My cousin, on the beach
The best part of Trinco is the Navy Dockyards, available only to the military. My uncle served so we were able to go with him. Trinco is the fifth largest natural harbor in the world, but almost completely ‘undeveloped’. It’s deep enough that you can sail container ships in there, but the beaches are also great for swimming. It was a site the LTTE wanted for their capital, and thank God it’s secure.
Military Side
The Trinco available to civilians actually sucks. There’s the public sea front, you can eat a bunch of sea creatures at Green Park, climb Koneshwaram Temple (which is cool). After that you might as well head to Nilaveli, cause that’s about it. If you continue through the Navy checkpoint, however, it’s another world.
This BFG is actually from British times and never, I think, fired in anger. Modern defences are more subtle
The Dockyards is a place of training as well as leisure for the Navy. Trinco is a strategically important port once desired by the LTTE, so the place was once on high alert preventing their divers and suicide missions from blowing things up and killing people. The Navy still patrols the seas, securing the eastern coast.
Sailor retrieving a fallen hat
Aside from it’s strategic importance, however, the place is just beautiful. For one, it is incredibly green and untouched. It is also impeccably maintained, like most military bases. The Navy House is shaped like a ship and looks out onto the harbor. From Pepperpot Jetty you can take a boat around the place, see the beached Dvoras docked at Sober Island and get close to the Prima factory.
View from inside a bunker
For all the scenic beauty, the place is still a military base. It’s been attacked by the LTTE and the LTTE also carried out numerous terrorist attacks in the city and district, everything from bus bombs to hacking innocent villagers with machetes. The Navy was on constant pins guarding against suicide attacks. The Naval museum has captured suicide vests, claymore, guns and a small one person suicide craft. It’s basically a torpedo with a quiet 2 horsepower engine and handles for a diver to guide it. Guys were psycho and I’m thankful every day the LTTE is done.
The Beaches
That means one can go to the beach. Of course, the place is still an active military base, so you have to go with military. Coral Cove, pictured here, is actually just before the firing range. When firing is on they actually fire directly across the road, so it’s not exactly a tourist spot. We heard some gunfire, but not coming at us. I think.
Coral Cove is so named because the beach is not so much sand as dusted coral. The sea is a bit rough this season and gets deep fast, but it’s quite nice. This is only one of many great beaches in the dockyards, from Green Bay to Sober Island (I hear).
Coral Bay panorama. View larger.
Right now this paradise is only available to military. I was only able to go because my uncle served and was stationed there. Which seemed like a remarkable life. They showed me the cottage where he and my aunt stayed, it has a stunning view of the harbor and there’s every facility inside. My aunt said it’s her favorite part of Sri Lanka. I love it too, but I only get to go with them. I hope they open up bits to the public some day, because it is the real Trincomalee.
View full photo set (also available as slideshow).
The last time I went, I stayed at the 22 Div Army camp, and every night, throughout the night, we heard the sound of explosions….
Apparently the Navy would drop some strange explosive devices into the harbour, that would, upon contact with water, give out a sub-sonic wave that bursts human ear drums…. They’d do it to prevent LTTE scuba terrorists.
And every morning the Navy would have enough fish supplied, because hundreds of fish would turn up dead on the shore.
Glad that time is over…
Mate, have you every noticed, looking out at the bay from Welcome Hotel, that the partial-hills jutting out round the bay look just like S’Fransisco from afar?…. potential for expensive holiday homes to be built on those hills…all with a fantastic view of the bay….
I don’t know San Francisco, but the entire bay in undeveloped. There is so much waterfront property, and most of the houses (in the dockyards at least) are still from colonial times. Development could mess everything up, but if they do it right it could be amazing. When I go there I see, like, Singapore, except almost entirely untouched.
Lovely. Thanks for sharing.
I love your picture of Coral Cove! wow! :O
True, Indi ….. or Hong Kong even…. Trinco Harbour Victoria Harbour ….
How sad, the below comment by Anush.
“Mate, have you every noticed, looking out at the bay from Welcome Hotel, that the partial-hills jutting out round the bay look just like S’Fransisco from afar?…. potential for expensive holiday homes to be built on those hills…all with a fantastic view of the bay….”
Is this what you think about? All for your own selfish consumerism? well, not surprising for a person who stayed at the Div 22 Arymy Camp? or is it Terrorist Camp?
What about the people of the area and their livelihoods, their futures. You didn’t think of that, did you. But you thought about expensive hotels and views. This is what you folks are about? selfish racists???
1.What about the Terrorist activities of the Navy, Army and Airforce in Trincomalee???
2.You talk about civilians being hacked to death by LTTE, true I agree, but part of the problem was the state moving in sinhalese to colonise the area, which resulted in reprisal attacks to chase away the colonisers.
3.What about the hacking and raping of tamils by the Navy???
4.What about the killing of Tamils by Navy in Kumarapuram???
5.What about the killing and burning of tamils in the riots of 2006 in Trincomalee???
6.What about the looting of Tamil homes in Sampur by Sinhalese assisted by the Army???
7.What about the restrictions on fishing to Tamil fishermen, while sinhalese fishermen are not constrained???
8. What about the destruction and replacing of a Hindu temple by a Buddhist Temple in ilankaithurai(south Trinco dist)???
9. What about equality and dignity for ALL people of this land???
10.Are you a poster boy for the great cover-up of sinhala terrrorism and chauvinism?
Mate, you need to go and have a lie down. Tamil nationalist bullshit never got the Tamil people anywhere.
He does have a point though, regarding Indi’a selective memory who’s responsible for violent atrocities in Trinco.
And is pointing out violence and discrimination that Tamils face akin to spouting ‘Tamil nationalist bullshit’? If that’s the case, talking about about the bad things the LTTE did should maybe be classified as ‘Sinhalese nationalist bullshit’.
There is no equivalence between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. They were straight-up terrorist sociopaths. I think that point has been effectively settled.
There is discrimination against Tamils, but it’s not the hyperbole that this commenter sites. There is no organized terrorism by the armed forces, migration within Sri Lanka doesn’t in anyway justify having your family macheted, there is no policy of ‘hacking and raping’ by the Navy, etc. There are real concerns, but it’s not a case of Tamils vs the evil armed forces.
The place is now secure. That’s good for everybody, though there’s still a lot of work to do.
Yeah it’s nothing but Tamil nationalist bullshit. Kinda like screaming and carrying on about a Buddha statue in Trincomalee, and having Pongu Tamil jamborees – what the fu*k did that achieve for Tamil rights? I mean really? Same story with Myil Selvan. Now tell me, what does Tamil nationalist bullshit have to do with this post of Indi’s?
I stand for the -whole truth. No matter what anybody says I have to stand up and try to bring out the whole truth. Even if people call it Tamil Nationalist bs (I try not to use bad language, hence abbreviated).
Just because I brought the Tamil side of grievances that does not mean it’s tamil nationlist bs, but you are entitled to your interpretation/opinion. Like I said in my previous post, I agree that the LTTE have committed atrocities. Unfortunately LTTE atrocities are brought up mainly by the sinhalese, while they are silent when it comes to the armed forces. This that fair? I’d like to balance the scale.
Whimsical comments, “Kinda like screaming and carrying on about a Buddha statue in Trincomalee, and having Pongu Tamil jamborees – what the fu*k did that achieve for Tamil rights? I mean really?
Well my answer to whimsical is: first we started by taking up discrimination by talking then screaming and protesting peacefully and what did that get us? Terror thru Riots! Tamils’ lives and property were burnt and hacked to death. There was a small riot in 1956 then a bigger riot in 1958, then smaller riots from time to time until 1983 riots, then again in 2006 riots, which happened in trincomalee, where the armed forces looked on and did nothing and the media did not report it. Let’s also not forget the 1915 riots against muslims by the buddhists.
So when we wanted to talk things over, why did the sinhalese leaders not listen???
The demands were reasonable at that time, but the response was terror by the state and sinhalese state sponsored goons.
So you tell me where and how do we begin the process of achieving our reasonable demands???
As the nonviolent protests were not having an impact the militant struggle became more and more the way to go. Unfortunately the sinhalese didn’t undertstand nonviolent protests but rather the bullet. That created the LTTE and other militant groups.
Whimsical asks, what does Tamil Nationalist bs have to do with this post of indi’s? Well, why don’t you tell me?
As for my comment to Indi’s post; it is that, it comes from a sinhalese perspective. While this is ok to a certain extent, I will always try to fill the gaps so that the ‘whole truth comes out’. One must not paint a rosy picture where there is still a lot to do. I have heard this kind of talk mainly from the Sinhalese, saying everthing is good because the govt has secured it. It may be good for the sinhalese but not for all (I am not trying to stereotype here).
I shall respond to indi’s post in a separate post. Thanks for the response, it was good to engage. Try to leave out the expletives, that would make it more meaningful.
Thank you Ash for your thoughtful comment. Thanks for trying to balance the scale. We need more of that, especially at this time of opening of political space!
My response to indi’s comments.
I have broken down indi’s comments and given responses. (Indi’s comment and my response to that specific comment have the same number to make it easy to follow).
1.Indi says, “There is no equivalence between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. They were straight-up terrorist sociopaths. I think that point has been effectively settled”.
1.Well, has it been settled? And who did the settling?
It was state terror that started all this mess. Just because the vast majority of reporting doesn’t mention ‘state terror’ that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, does it? We live in a world that is run by ‘nation-states’, in such an environment one is not likely to hear talk of state-terror. The UN, a club of nation-states, wouldn’t come up with a straight forward attack on a nation-state. But if it is a non-state actor it is easier to attack them for terrorism. That’s the sad reality we live in. My comment would be SL govt is terrorist and so is the LTTE. They are two sides of the same terrorist coin!
2.Indi says,”There is discrimination against Tamils, but it’s not the hyperbole that this commenter sites”.
2.Thank you for accepting that there is discrimination against Tamils. Is it really Hyperbole? You may have to do some digging to realize that what I have said is not hyperbole.
3.”There is no organized terrorism by the armed forces,”
3. Are you serious? Trinco is a heavily fortified city, especially during 2006, with a soldier standing every 10 meters. And yet they did nothing when the sinhalese rioted in 2006, around april after a bomb in a market.
4.”migration within Sri Lanka doesn’t in anyway justify having your family macheted, there is no policy of ‘hacking and raping’ by the Navy, etc. There are real concerns, but it’s not a case of Tamils vs the evil armed forces.
4. Not justifying any killing, only trying to bring out the whole truth. The armed forces massacred Tamils and displaced them in order to replace them with Sinhalese. It is not just a case of migration. It was state sponsored colonization to dilute Tamil majority in Eastern province. Tamils were massacred and chased out and replaced with sinhalese ex-convicts and fisher families. Place names were replaced with sinhala names, for example: Manal aru became Weli Oya, Mudathikulam became Morawewa, etc, etc. Kantalai previously was manily Muslim now it is mainly Sinhalese. These events would have likely driven some to join the LTTE and other militant groups that sought revenge through reprisal attacks.
Type Koneshwary in google, and let me know what you find? It is the tragedy of rape of a Tamil woman, who was killed by having a grenade shoved into her vagina and exploded! That is the disgrace the SL(police) armed forces are. This is just one case.
You must be really naive to say that “there is no policy of hacking and raping by the Navy”. Ignorance can be bliss. Read the University Teachers for Human Rights’ (UTHR) reports on http://www.uthr.org this should help you to even the scales.
5.Indi says, “The place is now secure. That’s good for everybody, though there’s still a lot of work to do”.
5.Or do you mean that’s good for the sinhalese?? Well it definitely seems businesses are taking notice, not for peace but for profit. Mr. Sampanthan, mentioned in parliament about state land being illegally procured by members of the majority in Trinco. Why is the GA of Trinco a former Maj.Gen? Why is the Governor of Eastern province a former Navy vice admiral? Because these guys a sinhala chauvinists who will favour the majority community in a place like Trinco, which is on the border of the Northern province.
While I don’t want to stereotype anyone, these are some of the facts that have set off a whole load of consequences, one of them being the creation of the LTTE. If the GoSL is genuine about peace then they must address these concerns and compensate the minorities who have lost and at the same time also do the same with the majority. People of Morawewa once told a UN team that visited that ‘they don’t want to be in this place and that they wanted to go back to their own villages”. The GoSL was using them as bait by moving them into previously Tamil areas and putting their lives at risk. Is this the way to create peace and harmony?
Thanks for the response. Enjoyed the engagement.
For what I understand about the Buddha Statue thing, it was an attempt to resist Sinhalese-Buddhist chauvanism, rather than as an assertion of Tamil nationalism. Personally, I don’t care for nationalism at all, whether it be Tamil, Sinhalese, or Sri Lankan. Indi’s post offended me due to his denial of military complicity in terrorism. It has nothing to do with nationalism.
Yeah bombing people left and right and running around screaming Tamil Power “was an attempt to resist Sinhalese-Buddhist chauvanism[sic]”… Is that what you Pongu Tamil folks keep telling yourselves? Get a grip, for heaven’s sake. I think if anything needs resisting it’s Tamil fascism, and I think Sri Lanka has done a pretty damn good job of that recently – the leader of vile Tamil extremism just got his ass handed to himself, and the Tamil ethnofascists aren’t happy at all. In case you haven’t heard another Tamil nationalist twat was deported from Canada yesterday; he was busy trying to tell Tamil folks to wipe out all the Sinhalese and Canada didn’t like that. You and Myil are nothing but trolls, and you deserve trollish replies.
*yawn*
Prabhakaran is dead as a dodo.
Get over it, or else sob in the corner with your Tamil nationalist brothers and sisters while the world moves on.
May 19 – the day Sri Lanka slapped Tamil nationalism silly. Woot!
I’m not the one with the name ‘whimsical’. Your writing shows your true colours, an empty vessel making big noise. Its unfortunate that a loud mouthed hypocrite like you couldn’t answer to the questions I put forth. People like you don’t really care for anything and nor do you stand for anything. I’d like to see some answers based on facts, not silly childish screeching and screaming.
take it easy,
hey dnt talk fucking bullshit about the the srilanks military personel u blady fuckers dnt no what to talk at what time
any way i love the coral cove and i have been there.love it cnt express the way i feel. thanks for the picture who has taged it