I'm going to SL in a couple of weeks. I'll be heading to Tissa then working my way back around the coast to Colombo (I know, it's monsoon season but hopefully I won't have rain/grey skies all the time...)
I was thinking of trying to document any lasting evidence of the tsunami. Is the Queen of the Sea train still at Peraliya or has it been removed? Any recommendations of where to go to see areas still affected by the tsunami?
Thanks.
Hi,
The train was parked up , on a side line in Hikkaduwa station until recently.
When I was there in Feb/march of this year it had gone. I asked where it had been moved to and why and was told that it was taken for the Sri Lankan railway museum. As far as I could find out, that museum has been partly built and then left so where the train is now or what will happen to it, I don't know.
I'd hazard a guess that it's parked up in Colombo somewhere. But, thats only a guess.
More or less, anywhere along the coast there's still plenty of evidence of the tsunami.
For example , I regularly stay at a guest house on a beach between Dikwella and Tangalle. Just near the Blow Hole.
In the coconut groves that fringe the beach, pre-tsunami, there were scores of little local houses. Now there's scores of ruins overgrown by weeds Only two have been rebuilt.
Last year, I was staying in a guest house at Kosgoda. The guest house was surrounded by tsunami ruins. I went with the owner of the guest house to see a plot of land between Ambalangoda and Hikkaduwa. The plot where there are now just ruins had, pre-tsunami, been his house and garden.
With him I visited some local people and in between all their houses are tsunami ruins.
Interestingly , at one house we stopped to chat to a couple of ladies living there, told me that they'd spotted two cobras in the garden. One of the ladies told me that before the tsunami, only the houses further inland , fringing the bush , had seen cobras.
Now, with so many houses destroyed and the gardens becoming overgrown, the snakes were spreading back towards the beach and coast road , between the properties that were left standing.
So, yes, there's still plenty of evidence to be seen.
Back to the train question.
You may find out something by following up on this site.
http://www.slrfc.org/2009/05/16/national-railway-museum-website
Try an email to the information section or " about " section .. Someone on there must know.
Rod.