Posted on by TimOnTheTrain

Back in Sri Lanka (Now With Added Elephants)

I’m back, and taking the wonderful Tour, Sri Lanka – The Viceroy Special for my friends at the Railway Touring Company. I took this Tour last year and was delighted to take it again. Our own Private Train (Yup – you read that right). Rail is by far the best way to travel around this beautiful island nation – the road network is not extensive and can be a little challenging, The Sri Lankan people are a cheerful, smiling lot, and the hotels are lovely. Just to make you jealous, here’s the view from where I’m sitting typing this up in our hotel. Dirty Job… Someone’s got to do it!

So… I’ll publish Loco photos later on in the Tour, but today was all about elephants, or mostly about elephants. We visited the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, home to 93 elephants. Every day they have breakfast, go for a wander in the river, and for a frolic in the water. Not a bad life really.

Our day started at the lovely Galle Face hotel in Colombo. this splendidly dressed chap is the Doorman.

So here are a few images from the day, with captions.

Every Station in Sri Lanka has at least one Station Dog. They take up residence in the shade and don’t move for anybody! Here’s the main entrance to Kandy station.
For clergy?
Hand painted advertising hording. Does this company even exist anymore? Does anybody care?
Not everything on Sri Lankan railways is as you might expect
The Token Machine in Ranbukkana. A token is a physical item used on single track lines to prevent two trains travelling in opposite directions trying to occupy the same line. This mechanical machine logs the various tokens in and out.

There’s more to come, including train porn – watch this space…

P.S. – Late edit – we made the TV News today in Sri Lanka with our steam departure.

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