A Sri Lankan train ride from hell
This post is about the journey from Kandy to negombo Sri Lanka. What I expected to be a relaxed ride turned out to be an endurance marathon to survive a Sri Lankan train ride.
We arrived at the station about 45min before the train would leave and we calmly bought a second class ticket for the first part of our journey to Colombo. We deliberately chose second class to avoid the crowds and get a seat for the 3,5h ride. However when we got to the platform we just found a very shabby looking train full of people. At this moment I still thought to myself “ah this is probably 3rd class let’s look for second.” We found second class and it was not any better than 3rd. About 30min before the train had to leave the people were already hanging outside of the doors and I started to panick on how to get onto the train. We found one wagon where we could squeeze in and this meant that we would have to hang out of the door too.
The train left and I was sharing the door opening with another two men and we held on while the train rocked left and right, accelerated and braked without warning. You have to imagine the scene in (and around) the train. You have probably seen these images or videos of Indian trains with people everywhere, just subtract the people on the roof and you get a pretty accurate picture. We squeezed in with our backpacks in Kandy, the first station. At that moment there was no space left to stand but at every other station the train would stop, other people would try to come in. This is where I found out how much humans can bend, squish and push. It turned out that the most comfortable I would get during the ride was the beginning while I still stood at the door. Once other people tried to come in there was no other choice but to be pushed more inside the non AC train. It started to get hot, people breathing in each other’s faces and sweat being rubbed onto your neighbour. We got really close to the Sri Lankans on this ride.
As the journey continued more and more people came in and as one could expect everyone wanted to go to Colombo; the end station. We were in for the longest 3,5h of our lives. There was no way that anybody was going to be left behind at a station and more and more force was needed to get into the train. It got so bad that you could seriously not move your legs and feet anymore and I was pretty much floating in-between my backpack and the person next to me, only tension holding us in place. An old man got into the train attempting to get to another compartment only to find himself bend over the full length of his body with his feet stuck against the wall on one side and his hands about 1,8m across the hallway. He really must have stood (or hung) like this for about 30min before being relieved of this torture.
Sri Lankan trains are always filled with local vendors trying to make a living from selling food and beverages to you in the train. It doesn’t matter how full the train is these men are unstoppable. They somehow found a way with shoving, squeezing and begging you to move to pass. Of course this wasn’t possible but they wouldn’t stop trying and having all this semi-fresh fried fish in your face in this already overflowing train just made the experience complete.
There is something that really stood out for me during this trip. No one at any moment got aggressive. Everyone just accepted the situation at hand and knew that it was going to be a long ride. Even though this was toughest ride of my life I can take away a lot of positives. First of all, apparently it takes a lot of steps on my toes before I get angry. Secondly, I found out I’m able to stand 3.5h straight, and airconditioning is overrated, ok I don’t really mean that but considering the conditions I found out I’m able to handle much more than I originally thought.
Putting this ride into perspective I think that everybody could try to take something away from here. In the West people get offended when somebody speaks in a silent coupe, or complain to the railway company about overfull trains during rush hour. I know a ticket is more expensive in Europe and that the same quality is not advertised in Sri Lanka. But I’m not talking about the quality of the transport system. I’m talking about how we react to other people around us. Be kind and the ride will be better for everyone. And yes if somebody is being an intolerant a**hole it’s alright to say something, just don’t be one yourself while doing so.
