Rain and Military checkpoints

Jake and Jesse with some of their new years eve stash.

10/01

We awoke this morning to the sound of more rain. The local news here was all floods and rescues. The east coast, not where we are, is cut off and a total disaster area. We hope that if we continue north we can find some clearer weather.
The decision was made to abandon the bikes and half our luggage, so we will continue north, traveling light and riding the public buses. With any luck we should reach Jafna tonight, 250kms away, at the grand cost of $5.00 each. The buses here plough on regardless of dogs or pedestrians or rain or flood, so rather than being terrified of them from our motorbikes, we will now use this to our favor.
The bus pulls into Dambulla. It is already standing room only and the nine of us and 10 more locals squeeze aboard. At a rough head count there is now between 70 and 80 people aboard. Remarkably the front seat is reserved for clergy so Vic snaffles a seat next to a couple of Buddhist monks. For the rest of us we are standing, though we are not likely to fall over as we are jammed in body to body.
The bus lurches away, hard on the accelerator and the horn. The first leg of the trip to Vavuniya should take about 3 hours.There we will change buses and head on to Jafna another three hours north.
As we press on, the main road quickly deteriorates to a single strip of pock marked bitumen shared by the the chaos that is Sri Lankan traffic. The rain continues to fall and bicycles and tuk-tuks are forced off the road as we barge our way through. Soon the road is completely submerged. All around us the signs of flooding increase. Sheets of water cover the fields out to the horizon. We pass a small village where the locals standing waist deep in the water and a dozen houses are flooded out. As always, it is the poorest looking shacks that are underwater, the more substantial buildings owned by the wealthier families are still high and dry. As the bus roars by, a five foot high wave of wash crashes over bystanders. The kids love it, while the adults attempt to ward of the water with an ineffectual umbrella.
There appears no rhyme or reason as to when or where the bus stops. Suddenly we pull over and people disembark, only to be replaced by new passengers almost immediately. Further on people wave the bus down and it roars past oblivious. The driver and his mate are rolling and chewing beetle nut and spitting continuously out the window. I guess the narcotic content keeps him sharp for his long day behind the wheel.
We make Vavuniya without incident. This is a real bustling little town far more sub continent than cruizey Sri Lanka.There is a noticable increase in dark skinned Tamils and a massive increase in military and UN personnel. This time last year there was probably fighting here, but now it feels perfectly safe. In the rain we find the bus to Jafna and get aboard. We snaffle some seats although soon it is standing room only again. People climb aboard with sacks of goods and cartons held together with string. The guy next to us is heading to a wedding so he is lugging food and gifts. The man opposite tells me he was in Sydney last year studying accounting.
The bus grinds out of the station and we are on our way. As I look out the window I can see Bombed out buildings and abandoned fields. Ominous signs warn of mine fields and interspersed we see guard towers with sand-bagged gun positions and army barracks .
Twenty minutes from town we stop at a the main military checkpoint. Soldiers board the bus and everyone around us pulls out their ID cards. We retrieve our passports and they are inspected. Apparently there is something wrong. Jessie is ordered off the bus. As we wait the bus gives a little lurch forward. I have visions of us pulling out and leaving him stranded behind. What am I going to tell his mum?
A few moments later Jessie is back. Apparently we all need to get off. Our advice when leaving Danboola was that the road is open, now they are telling us we can't proceed until we get military clearance from Colombo. Our bus pulls away and we are left behind. Thankfully the young soldiers are a friendly bunch so at no time does it feel too threatening. We try to start a game of cricket while we wait, but are told off. Smiles or not these guys still walk around with real big guns and their fingers on the trigger.
The soldiers pull over another bus heading back the other way and order us aboard. It looks as if we are going back to Vavuniya. It is about 5 oclock by the time we reach town. We won't be going any further today. Tomorrow we will attempt to get the correct papers faxed through from Colombo and try again. It is still raining as we dash to a local hotel. We find three rooms and as usual it is time to decide who gets to share with me. Michelle says she misses me, but surely she isn't missing my snoring!