Trinco - To see it, is to love it!

Departure Time:     1000 hours
Departure Venue:   Nugegoda
Travel Mode:         (death) Naval car
Adventurers:           Udeshi and Senal Nugawela, Niroshini and Chinthana Seneviratne & Avanti

It’s amazing how we ended up going on this trip! We were al truly thankful for Udeshi’s academia, as she was able to tutor the Naval commander’s daughter, which in turn enabled us to visit Trinco and stay (for free!) in the Naval headquarters!!

Anyhow, we were not allowed to go without a ‘boy’ (though we three are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves!)… It was only in the last second (the day before we had to leave) that we managed to convince Udeshi’s and Niro’s brothers to join us! And so we took off for Trinco, at around 10am, on the 2^nd of January 2010.

It was an exciting ride, as was the trip! Since we were staying in the naval headquarters, we travelled with a naval officer – in his double cab. One good thing about this was that our vehicle was immune to all speed limits… and our driver took that to heart as he sped at death-defying speed to Trinco! We, quite literally, lost our breathe a few times as we counted many close shaves… But we were asleep for most of them, and so we weren’t too freaked out.

I have no idea how long a normal person would take to travel to Trinco, but I’m quite sure we arrived there in record time – even after stopping for breakfast!

As we arrived there we were shown to our ‘quarters’ for the next two days… It was a ‘house’ of sorts, complete with its own kitchen, dining, living and bedrooms. After settling in and refreshing ourselves with a drink, we decided not to waste any time, and headed out again to a nearby Kovil.

It was all lit up (as night-time was falling), and looked beautiful. We walked around, snapping pics and looking like tourists. We also looked over a small cliff, which looked like the famous ‘Lovers Leap’, but the water looked soo beautiful from up there! (The water in trinco is a clear blue!)

 

Coming back to the quarters, we had noodles and chicken for dinner, and played around and watched some tv, before we headed to bed. (There were two rooms, and ALL the doors were unlockable. But the boys took the room at the back, and made us sleep closer to the door! But we were not afraid :)

Up early the next day, we quickly washed and dressed up, and got ready to go on a naval boat ride around Trinco!

As we made our way to the pier, the ‘naval boys’ were having swimming lessons. We felt totally awkward, as their leader made all of them stand at attention (in swimming trunks!!), as we walked past them!!! But trying very hard not to giggle, we finally made it to the boat, and took off.

I don’t think any naval vehicle travels less than 100kmph!! The boat was sooo fast as well, that we literally felt like our heads would fly off! But that didn’t stop it from being an AMAZING ride. We were shown the different areas which were LTTE-infested, and were not naval land, the various cargo and battle ships of the navy, and many other landmarks…

After about a half an hour ride, we finally came back on land, only to visit the Trinco Naval Museum, which was equally amazing! The museum housed the various artefacts that were retrieved from LTTE-camps, following the Sri Lankan war victory… There were guns, ammunition, battle vehicles, cannons, LTTE jackets and so on and so on. It was amazing to see! And you could only imagine the LTTE cadre who was wearing that jackets when they were taken into custody, and how Prabhakaran himself might have awarded the badges that adorned the jacket.

It was all just amazing to see – live!

Our driver then took us to a beach, as we were dying to step into the pristine waters of Trinco. We immediately dove in… splashing around and snapping pics. The water felt as good as it looked…albeit there being no waves.

After swimming awhile, now starving, we decided to head back to our quarters. We had another amazing meal of rice and fish etc, and rested awhile…

But not wanting to waste time to see Trinco, we took off after awhile, and decided to visit Marble Beach. True to its name, the beach area looked like it was adorned with marbles – rocks glistening in the sunlight. It was amazing!

We walked around the beach (but didn’t swim), and took more pics as we lazed the afternoon away… and came back to our quarters only to be taken on a tour of The Naval House (commander’s house). It was more of a mansion, with the high roof, majestic hallways and lush lawns etc.

We also saw a pic of Mohan mama (he was a former naval commander), with all the others.

Back in our ‘house’, we had string hoppers for dinner and played around awhile, before we headed to bed (only to ‘chat’ for a few more hours there too!).

Early next morning, we were up, and given another small tour of the naval officers ‘hangout house’… complete with its own billiards table, bar and other recreational rooms.

Then, bidding goodbye and a hearty thank-you to all who took us around, we loaded back into the (death) pick-up, and made our way back to Colombo…

[Although we stopped midway at Lasni’s thaththi’s office, had lunch and also met up with Udeshi’s family there.]