Trincomalee and Pigeon Island
Long shot of Pigeon Island. More Video
Went to Trinco over Avurudu. No electricity, didn’t answer the phone, didn’t think about shit. Raining half the time but Trinco is nice. Swam till my back got burnt ragged, head looking like a matchstick. Place is full of cows. In the morning they come and shit all over the beach path. Then the dung beetles comes and roll it away in time to swim. Trinco’s underdeveloped, but things seem to work.
Take a boat out to Pigeon Island for like Rs 2,000. Pigeon Island is tiny but it’s still on the map. Surrounded by coral which is lovely, except when you step on it. Turned me into shark bait pretty fast. Saw some fish though. Not Nemo but the William Defoe one. Pick up some sand and it’s barely sand at all, just crushed coral. This whole place musta got hammered by the tsunami.
Families start showing up. Army guy with an artificial leg. Army/Navy people. They’re bringing all the picnic fixings plus automatic weapons. Give their kids some candy, they give ours some biscuits. Say they’re from Wattala. I’m from Colombo. How you doing.
At night the only light is from a gas and oil lamps. We eat a whole roasted parau fish. White flesh flaking off the bone. Our vegetarian keeps telling me this fucked up shit while I’m eating. Like chickens only have one orifice and eggs come out of their butt. He’s appalled as people scramble over the eyeballs.
The civilian part of Trinco town is kinda dirty and small. I dunno. It was raining. There’s intermittent showers and roads between Trinco and Nilaweli. Kovils everywhere, everybody speaking Tamil, not to much to buy or do. Check out Lover’s Leap at Koneswaram Temple. They have a sick drum machine. Literally a drum with some mechanical drumstick attached to it.
Coming home feeling bit sick. Word on the street is that some old lady got copped with a bomb. People just need to chill out long enough to build roads here. The soldiers look like 18. Try to smile at all of them. Get bags opened and searched like three times heading out, last time in Kantale. Tired.
Not a bad holiday. I’d recommend it in better weather. The roads are horrid. Worse than Vavuniya actually. There’s construction between Habarana and Trinco, when it’s done it should be a nice ride. It’s crazy how much the South has developed in comparison. If people could just chill out for a minute there’s so much potential. One lives in hope. Hope you had a good New Year.
June to August are probably the best months to be there… Also you should try going to the Angler’s Club if you can. It is beyond awesome!
Trincomalee is a unique place. I went there a few years back and remember travelling up and down the town and even upto Nilaveli in a tri shaw.. There were 7 of us in one Tri shaw :)
Hills close to the seashore – you won’t get a similar place in SL.
Lover Leap near koneswaram is a unique place too.
One comment: Why doesn’t Desh have any ‘holiday’ or ‘beach’ clothes? This is terrible.
hey indi,
you went to trinco didnt snorkle? aiyo, next time we’ll take you. its an experience in iteself – ofcourse you might need an underwater housing for the camera.
dil
I snorkled man, it was pretty cool. Need to bring some pool shoes though, the coral is really painful.
Actually Pigeon Island pretty much escaped the tsunami. A family that was on the island at the time just noticed several sudden rises in sea level that lasted a few minutes each. More damage was visible in 2004 when there was a sort of mini cyclone. I went snorkeling immediately afterwards and the coral had been smashed to shit and there were dead fish everywhere.
Sorry that would be 2001.
and the spoilsporting group vegetarian says :
Your foot on the coral hurts the coral more than you !
Infact its killed while your shoesoftened skin is just cut…
and bringing pool shoes will increase the distruction of whatever corals there are left around pigeonisland .
Happy Snorkeling
Coral cuts can get real bad infections. I once read a story about a guy having to get his leg amputated because of a little coral cut.
Oh man, i almost drowned off the coast of pigeon island one time (during the CFA); i got caught to a current while snorkeling and just kept going, didnt notice that i was being carried away. Such a gorgeous place though.. even though the dead coral can make a bloody mess of your feet.