Day 32 - The Highway That Wasn't

I am typing this evening from the city of Mannar.  If one looks at a map of Sri Lanka, about 4/5's of the way up the western coast, you will see a spit of land that points towards India, and this city lies on the large island closest to the Sri Lankan coastline.  We're here, in fact, to travel to the end, to a place named Talaimannar.  Ferries used to make scheduled runs to India.  In fact, if you zoom in with Google Earth or Maps, you will be able to see a chain of islands which were probably once part of a land bridge.  Our goal is to hit every possible corner of Sri Lanka, I guess!

Getting here was not a lot of fun.  On all maps Highway A32 is shown running from Jaffna down the northwestern coast.  Well, the whole area was disputed during the civil war.  All that really resulted in was additional suffering for the residents and a total lack of infrastructure maintenance.  Basically the entire road on which we were travelling was under construction.  The road is being completely rebuilt by the Chinese, I think.  I have never spent five hours in such uncomfortable conditions.  I felt bewildered by the jarring bumps, the over packed bus, and the red dust which invaded every crevice.  The promised four hours took five and a quarter.  I was so happy to check into The Holiday Guesthouse and take a shower this afternoon.

Somehow, the sunset from the final bridge over into Mannar helped to erase a lot of the difficulty in getting here. After all, we were doing this for fun; on the other hand, such conditions are a normal part of some of the other passenger's lives.