The Rajadhani Express
The Rajadhani Express 7777 – 1007 from Peradeniya to Nanu Oya was a four and a half hour train ride up into the mountains. It was exactly 1 hour and 1 minute late – nobody knew why – no one seemed to care – it just came and then jolted off once we were on board.
It took a while to acclimatise to the wooden roller coaster type carriage which swayed from left to right – steep drops on both sides – no one seemed worried – no one seemed to care.
The station
The train
The sun blazed through the window, the scenery magnificent.
The villagers from way up high in the mountains would stand on the embankments waving to passengers, as would cows and hens and monkeys.
Tea pluckers plucked their tea…..
School children in pristine uniforms would occasionally board and disembark.
Finally after a long and arduous journey in an air conditioned carriage which was in fact an open window as the AC did not function we arrived at our destination.
We met our driver who then took us around the little mountain village and showed us a rather grand hotel – aptly named the “Grand Hotel”- a hotel in old fashioned British style, glorious surroundings, more than impressive.
When we arrived at our shack we were somewhat disappointed to say the least. Absolutely starving we decided to try the cuisine and ordered some soup which we heard being microwaved several times repeatedly. It was gruesome!!
We needed food, so we headed back by foot to the “Grand Hotel” completely unaware that as the only guests in the shack that our departure time of 19:46 had been noted.
Sitting in sumptuous surroundings eating our venison and pheasant (joking – was a rather tasty pizza actually) we asked ourselves what a room would cost and how much we would pay – we decided on a total of 200 dollars which was about as much as all our hotels to date have cost in total and when the receptionist said 249 dollars – Dani was quick to point out that this included breakfast as well – Bargain I thought and no sooner had my credit card been swiped, there we were lounging away in not one but three beds – felt a little like goldilocks and the three bears – we tried them all. We had no luggage and no phones with us, so we ordered toothbrushes and slippers and made our way down to a dingy shop in the basement just about to close (down altogether I was thinking) however we purchased 2 boxer shorts and vests and hey presto – there we were set up for the night.
We slept on soft cotton sheets dreaming of the exquisite breakfast banquet in the morning and worked out exactly when to set back off to pick up our luggage and meet our driver.
Breakfast was perfect, exceeding all our expectations and the instrumental music, Bryan Adams, Robbie Williams etc. had us both loving angels instead.
HOWEVER – this is where the bubble burst and a divine clout from above was due to strike in about 15 mins.
Merrily skipping along having stolen banana bread and placed in a cloth napkin for our journey we arrived to receive that impending clout from above, in the form of an irate driver, an agitated hotel manager, and two surly looking staff (the only staff) and a barrage of questions about where we had been. Whilst we had been lounging in luxury an all night police search had been underway. At 11pm they had been informed that we had not returned to the hotel. Lakes and mountains were being searched and all local hospitals contacted. The driver, the hotel manager and the two surly looking staff had all joined the search and had been up all night. We were horrified – everybody’s phone began to ring simultaneously (except ours – ours were still in the room!!!) Head office were passed over to me and I had to explain where I’d been – the police search was called off. At this point I was overcome with emotion and did the very thing I do best – I burst into tears – this seemed to send everyone in complete disarray and we were ushered into the hotel and ordered to eat breakfast (slightly awkward as we’d just eaten six horses – but not wanting to cause further trouble, I managed to swallow some tea inbetween my heart rending sobs.
Unfortunately it did not end with a severe reprimand from head office, the driver, the hotel manager and the two surly looking staff – oh no – we then had to go to the local police station and our whereabouts were documented. We had concocted a story about how we had suddenly met some of danis friends (a likelihood of zero in the Sri Lankan mountains) and it was late and we felt it was unsafe to return to shack 1 in total darkness. We had previously managed to avoid mentioning to the hotel manager that we had in fact stayed at the “Grand Hotel” – but at the police station this became an unavoidable topic of conversation – awkward!!
We were detained for one hour for paper work and then free to go. I offered them a donation. They declined stating it was their duty (which made us feel even worse).
The other “station”
We were embarassed and ashamed and would urge all future travellers to book the Grand Hotel in advance to avoid such an unpleasant incident !!
