This weekend we went to Batticaloa in the east, leaving Friday night and returning on Sunday. Batticaloa has a frontier feel, untrammeled by outsiders.A lazy city of 100,000 people, it sits on the Indian Ocean, and hosts a vibrantly diverse community of Tamils, Muslims and Burghers.  

We took the bus overnight there and found the journey to be incredibly crowded. The government bus—these are all painted red. Private buses are painted white. Every inch of isle space taken up and every seat occupied. There’s only so much sweaty arm pit in my face that I can stand. It’s also important to defend one’s leg space, as your knee can look like valuable real estate for someone else to rest their arm on if they are sitting in the isle. Thank god this isn’t India. More disturbing was the fight between a drunk father who two girls were visibly upset and crying and the ticket master. This weekend was a “poya” weekend and also Eid, so the entire country is essentially on vacation. Poya is a holiday that occurs with every full moon.

Arriving in the early morning, we set out immediately to find a guest house to find the first few all full. No matter, we started walking past the UN building, among other post 2004 tsunami development work buildings and encountered some wild dogs. Wild pack of family dogs?

That afternoon we did some exploration around the town and went to visit an old Dutch fort that had been built at first by the Portuguese (the Dutch took it over and expanded it). Lord knows how they got anything done in the heat. 10 minutes out in the 6deg north of the equator and I’m already sunburnt enough that I have to spend the rest of my trip hidden under an umbrella for shade—life here for my pale skin is like living like a vampire, I can only come out at night, or I’ll melt.

In the afternoon we set out to a lighthouse built by the British and a public park/beach north of town. It’s absolutely gorgeous and we get to climb to the top of the lighthouse for a great view at dusk. Thereafter we went to the riviera lodge for some sri lankan curry before heading in for the night.

Being Poya, we arrived at our hotel confronted by a Sri Lankan family who invited us to dance with them. An hour of bad dancing later, we, especially Sheela, had become the stars of the show. Of course, they asked the “baendela” question. That means, “are you married?” to which we replied disjointedly. A bit of singing and dancing. Girlfriend and boyfriend often don’t go here. You’ll get some strange looks if you say that so in so is your significant other. (I think that this is generally not always the case/is changing. May people will understand you if you say boyfriend or girlfriend) I got the rather awkward question, “Oh, so married but virgin?” Time to sort out that mess…