"Why do you want to take the train Sir?"

Indeed, why would anyone spend almost five hours going from Point A to Point B when one could make the same distance in three?   The bus from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy is the fastest way and also eliminates the need to travel the 9 klicks from Nuwara Eliya to the station at Nanu Oiya.  

The local local bus from up the hill to down the hill. 22 rupees each.  That's about 16 cents US. 

The answer is simple.  We love the train.  Besides being quaint and romantic, the train lumbers through the countryside away from the roads.  The views from the train are far more scenic and at 25 kilometers an hour, the scenery goes by at a stately pace. 

There are vendors on the trains, with their unintelligible yodeling calls and big baskets of goodies.  One can buy all manner of fruits, peanuts and popcorn. There is a weird sort of cotton candy dyed in vibrant colors and served in a banana leaf cone.  There are all sorts of savory fried treats like Daal Vadai and Samosas which are served in homemade paper bags.  Seriously, you get four savory donuts served in a paper bag made from some kids recycled homework.   

I loved this adjustable wooden timetable. Being in a Sri Lankan train station seems like a journey back into the 1930's.  

Here are two links to videos of traveling by train here in Sri Lanka. 

http://youtu.be/5oxOWfjCuFc

http://youtu.be/LO5KY4ULXjc

So we did the slow route, walked to the bus station, found a cool market along the way, got our local and careened down the hill to the station.  We loaded up on mantioc chips and bananas for snacks and then found our platform for the Kandy train. 

While whiling away the time waiting on the train, we joked with some school kids and listened to some guys drumming. I even sort of rescued a puppy.  The little guy was down on the tracks and trying to jump up onto the platform.  After five or ten minutes of this I couldn't take his plaintive little squeaks anymore, so I walked down the platform to where he was and hopped down.  He was doing the cute puppy wiggle, knowing he now had a pal. I picked him up off the tracks, deposited him on the platform and climbed my own self back up.  The whole scene was observed by about twenty locals.  I got a thumbs up from the drummer and general smiles, but I think they would have left the puppy there.  

The train arrived in due time and we boarded our third class carriage and settled in.  Five hours of scenery, reading and a few nods later found us pulling into Kandy. 

Detrained, we hit the streets to find our guesthouse just as rush hour kicked in and the road fumes were at their worst. The Lonely Planet map was way off on the distance and the walk turned into a sweaty slog.  We finally found St Bridget's Country Guesthouse (yeah, really) and were rewarded with rest and a feast of a dinner. 

This is the way to finish a transit day. Chicken, papadam, wind bean, mango chutney, potato curry, carrot curry, some fresh vege and sautéed eggplant.  And about a kilo of rice.  A post-Thanksgiving feast it were. 

Night had settled deeply over Kandy and ourselves. Tomorrow was to be a walkabout and a visit to the most sacred site in Sri Lanka, but now it was time for sleep.