Woke up early and took the 0605 Train from Colombo to Jaffna. The journey was really really really long. Managed to catch some sleep for the firt 3 hours of the train journey. Thankfully, the weather wasn’t hot so it was a relatively comfortable journey. The scenery along the way was also nice!
Scenery (somewhere along Anuradhapura to Jaffna)
Jaffna Railway Station
Arrived at Jaffna slightly after 3pm and we took a tuktuk to the hostel (Treatooo) for only 150 rupees! Met one of the Pyramid Sales Rep there at the hostel as the GM told him to meet us there to ensure that we arrive safely.
After checking in to the hostel, we walked to the main road (Kandy Road) and took a bus to the bus station. Ate at Malayan Café (took a while to find it because the location on Tripadvisor isn’t very accurate!) for lunch. Didn’t know what to order as they did not have an English menu. Ordered fried string hoppers and steamed string hoppers which came with curry. Had an extra masala aloo (potato) which was really spicy and it’s quite good! The fried string hoppers weren’t that nice though.
Lunch at Malayan Cafe
After lunch, we walked to the Jaffna Fort. The fort was built by the Portuguese and the Dutch expanded it. The Fort area was actually controlled by the LTTE during the civil war.
Wind blowing at full-force
We also explored a few other random sights, such as the Jaffna Library, on the way back to the hostel. Jaffna Library is supposedly one of Asia’s best libraries before it was burnt down by some Sinhala extremists. Haha, I can’t see how this library can be one of the best???