Trincomalee Bits

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 6 Mar 2019 23:57
Trincomalee Station, Deer, Beach, Bits and Bobs
 
 
 
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We called Loka, our go-to tuktuk man and late afternoon we set off to buy first-class train tickets and then for a swim at the local tourist beach.........well that was plan....... At the end of the road you would expect to see a peacock float with a gang of cows next to it, sadly, the bus photo-bombed.......At the train station I had the time to take in the inside of our steed.
 
 
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I took in my surroundings as Bear and Loka got in to booking tickets.
 
 
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Ten minutes ticked by so I thought I may as well bimble a bit. A third class booked carriage - doesn’t look too bad, oooo and a fish tank ???. A bit shabby but still a first for me.
 
 
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I took in the signs, no way could we ever hope to learn Sinhala or Tamil. Years since I saw ‘Resting Rooms’ advertised. Bear and Loka were still in the same positions. Time to do some stomping methinks.
 
 
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The Station from the outside and the inside of the roundabout.
 
 
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Looking at the luggage allowance it’s just as well we have a lift to Colombo.......A pretty girl.
 
 
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Our trusty steed. The plaque on the station wall. We hope to visit the stupa behind the elephant – pegged as the biggest man-made structure in the world that was not a pyramid (at that time). This is the new Trincomalee station opened on the 8th of March 1970.
 
 
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Forty minutes and Bear presented me with two sets of tickets. (These are the updated ones)....
 
 
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Fifteen minutes into our journey to the tourist beach, cossies on under our shorts and the lycra is beginning to baste us nicely, and I study the tickets. They are both for the 18th........ We need to go from Ella to Nuwara Eliya on the 18th and Nuwara Eliya to Kandy on the 21st, thus completing what is voted by many as the ‘Most Beautiful Train Journey in the World’. Back we go to the station.
 
 
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So getting used to the freedom of the city that bovine of the creatures have here. This chap went to the water tub provided and called his laaaayyyydddeeees and we left with a bit of a meeting going on. Now Bear is armed with two cancelled tickets and two current tickets, half an hour as mid-booking the ticket chaps computer went on the blink. Clutching them to me (two real, two cancelled and I wonder what the difference between a male and female seat looks like....... but I have and odd and an even and so does Bear........) in the back of our steed, I no longer fancy the beach as time has pressed on. Just down the road from the station a deer was laying down next to a cow. Loka had a plan, did we fancy a mini-tour. Great stuff.
 
 
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Passing Our Lady of Guadalupe and down a shopping street.......
 
 
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......we popped out the end by a sign (provided by the London Stock Exchange Group), after passing a posh roundabout and I jumped out to my first deer next to a pile of rubbish.
 
 
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This chap moaned quite a bit but posed with his fine headwear.
 
 
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Time for me to shudder at a dried fish shop – where Loka had parked.
 
 
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A bit further down the road and a fleet of deer. I like this group for the settled mynah bird.
 
 
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At the end of the road we were at the seaside – opposite side of the peninsula to us.
 
 
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A local bus arrived and everyone rushed at the converted ice cream tuktuk, tune playing and all.
 
 
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Fishing boats at rest on the beach.
 
 
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We passed Maritime and Naval Headquarters, resplendent with cannons and the Command Headquarters Eastern Naval Area. Enough of this excitement, we went back to the anchorage and bade farewell to Loka. Need to get to the bank and gather a few bits of fruit.
 
 
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What we had thought was a chipmunk here is called a palm squirrel. The chipmunk name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk", from the native Odawa (Ottawa people of Canada) word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel" but like the squirrel belong to the family of Sciuridae. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, woodchucks, flying squirrels along with prairie dogs. This little lady was in the tree above the police station and chirped, posed, ran and posed.
 
 
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On the high street............
 
 
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.......we went into a toy shop to see if we could buy some jigsaws to take to a boys orphanage in Colombo (our friend Kerri volunteers there once a week). Plenty of interesting ‘treasures’ for a toy shop but sadly, no jigsaws.
 
 
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Back to base and the pretty jasmine at the gate. For Uncle Les (xx xx) - Tabernaemontana divaricate (Apocynaceae), commonly called pinwheelflower, crape jasmine, East India rosebay or Nero's crown is an everygreen shrub native to India and now cultivated throughout South East Asia and the warmer regions of continental Asia.
 
 
 
 ALL IN ALL LOVELY TO SEE MORE OF THE AREA
                      A GREAT LITTLE TOUR