peradeniya station, where we alighted and waited for another hour before catching the transfer train to Hatton.

It was a very crowded train and we didn’t manage to get seats for this leg of the journey. We barely had enough space to stand, in fact. And the ride was bumpier and more swervy than the one the day before. It felt like a roller coaster ride. It took a lot of effort just to stand and maintain my balance, and not fall down or bump into someone else. It wasn’t a luxury train ride for sure!

The ride from Peradeniya to Hatton took 2 hour 45 minutes, and we finally arrived Hatton at 12:20pm. After standing and enduring a bumpy ride, I was quite ready to splash the cash and hire a taxi to Hatton. But we met a nice German couple, CR and VT, on the train, and coincidentally they were heading to the same destination and same guest house as us. They were going to take a bus, so we decided to follow suit, together with several other travellers from our train.

After exiting the train station at Hatton, we saw a bus parked right outside and people were already boarding it. There didn’t seem to be much space left for all of us travellers, and the thought of standing in a cramped and bumpy bus for the next hour and a half didn’t seem too appealing to me. But we went ahead anyway, since we were not the only ones doing it, and also because we could save a great deal of money by taking the bus (Rs 71 / S$0.8023 per person) rather than a taxi, which a guy at station quoted us for Rs 1,500 (S$16.95)!

YS and I were among the last few to board, so we stood near the front doors. We deposited our backpacks beside the bus driver, where they were stacked on top of the gear/engine box. The bus was already packed like sardines, yet amazingly, two buskers still came onboard to provide some entertainment. They used their voices to sing, accompanied only by their tambourines. They sang quite loudly and energetically despite the din. Most people were too preoccupied with trying to make themselves as comfortable as they possibly could, and didn’t pay much attention to them.

As they squeezed their way through the bus to collect money, I decided to give them a small tip for their efforts. It is a hard-earned living for them. Imagine having to perform for one hour several times a day, taking long bus rides and squeezing with people who obviously don’t appreciate your talent, earning peanuts and then having to split your earnings between the two of you. Really not easy.

If I thought the earlier train ride was bumpy, it was nothing compared to the bus ride. At least the train travelled in a generally straight direction. For the bus ride, we were travelling across hill plantations, so the road was winding and hugging the hillslopes. When you looked out of the window, you could often see that the bus was nearly at the edge of a slope or cliff. Even worse, the bus turned sharp corners at great speeds, slowing down only when there was a vehicle approaching in the opposite direction. Somehow, both vehicles managed to squeeze through the one-lane road. It definitely takes a lot of skill to drive a bus on that terrain. It sounds dangerous, but once you overcome your fear and put your confidence in the driver, it is actually quite fun. Just don’t take a night bus.

We finally arrived the small town of Dalhousie at 1:50pm. It wasn’t what I expected, especially coming after the bustling Kandy. Dalhousie is really not so much a town as a village. There is only one main road and all the guest houses are located on the hillslope beside the road. There is a small market, bus terminal and temple a short distance away, surrounded by plantations all around.

I booked a room at Slightly Chilled Guest House for US$60 (+ tax), which included dinner and breakfast for two, and free Wi-Fi of course. As the guest house is built on a hillslope, the lobby is on ground level, same as the main road, while our room was three storeys down, on the lowest level. CR and VT took the room beside us.

Slightly Chilled Guest House
www.slightlychilled.tv
Adam’s Peak, Nallathanniya, Maskeliya, Sri Lanka 22070

It was quite a big and comfy room, and it had a balcony where you could lounge and busk in the sun while taking in the view of Sri Pada, or Adam’s Peak, not too far away. I pointed out to YS that we would be climbing that peak in a few hours’ time, and we would be all the way up there…at the tip of the triangle. It seemed quite a crazy distance to cover in one night.

After we freshened ourselves up, we realised our stomachs were growling so we went up to the restaurant to get some lunch. It had been about seven hours since breakfast, and we had endured two long and tiring rides, so we were really famished by then. I ordered a carrot and ginger sandwich, and you guessed it, Coke. The sandwich tasted quite unique and nice, it was interesting to have carrot and ginger together. From our guest house, we walked along the main road to the town centre to visit the market, and also to check out the route we would take to climb up Adam’s Peak later that night.

The whole purpose of visiting Dalhousie was to climb up the mountain, 2,243m tall. It is variously known as Adam’s Peak or Sri Pada (“sacred footprint”) and is a holy place for Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus. This is because there is a rock at the summit that has a depression resembling the print of a human foot, and these devotees believe it is the footprint of Buddha, Adam, and Siva, respectively.

The pilgrimage season is between December and end-April, during which thousands of pilgrims will climb the 5,200 steps up to the temple at the peak. During pilgrimage season, the route is illuminated by a string of lights, and there are numerous rest points and food stalls along the way. During the other months of the year, the lights are not turned on, there are no food stalls, and the weather is generally wet and windy, so it is not advisable to climb between May and November.

For me, the motivation was not so much to visit the temple and footprint at the peak, but rather, to see the triangular shadow that hangs mysteriously in mid-air, cast by the newly-risen sun against the peak. Apparently the shadow has the dimensions of a perfect triangular pyramid even though the slopes of the peak are not so regular, that’s why it’s so mysterious. Thus, the goal was to start the climb at around 2am and ascend to the peak just before sunrise to witness this phenomena.

We didn’t linger at the town centre for long as we wanted to rest our tired feet for the climb later that night. So we returned to Slightly Chilled Guest House, showered and just chilled for the rest of the afternoon. Dinner was a buffet spread with rice and curry. CR and VT, our new German friends, joined us for dinner and we had a very nice conversation.

They’re a 26 and 25-year old couple currently doing their PhDs in Germany, and they spoke good English. They had been travelling around Sri Lanka for more than a week already, and we shared our experiences and also about our cultures and countries. We talked about what brought us to Sri Lanka, and YS revealed that it was my birthday that night. They wished me happy birthday and VT gave me a hug.

That’s my favourite part about backpacking – you get to meet fellow like-minded travellers from all over the world who are drawn to the same destination as you, despite the world being so big. You talk to them and learn more about their different cultures and life experiences. Yet despite the differences, you discover that we are actually all the same – we are humans, we do what it takes to get by, we occasionally go on trips to explore other parts of the world, we seek companionship and we try to enjoy ourselves as much as we can. Of course, some people are not as privileged as we are and do not have the luxury of travelling across the world, but I believe that people are people and we are all the same.

After a hearty dinner with great food and companionship, we went outside to take a look at Adam’s Peak. In the dark, it looked even further away. I couldn’t see the outline of the mountain, just a string of lights snaking up, like a constellation of stars hanging in mid air. It was only past 8pm but there were already many locals walking past our guest house and making their way to Adam’s Peak. Some of them were young children and old folks, and many of them weren’t even wearing shoes. The temperature was quite chilly and I shuddered to think how they were going to manage the climb barefoot, with the uneven and stony ground. For them, it is a pilgrimage, so certain sacrifices had to be made.

We said goodnight to CR and VT, and arranged to meet at 2:15am to do the climb together. So YS and I went back to our rooms, packed our stuff and slept at around 10:30pm. It was going to be a tough climb up Adam’s Peak!