004 - Sri Lanka - We travel by train to Kandy in the mountains and experience magical moments again

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Sri Lanka. We travel by train to Kandy in the mountains and experience magical moments again

Moppi's alarm clock rings at 3.11 am. Thank you, darling.

We get up, take another shower and finish packing our backpacks. At 4 o'clock on the dot, the taxi is at the door and we set off for Colombo Fort. This is the main railway station in Colombo. Probably the only one. It is teeming with people. It smells and stinks in all nuances and there is a hustle and bustle. But everything is very friendly. Not a loud word.

We queue up for the 2nd class tickets and after a good 45 minutes it's our turn. We buy tickets, pay the equivalent of 1.30 francs per person. On the platform we stock up on bread rolls (not spicy, know what I mean). we already have) and wait. Suddenly there is movement in the waiting crowd. There is pushing and shoving, the train pulls in and people race to the doors, pushing. Gerd stops in front of a carriage door and races inside. Occupies two seats. People are already throwing their bags through the windows to secure seats. I push my way in and get 2 seats next to Gerd. The woman, who actually had her bag in line, looks for another seat. I am a little horrified at my impudence. But she smiles. I still have to do something good today, I have to make up for my karma...

Now we are sitting in a bumpy fidget box and driving through the country. Our buns have long since been eaten, very spicy. So we still have to learn to interpret this not spicy. But they are always delicious.

We drive on. It rumbles. People are getting on at the stations along the way. For my taste, we are already more than twice as many as fit on the train. But that's not the case here and people are still getting on. With bags and full backpacks. They push. It's getting crowded. And: everyone smiles. Nobody shouts, nobody seems annoyed and everything is wonderful. I'm starting to feel sorry for the children, who have to stand here for 3 hours, jammed in and also dog-tired. At some point, Moppi and I slide in close together. We take two children with us on our row of seats. At some point I see a woman breastfeeding while standing. I take my now huge 16-year-old son on my lap and let the woman take the seat. She smiles, breastfeeds her baby and now takes another couple of children to her seat. At some point we sit on a two-seater bench with six people. Well, it's cosy, it's warm. The windows are wide open, the warm wind sweeps through our hair. The higher we drive into the mountains, the more stunning the landscape. Swathes of mist partly hide the mountains, all around us is jungle. I feel like I'm in a film. We are in the middle of nowhere, no roads, no people. Then at some point a small village, no idea what people are doing here. A few glowing tuktuks, a few people wrapped in saris. Then jungle again. At the end of the 4-hour drive it starts to rain, that was to be expected. The windows are closed because otherwise everything inside gets wet. Now the train becomes a challenge. It steams. Thank God it doesn't rain for long, so the windows can be opened again.

Personally, I still think to myself that I certainly can't stand the noise, the smells, the hustle and bustle at all. On the contrary. I have the feeling that I am in my element here. I am in the flow. I enjoy every moment. Gerd and the kids are completely exhausted when we arrive in Kandy, I am somehow fit and besselt.

Speaking of arriving in Kandy. The train stops, and as you would think, people should get off first. Logic seems to have given way to heat here. First, new people push their way onto the train. Then we push through the aisles, now packed with our backpacks. Of course, everyone wants to get into our seats. Which means no one has any interest in looking out for us. I develop the tactic of not seeing any more people, but only tall grass, which I push aside slightly energetically and make my way. Gerd behind me does the same or uses my path. Eventually we are outside. Yeah. Arrived in Kandy.

We find our hostel with enchantingly nice people, we have booked 4 beds in a 6-bed room, which is however at our disposal alone. Once again a gift for us. We even have our own shower and bathroom, romantically separated from the rest of the room by a curtain.

Kathi is completely full of it. Gerd too, but not so much.

We take a short break on the beds and then set off on foot into the city. An insane heat, a din of car horns, cars, market cries and screeching buses. Buses everywhere. And again they all drive on the wrong side for me. Changing sides of the road becomes a challenge for me, I still don't know which side the cars should be coming from. I look at least 4 times left and 4 times right to make sure I don't miss a car, tuktuk or motorbike.

We reach the much-vaunted (and not very exciting) lake, which is beautiful. But our nerves are shot after the 20-minute hike. We look for a café, we go to the Queens Hotel, looks very good at first. Probably from colonial times. Like everything here, it has seen better days. But the café at the back of the hotel with a view of the pool (Moppi would have loved to jump in) cools us down. We probably eat the worst sandwiches so far, we have a drink and just sit there. Surely 2 hours pass with a cosy game of UNO until we are fit enough to go on. The hotel's own taxi driver takes us to a tea plantation, where we can see the factory and where a super lovely lady explains the entire tea production to us. Afterwards we are allowed to taste and of course buy tea. Buying tea is a bit difficult for us, because we are only at the beginning of our journey and don't want to carry so much with us. Besides, the tea here tastes excellent, at home we don't drink any Ceylon tea, i.e. black tea.

The taxi driver takes us back, I ask him briefly if he can show me a cinnamon tree. He stops at an Ayurvedic herb garden and we get a half-hour guided tour through the entire herb garden with all the explanations about when what helps for what or against what. My herb witch heart beats faster, I would love to film the whole tour. So that I don't forget anything. I already know many things, but I have never seen many plants in real life. Nutmeg bushes, cinnamon trees, pepper bushes. So this is where the pepper grows. It's a dream, I love the moment. I think, however, that I am the only one in our small travel group with this interest. But anyway, I enjoy every moment and am delighted. Of course, we should definitely buy the organic and best oils here and so on. We don't because, firstly, they are bottled in huge bottles and, secondly, they are incredibly expensive.

We move on, the taxi driver takes us to pulsating Kandy, drops us off at the main ramba-zamba-noise street and we stroll a little through the city. We buy a charging cable for Moppi, get money from the ATM and then have a fantastic Indian meal at the White House.

Full and overflowing with impressions, we walk the way to the hotel one last time in the drizzle. We don't mind, it's so nice and warm here. A real summer rain. Once we arrive at the hotel, we play a few more rounds of UNO, Gerd and I eventually disengage and lie on our beds, watching the kids. Gerd falls asleep instantly. Kathi and Alex cackle the whole time, keep playing UNO and it's not really obvious who's cheating more here. But they have fun as if they were two six-year-olds. I love that. I love the moments when we are a happy family.

Smiling, I too fall asleep. I don't know how long the kids have been at it.

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