Sri Lanka | 2011

Road To Perdition – Where I rode and wept.

Sri Lanka is mostly known for cricket & Adam’s Peak. And needless to mention its decade prolonged civil war. Apart from these, Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. This ocean drop island is blessed with nature’s immeasurable wealth & beauty. The country belongs to a class of one of the most beautiful South-East Asian countries. Elephant, snakes, gem stones and hundreds of miles of sandy beaches are only some of unforgettable possessions.

Colombo, Galle and Jaffna, are known cities of Sri Lanka within the last century for their history and cultural values. Colombo is the capital; Galle is the ancient port of Indian trade route; and Jaffna is an abandoned palace now.

From the capital, Colombo, we started our journey on 15th of November. 5:30 am, from the YMCA Hostel located on Bristol St where we started pedaling towards Galle. The roads were in an excellent condition, well maintained & sufficiently paved, adding a pleasure to our rides. The most enjoyable and amazing part was riding by the cast side.

It was an exhilarating feeling. We enjoyed the marine drive the most until we reached Hambantota. After which we prepared ourselves to enter into the YALA. There were a series of national parks waiting to welcome us. We were already aware about the husky elephants of Sri Lankan forests adding a little anxiety and tense. Surprisingly, an incident happened when Muntasir and his Tandem partner Sharif were crossing an Elephant near by. The elephant started following them aggressively. They rushed with their bike to save their lives. The rest of us went through that part safely but was chased by stray dogs. We also hammered on our pedals with top gears to save our backs from the wild dogs. We were grateful that nothing worse took place. After the forest, the roads were not in a great condition taking away that pleasure of our rides. Our panniers seemed to have unattached from every single jerk. But they did not as the strings kept those attached with the carrier pretty tight. Luckily, we didn’t have to get off from our saddle to reassemble our panniers which saved a lot of time.

However, it was a great learning experience that we achieved from each and every minute of our trip. But all of a sudden I hear this terrible grinding noise coming out of my rear wheel and as I got off to check, I found that my carrier was out of order; it was the right side that was twisted into half. However, Muntasir fixed the issue with his talented mechanical skills and saved my trip from coming to an end. We continued the ride after fixing my carrier but the road also continued to be as it was. It had pot-holes all over with a minimum of five pot-holes within one square feet. Each of them was three to four inches in diameter and a couple of inches deep. Felt like a road to disaster. It was rarely possible to make a safe way through there with a heavily loaded bike.

We were carrying all our personal belongings and camping materials such as tents, sleeping bags and all other essential camping equipments making the panniers extremely heavy which was putting an immense pressure on the bikes.

We loved our bikes and they were the only means to reaching our final destination. Moreover, Mamun vai was riding the bike he borrowed from a very kind friend of us, Shakil vai. Because of which he was taking good care of it even more than his own panniers. But unfortunately, he ended up getting some scratches on the bike which was unavoidable. We had to take a vehicle to Jaffna from Kilinocchi. We felt a relief. Then I realized that cycling is the best way to see Sri Lanka. Travelling in a car, especially sitting at the back of a pickup van is inviting a misery of bumping and jerking over pot-holed roads, as the car whirls around the endless hairpin bends that the mountainous landscape offered. On a cycle, it is a true adventure of discovery by touching the soul of the island. By the time we gained mileage on our bikes, through the country sides, Sri Lanka opened her mind blowing carves in front of us. The beauty made us fascinated to her more and more, on each and every preceding day.

On the way back to Jaffna to Colombo we took another bus to Anuradhapura because of the road condition. We were planning to start paddling from Anuradhapura. Bus dropped us at Anuradhapura according to our plan. It was almost mid-night then. We decided to wait until 4:30 am and then to start for Puttalam. So we fixed our bikes and got ready for the push. When we were waiting at the bus stop, some local people came to us and start talking to us.

They were asking who we were, where we came from and other questions which derived from their curiosity. When we said that we are heading to Puttalam, they became alarmed. They told us not to go over there at least 1 hour after sunrise because of elephants. The road connecting Anuradhapura and Puttalam, is highly dense with Elephants along its side ways. And it is truly risky. In the mean time local police man came to us and also requested to not to go even in the morning. They suggested us to avoid that route if possible. And if it is not possible to avoid, requested us to skip that part by taking a vehicle. It was clear that traveling that part would be jeopardizing our lives as we don’t even have any support car. Therefore, we decided to follow their suggestion and catch a bus to Puttalam. From Puttalam it was 144 km to Colombo. After reaching Puttalam, we decided to leave for Colombo the very same day. We were eager to meet Mr. Dewan Mahbub Alam who left us that night to catch his flight from Colombo which we were upset about. It’s not a great feeling to complete the ride or to board a flight without a teammate, with whom we made our way up to this part. We were missing our teammate who  pedaled with us almost 800 km with an injury he sustained from the very first day. We just flew that 144 km to meet the person who accepted all the sufferings for more than a week, just to keep the team spirit intact. One thing I learned is that the success of an adventure, most importantly bike touring, depends upon team spirit. Until then we rode for the friendship between two nations and at specific day we rode for our friend, for our teammate; to meet him, and bid farewell as he boarded the flight back to home.

Sri Lankans are very kind, polite and courteous especially in the country sides after Galle. There are lots of times where we were invited by local residents to sit with them and share our views. They are pretty familiar with foreign tourists and it is their humbleness that they still enjoy welcoming more. We met school girls dressed in white with colorful ribbons in their neatly plaited hair, smiling bashfully, on our way. Most of the time they responded our waves back. The colorful sari of beautiful ladies reflects their charming life styles. As per our experiences we come to know that they are not very rich in term of government report about GDP but they have their own land to have a nice little home and their minimum income is enough for them to lead their lives. They work, they eat, they love, they enjoy and they sleep. This is the simple equation they follow. Sri Lankans are fond of spices and a new addition to their food habit is fried meal. Fried meal means fried rice, fried veggies & fried meat – everything you can possibly imagine as food; they have a fried version of it. They are also dedicated fan of coconut. There was always a dish made of coconut in the menu that we have been offered. After having the local food every night, we figured out that they balance the spice with the coconut in their stomach, a balanced diet.

Colombo, Hikkadua, Bossa, Galle, Tangalle, Matara, Hambantota, Monoragala, Ampara, Kalmunai,  Baticaloa, Vakarai, Kinniya, trincomalee, Vavuniya, Kilinocchi, Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Puttalam, Madhurankuliya, Chilaw, Wennappuwa, Negombo, Welesara, Colombo. This is the definition of full circle Sri Lanka and the full 932 km. We touched each of them during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka friendship ride. There are some mythologies like Sri Lanka was discovered by a sailor called Bijoy Shingho, a  Bangladeshi. Adam’s peak was another attraction for us to choose Sri Lanka for this year’s friendship ride. Adam’s peak is an important place according to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and maybe few more other religions, which are beyond my knowledge. Sri Lanka is world famous for their gem stones as well. And this business is being dominated by the Muslim merchants of the society. But in spite of all these facts, in this post war era, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims all live in peace together as Sri Lankan nationals in their own country. We were five there. Muntasir Mamun, Mr.Dewan Mahbub Alam, Md. Shariful Islam, Mahmud Ullah (Videographer) and me, Md. Shakhawat Chowdhury. When we were planning for Sri Lanka, everyone was tensed because of the news we hear every day about the nations’ internal conflicts. Though the war is over and the country is now in peace for last couple of years, people are still not sure about their safety when traveling there. We are really grateful to Mr. D.H.N. Piyadigama, Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Dhaka.