South West Sri Lanka,
Hikkaduwa, amenities and transport
Whether it is daily life, customs, the beauty of the fauna or leisure from the coast, when you finally have a little real time, not constrained by the imposed visiting times, nothing beats a little walking.
If possible in the shade, narrow again in our visiting hours around the middle of day, by accepting without flinching to sweat.
Of course, we must first go to the place we have chosen to travel alone. So what could be better than local transport.
We have already tasted the train; we have "suffered" the car for a few visits.
It remained to indulge in the tuk tuk, and to try the bus, in Hikkaduwa and its immediate periphery.
Sri Lanka, tuk tuks in swarm, like midges
After the slowly scraping train, and the car with driver guide (sometimes both when the first one is not driving), we tested the famous tuk tuks, also called "bajaj" - from the name of a brand - or in English auto -rickshaw.
Their multitude is a roaring swarm.
The way in which they sneak, double, even overdouble, their virtuosity in inserting themselves in, effacing themselves in the tracks, everything contributes to maintaining a cautious mistrust of them, if they had to be used.
However, the path that leads to the remarkable temple of Galagoda, that of the large reclining Buddha above the coastal village of Ambalangoda, can only be done on foot, by bike, or ... by tuk tuk.
The die was cast.
Sitting behind the driver, with all the wind under a screen, the impression is quite different.
In practice, these noisy motor tricycles (and for good reason, it is a two-stroke engine) whose front looks like that of a scooter, are quite remarkable for their stability, their agility to slip even on the tracks. and the winding paths, their great maneuverability.
Their modest size makes it possible to sneak around, to park in even the most absurd corners. They are everywhere.
The absence of side doors allows the "local air conditioning" to operate, but a front windshield protects the driver and passengers.
The price of use is up to these qualities: a few hundred rupees for a few kilometers. A very reasonable sum for our western currency, but at least 10 to 30 times more expensive than a local bus ride for the same distance. Without having made the effort to negotiate, we had to pay more than necessary ...
In 2016, we counted roughly one tuk tuk per 20 inhabitants in Sri Lanka, that is to say about 1 million tuk tuks.
In fact, the park of tuk tuks has come to fill the void left by the lack of other means of transport, train and bus in the junctions between secondary roads and main tracks.
They are Bajaj, Piaggio and TVS brands mainly distributed by three large companies.
In the past, they were imported directly; today they are assembled in Sri Lanka from parts made in India.
But from an economic point of view, the market for tuk tuks is an anomaly: their very strong increase in some 20 or 30 years has not reduced user costs.
And if now the tuk tuks of Colombo and its suburbs are equipped with meters, this is not at all the case for the rest of the island. Without the police checks guaranteeing the consumer that the prices are correct, even with a taximeter.
It is also by this generally quiet means, in any case by the speed, much less by the traffic conditions in the middle of the traffic, that we have the opportunity to see a variety of squirrels. striped, running on a telephone wire.
Its "learned" name is "Funambulus palmarum ", which can be roughly translated as "webbed tightrope walker".
Could anyone dream of such an exact illustration of the name of this squirrel?
The same go the lawn of our hotel between the deckchairs, stealing crumbs, even trying to sip a fruit juice in an abandoned glass.
Unique to India and Sri Lanka, it was introduced inadvertently in Australia, and so proliferated, like the rabbit, that it was necessary there in regulate the population.
In many villages or crossroads of larger cities, there is an original variety of tuk tuk, which is first noticed by the sound it emits.
This is the " tuk tuk baker ", equipped a sales platform instead of the passenger bench. The "baker" tuk tuk sells in the street all kinds of products resembling local cakes or rolls.
The shrill music it emits looping with a small speaker of mediocre quality is recognizable among a thousand, especially to the ear of a Westerner: it is Beethoven's "letter to Elise", in any case the ultra-famous melody which here becomes a saw endless, throbbing, which is not a musical saw.
The Sinhalese therefore know Beethoven without knowing it, perhaps. Who, moreover, can say where this choice comes from?
Sri Lanka,
... and the "fast and furious" buses
For private lines, buses usually wait until they are full. before leaving their base station.
Anyway, here we take one to go from Hikkaduwa to Ambalangoda some 15 km to the north. This time for just 30 rupees.
In this regard, a few guidelines:
1- embark and disembark very quickly by clinging to everything you can; we saw a bus slow down without stopping to pick up a passenger, fortunately used to
2- find immediately, after climbing three walk, one seat and stand there; braking, acceleration, curves do not lend themselves to slackening
3- wait for the ticket clerk, who is very agile, to come to you; and not the other way around, while the driver is driving.
Hardly enough time to contemplate the beautiful coast with a turquoise horizon, its peaceful rollers where a few fishermen get wet beyond the golden sands. But also the small temple white on its island.
Bad luck! He it was necessary that in our very short trip which crosses the coastal villages, our bus was spotted and stopped for infringement by the local police; a few seconds were enough for the police to make the report (the question is rather "when does the driver respect the local Highway Code?"), and a few minutes to sanction.
The peace of the temple that we will visit will be beneficial and regenerative.
On the other hand, the driver's rage will be illustrated by certain furious and threatening masks in the "mask museum" of Ambalangoda.
The return, always by bus, will be less strained.
We still had to experiment with the use of local buses, which I call elsewhere the "killer buses" so their conduct in traffic, speed, the way to impose themselves in crossings, overtaking, honking and calling the light are more a matter of wrestling or combat on the road than of the Code of the same name.
Whatever the color or the company, they are all of the same shape, vertical flat panels at the front and rear, a steel parallelepiped, the only curve of which is that of the roof, and four powerful tires. At last a squealing foghorn horn.
The color red is reserved for the government public line.
They all seem to carry the same brand name "Lanka Ashok Leyland", a major builder. Indian, which has received several awards for the quality of its products.
We can in any case testify to their robustness.
From then on, enraged and drunk with revenge (this is the worried imagination of the passenger), but above all in a hurry to catch up, here is our driver who rushes even more, this time really in the "fast and furious" mode, who double and sinuous, literally oscillating on two wheels, all screeching tires ... a shaking and scary improvised Throne Fair attraction.
Only one hurry, that of reaching Ambalangoda bus station, to leap ... with precaution, out of the machine which is already moving away. Phew!
We imagine that among the many decorations inside, there are votive offerings (for those who escaped) and effective prayers at the Buddha.
On the other hand, we do not manage to conceive to what point must be unconscious and jaded all those who go for example from Galle to Colombo, among the population. Accustomed almost impassive, barely sweating in the sea air that crosses the craft, at least while it is moving: the doors remain open, and international advice dissuades tourists from using it for children under 8 years.
Sri Lanka,
some seaside amenities in Hikkaduwa
Among the shoals that form a platform of ancient coral reefs beneath the elegant canopy of leaning coconut palms, the sea leaves in retreating numerous puddles, natural mini-pools.
We can see a few colorful fish retained, starfish with long tapered arms, swift side-running crabs, ...
... but also old forms fossils imprinted in the flat reef,
and reptilian geometric figures left by a hollow fish in the sand, like crypto-signals of a gill civilization.
Along a low rocky ridge perpendicular to the shore, you can rub shoulders with real schools of silver fish and come face to face with the dark mass of two "courtesy turtles".
Sedentary here, tourists feed them with seaweed handed to them by an attendant.
The sand here is almost red, fine under water whose temperature never drops below 27 ° C.
A few rocks 200 meters away delimit the coral reef, which we will not have the opportunity to see in these narrow fishing boats equipped with a pendulum, and even less the famous underwater fauna here in this water of an ink blue.
King Detugemunu
It remains the slow and steady tilting of the phosphorescent rollers, under the clear horizon of the ocean of legend which is charged with clouds.
A burrowing monitor lizard, ultimate guest of the hotel, wanders with his swaying gait and look for insects or worms under the roots of trees, while the flights of a variety of crows with strong black beaks croak endlessly.
Sri Lanka
peaceful rear of Hikkaduwa
Far from the young and western frequentation, and therefore necessarily noisy described by the Routard, out of the central traffic lane which crosses Hikkaduwa, these are peaceful streets which climb on the small slopes opposite the sea, to the back of the railroad tracks.
Delimited by abundant and thick vegetation, they weave their way past beautiful shaded houses with intense colors, whose canopies are sometimes adorned with fine valances, embellished with hibiscus under tall palm trees, jackfruit trees, ficus trees, breadfruit trees. leaves like oversized hands, bushes teeming with bougainvillea.
Then, back on the main track, a group of a few women in saris parades with placards, chanting slogans for or against we will not know what.
On the clay that opens onto one of them, a woman with a generous smile dry in the sun on a sheet of very red peppers.
For a bit, the lingering smell that emanates would sting the eyes.
There is in the air glow a tranquility that only the metallic bearing of the passing train disturbs.
In a river which here is only a large stream with murky and uninviting water, palm leaves were mirrored with narcissistic grace. We have the mirror we can.
Two other young women come in sari and walk their haughty port.
Others under a parasol go and talk.
Alongside the buses, tuk tuks, trucks and cars, a three-wheeled tractor loaded with cinnamon sticks, cyclists on worn out bicycles, one of which sells raffle tickets maybe, motorcycles whose passengers always wear helmets.
In a corner in the shade, a regular seated browsing his favorite everyday life under a modern work of art that decorates a magazine.
While other families dressed in white make their way with their lotus flowers and other offerings to a nearby temple.
However, we will soon have to tear ourselves away from this charm, from what rather than a fairyland, is a splendid spell, that of this beautiful island that with already a little nostalgia, we still prefer to name Ceylon.
And find our latitudes, after having flown over, as a refreshing transition, some summits of the Alps, somewhere above northern Italy, Switzerland or Austria.
