Coastal Line 8059

It was 4:30 am and pitch-black outside when Mom, Kyle, and I met outside of the hotel. It was so early that even the peacocks weren't awake, and the morning was still, dark, and silent.

Sleepily, the driver who we had arranged to meet us helped us load our luggage into the back of his car, and we set off along the empty roads towards Matara.

One of Sri Lanka's highlights is its rail system, and we had wanted to take a train at some point during our travels on the island, since every guidebook, blog, and person we spoke with recommended it. The views from the train on the Coastal Line to Colombo were supposed to be especially nice. The only problem is that the 8059 train we needed to take is scheduled to depart daily at 6:05am and Matara, where the train departs from, was an hour away by road.

We had purchased our tickets online a few days earlier, and while Kyle and Mom unloaded their bags, I headed over to the ticket counter to redeem the booking voucher for their tickets.

Three first-class tickets cost us a combined total of 6000 rupees, or about $20.

The sky was just beginning to glow with the first cool light of dawn as we hurried along the platform to the find our carriage.

The first-class seats on a Sri Lankan train are very comfortable. They are wide and heavily padded with plenty of legroom. Each seat has its own electrical outlet as well. The carriages are air-conditioned, and each one has its own toilet. The 3.5-hour ride back to Colombo was going to be very nice!

There were a few other people on the train with us, but it was a quiet and peaceful ride. As we traveled through the countryside, we watched life go by outside the windows.

We were starting to get hungry. The conductor informed us that we would be taking a ten-minute stop in Galle, so while Mom stayed on the train, Kyle and I sprinted out to the platform to look for breakfast.

We jogged to the first food cart that we saw and ordered three small cups of hot coffee from the vendor. He also had a cart of triangle-shaped samosa-like pastries for sale.

"What are you selling?", I asked. "Veggie", the shopkeeper replied. That was good enough for us! Everything we've eaten in Sri Lanka has been delicious. There has not been one meal, snack, or dish that we've tasted that hasn't been incredible, so we decided to order three of whatever he was selling along with our coffee and hurried back to the train.

Meanwhile, Mom was anxious that we wouldn't be able to get back on the train fast enough, but there was nothing to worry about. We were soon pulling out of Galle and back on the way north towards Colombo.

Breakfast turned out to be a sort of grilled vegetable curry-stuffed roti. It made for a great breakfast to enjoy with a cup of hot coffee while watching the views from the window.

The reason that we wanted to take this train in particular is because it drives right up the western coast of Sri Lanka. This route isn't called the Coastal Line for nothing!

The tracks are more or less on the beach, and when you look out the window, you can see the beautiful glistening waters of the Indian Ocean crashing up against the shore.

A little after 9:00am, the train arrived at Colombo Fort Station, Sri Lanka's main rail transport hub. The massive eleven-track station was opened in 1917 and designed after Manchester Victoria Station and is one of the busiest and most bustling transport hubs in the country.

About an hour later after a stop for an iced coffee and a moment to regroup at a cafe in Colombo, a taxi dropped us off at our hotel in Negombo. This is where we would spend our last night in Sri Lanka, and we had decided to book a hotel that was close to the airport in order to make our last day of travel as easy as possible.

It was a beautiful, nearly cloudless afternoon. The bright tropical sun beat down on Negombo Beach, and we quickly changed into our swimsuits to spend the afternoon lazing in the water. 

The hotel's pool had a swim-up bar, but it was closed today. Even though the country has a tolerant and pluralistic society, Sri Lanka's official religion is Theravada Buddhism, and the country follows the lunar Buddhist calendar. 

Every full moon day is a Poya Festival, and a public holiday across the entire island. There are 13 or 14 Poya Days every year, and we happened to be here during one of them. Devout Buddhists will visit temples on these festival days to pray and participate in religious observances. Generally, government offices, banks, shops, and businesses are closed, and the sale of alcohol and meat is forbidden.

While we could still buy meat dishes at the hotel restaurant (I had a delicious chili crab for lunch), alcohol was banned.

As the day came to a close, we reflected on the adventures that we had experienced during our time in Sri Lanka. 

We still can't believe that they were able to convince our mom to race a tuk-tuk across the country with us, but we are so grateful for the great family time that we have had together.

The Finish Line

We've done it!

Team Mama's Boys has made it to the Rickshaw Run's finish line in Tangalle! With the click and hiss of three tall ice-cold cans of Lion Lager, we toasted to our successful adventure as we stood on the tropical golden sands of the beach of southernmost Sri Lanka.

But let's back up to this morning...

The morning dawned warm and bright, and we were jolted awake by the shrill and horrible screeching of the wild peacocks who populate Sri Lanka's south.

If you've never been around peacocks, count yourself lucky - you would be surprised at the noises they make. For such majestic birds, the noises coming out of their mouths sound like a colicky baby crying.

After our rude awakening, we took a walk down to the beach. The fishermen were getting ready to head out for the day, and they were launching their boats from the shore off into the Indian Ocean.

The warm brown waters of the sea looked inviting, but we had been warned not to try swimming there; the sea on this part of the southern coast had a very strong current and was dangerous for swimmers.

Returning to the hotel, we had breakfast and took a morning dip in the pool. Today was going to be our first truly relaxed day, and we had nothing planned until the finish line party this evening.

As we exited the pool and dried off, we were surprised and excited to see that Team All Play and No Work, some of our best friends from the Run and the team that we had first connected with months ago after signing up for this adventure, were checking in at the same hotel!

We hadn't seen Jillian, Victoria, and Lisa since the launch party in Negombo, and were so excited to catch up with them and swap stories of our adventures. We decided that we would convoy together to the finish line this evening.

We didn't have anything planned for the morning, so we decided to take a joyride around Tangalle.

Mom, who had been sick and missed the first few days on the road, hadn't had the chance to get behind the wheel yet, but her sons were really persistent on having her drive before returning our tuk-tuk to the Adventurists.

She drove us around Tangalle for a while.

Even though we got stuck in the mud one time, Kyle was able to push the tuk-tuk into neutral while I gunned the engine in reverse until it sputtered out of the brackish mud, and we were soon back on solid ground.

One of the reasons that we joined the Rickshaw Run in the first place is because it is to raise money for charity. During our adventure, we've collected 500 British Pounds for Cool Earth, a charity fighting climate change, and an additional 500 Pounds for the Save Elephant Foundation, which supports rescued elephants in Thailand. 

We sent the afternoon writing postcards to our major donors.

Since we hit the goal of raising at least 1,000 GBP for charity, we left on launch day with purple hair, and were determined to cross the finish line with purple hair as well.

It was time to drive to the finish line and hand in our keys. We had deliberately booked a hotel near the finish line at the Sumudu Seafood Restaurant, so we didn't have far to go. 

As we approached the beach along a bumpy dirt road, we joined up with several other teams who were cheering and honking as we came to the end of our journey.

As we drove into the huge field that would serve as our car park, Maddy, one of the organizers, handed each of us a can of frosty Lion Lager. We had made it, and it was time to celebrate!

We drove our trusty little tuk-tuk up to the finish line, snapped a few photos, turned in our insurance documents and key, and received our official Adventurist patch and certificate.

We had made it! We headed down to the beach for the finish line party.

Even though nearly every other tuk-tuk suffered numerous breakdowns on the journey (except for ours!), everyone made it to Tangalle more or less in one piece.

It was great seeing all of the other teams and hearing their stories and adventures from the road.

As the afternoon went on, a cricket game broke out on the beach, and we enjoyed watching its chaotic nature as the beer and punch continued to flow.

Punch originated in this part of the world, and the drink was actually introduced to the west by the British East India Company from the Indian subcontinent. In fact, the word "punch" is one of several common English words that actually has its roots from India due to decades of British rule (other words that you might be surprised to come from Indian roots include cash, bungalow, cushy, jungle, shampoo, and thug).

The word "punch" means "five" in Hindi, as the traditional Indian drink was made with five ingredients: alcohol (usually arrack), sugar, lemon juice, water, and spices.

The presumably went on until late in the evening, but we didn't stay too long. Our time on the road is at an end... but our adventure in Sri Lanka is not, and tomorrow is going to be another very early morning!

We still have more to come (including a big announcement!), so stay tuned as Team Mama's Boys makes our way back north across the country towards Colombo!

Peacock Crossing: Ella to Tangalla

Kyle and I woke before the dawn to have an early cup of coffee on the balcony, watch the sun rise over the dark, misty hills of the Sri Lankan mountain resort town of Ella, and plan out the route for the day.

Today was going to be another long day of driving, and after studying the map and a lot of discussion, we decided to try and make the final push to the south coast of Sri Lanka.

The finish line is just two days away, and we calculated that with one long day of driving south, we just might be able to make it to Tangalle a day early to give ourselves one final day of relaxation on the beach.

After a great breakfast, we set out early. It was a little sketchy getting out of Ella, but we soon cleared the stop-and-go traffic and were back on the road.

Today's drive was a winding descent down the mountains and hills into the Sri Lankan lowlands in the southeast. The morning was misty, foggy, and very green, but we were so surprised at how much the scenery changed today.

Our first stop was at a very small cafe and minimart off the side of the mountain road. Kyle and I tried the shop's signature spicy sandwich and Mom ordered the house gateaux with cola.

The cafe had just opened, and the staff were super excited to take photos with us. They kept asking us to write reviews on Google Maps, which we were sure to do.

An irritatingly short while later, Kyle (a habitual overhydrater) was in desperate need of a bathroom break.

Annoyed at having to stop yet again, I pulled into the parking lot at a very small shop on the side of the road.

Even though the shop did not have an on-site toilet, the owner very kindly asked her two young sons to lead Kyle out back to the family's personal outhouse.

Once again, we were amazing and impressed with the kindness and generosity of the people that we met on the road. It might seem like hyperbole to say that we found the people in Sri Lanka to be the kindest and friendliest we've ever met - but it's not! At least compared to anywhere else in the world any of us have traveled (including Thailand, the "land of smiles"), Sri Lankan hospitality has been far and beyond what we've experienced anywhere else.

We were sure to buy several bottles of Coke and a bagful of snacks from the shop to thank the shopkeepers for their kindness.

A while later still, it was time to fill up the tuk-tuk's tank. Tuk-tuks are incredibly fuel efficient! The little 4-stroke engine just takes regular petrol, and it can go a really long time without having to fill up.

Our tuk-tuk has a six-liter tank and a 1-liter emergency reserve tank, but we've never even come close to running out of fuel. Throughout the whole week, we estimated that we've only spend around $25 USD on gas, despite our long first-gear drives across the steep and mountainous roads.

As we stopped in to fill up on petrol, I stepped inside the 7-Twenty-Four convenience store (a blatant knockoff of a well-known international chain) for a can of coffee. Inside the shop, I was excited to run into Gary, the patriarch of the Otterley family, the British family team that we had run into on our first day on the road!

Gary was happy to see Team Mama's Boys all together again and decided to name the inflatable monkey on the back of his rickshaw Kim to honor our reunification (he had already named the two inflatable parrots after Kyle and me).

We parted ways, vowing to meet again at the finish line in a few days.

This part of the country looked very different from the other parts of Sri Lanka which we had thus traveled through. The foggy mountains and dense jungle fell away to a dry, dusty landscape that looked like it would have been at home somewhere outside of Dallas! We had entered Sri Lanka's "Dry Zone", a large area of the country which receives just half of the average rainfall of the rest of the country.

It had gotten hot again as we moved further south and back towards sea level. The area seemed far quieter and less populated, and we made good time as we zipped along the flat, straight, dusty roads towards the coast.

I was driving and Kyle was navigating from the back seat, when suddenly a lone, brown-uniformed traffic cop whistled at us from the side of the road and pulled us over on the side of the road.

The officer approached the tuk-tuk, lifted up our team flag, chuckled, and waved us on. He was clearly bored manning this long stretch of empty road and was just curious about what these three crazy Americans were up to.

We were driving south skirting several national parks and near to the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota. Known as the "loneliest airport in the world", MRIA stands as a striking example of ambitious infrastructure development that struggled to meet expectations. 

Opened in 2013, MRIA boasts a capacity to handle up to one million international passengers annually. However, despite its modern facilities and strategic location, the airport has faced significant challenges in attracting both airlines and passengers. This underutilization led to its reputation as the world's least travelled international airport, a poignant symbol of the risks associated with large-scale infrastructure projects that do not align with market demand or logistical realities.

Today, despite its massive size, international capabilities, and logistical infrastructure, the airport only handles around 3 flights per day, only one of which is a scheduled passenger flight.

The western part of the country had been so busy that it was actually kind of surprising to see how empty and quiet the southeast was. Even though the roads here were better, it ended up being one of the most difficult stretches of driving.

Along our way, we had to dodge sleeping packs of dogs who were lazing on the warm, sun-baked tarmac of the empty roads, colorful peacocks who flew terrifyingly close to our windshield (they can't fly very high, but they are huge and scary when approaching at speed), and herds of cows sluggishly making their way along the street. There were no hills nor traffic to speak of, but the road hazards had clearly just changed form.

There are several different types of roads in Sri Lanka.

A-roads are the main roads which connect cities across the island. There are also B-roads, the lower-trafficked routes which we have tried to stick to as much as possible.

During our briefing, we were warned that the only roads in Sri Lanka on which tuk-tuks were not allowed were E-roads (the nation's expressways). There are only a few of these expressway roads in the entire country, but it's illegal for motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and other low-powered vehicles to drive on them.

We had been zooming along on a wonderful stretch of beautifully paved road, when we suddenly came upon a toll gate. I started panicking, knowing that there weren't supposed to be any toll gates on A or B-roads. Kyle, who was supposed to be navigating, was totally useless.

I pulled the tuk-tuk over, and the uniformed cop just said, "you can't drive here." Shaking his head and laughing at us and our foolishness, he directed us to make a U-turn and exit the elevated E-road for the slower A-road below.

Crisis averted!

Our only major encounter with a cop turned out to be nothing. It's hard to imagine that someone driving an illegal vehicle on a major US highway would be let off so easy, but it's just another example of that legendary Sri Lankan friendliness. It was clear that we were just an oblivious group of weirdo Americans in a strange little vehicle, and at least it seemed to give the officer a laugh on his otherwise boring and routine day.

By the way, if you are interested in seeing this play out in video form along with our other mishaps in Sri Lanka, don't forget to subscribe to the Attempt Adventure YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@attemptadventure)! After the podcast comes out soon, we'll be releasing a series of videos documenting our adventures across Sri Lanka.

Finally, as we approached the coast, I pulled over to the restaurant that he had picked out for lunch.

The restaurant had treehouse seating that looked out across the nearby lagoon, and we headed up the creaky wooden stairs to sit down for lunch in the treetops. After a long and tense day of driving, it was very encouraging to catch our first glimpse of the sea. That meant that we were nearing our final destination, and that we didn't have far to go!

We ordered a big serving of paneer masala to share. Paneer is a type of Indian cheese with a super high melting point, so it keeps its form even when cooked in a soupy spicy curry.

We ate the paneer masala with copious servings of garlic, butter, and cheese naan (Indian flatbread).

Paneer Masala by Batch, Hambantota, Sri Lanka (theworldofstreetfood.com)

Finally, we finally arrived in Tangalle in the late afternoon. It had been a very long day on the road, filled with its fair share of mishaps and mistakes. However, we have finally made it safe and sound at Sri Lanka's southern coast.

We are very close to the finish line now. Tomorrow we will still have to drive 6km or so, but we are so thrilled that our Abigail has brought us more or less safe and sound through up and down the mountains and central highlands of Sri Lanka and to the country's south coast without a single breakdown. 

We aren't superstitious, but we've made a deliberate effort not to speak of our mechanical good fortune too much... at least not until tomorrow. Little Abby has been doing such a great job that we just don't want to jinx her before our final drive. 

But we've come so far. In the spirit of this adventure, Kyle I have both agreed that, should the worst come to worst, and we are somehow unable to start the engine tomorrow morning, we would just push the tuk-tuk to the finish line. We have gotten so close that we refuse to give up now.

Because we ended up arriving early, the hotel doesn't actually have our rooms ready for us. Since there is "no room at the inn" as it were, it means that we are all going to have to bunk together for tonight.

I am excited for a "sleepover". Kyle is ambivalent. Mom, who demanded the single bed, is less than thrilled with the arrangement.

Anyway, it's just for one night.

After a nice swim, we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We all ordered the catch of the day (the red mullet).

It's been a very long day on the road, but we are very grateful to have made it safe and sound to Tangalle. We've got just a short drive tomorrow to the finish line, and we are sure that we are going to make it.