Day 27 - Jay and I decided to go to Gampaha today. This city is about 12km from here and is the closest rail link. It has traditionally been larger than Minuwangoda probably because of its start as five villages and the rail station. We took a PickMe tuk-tuk which picked us up at the house and dropped us off in the city center. The roads were pretty clear mid-morning and so it didn't take long.
We walked around for a bit. Of course, everything has grown since we were last there. We spent quite a while in the huge, 5-story department store directly in front of the station. Then, we walked the traditional shopping streets toward the clock tower.
We came back to the station and bought tickets to the next big down called Veyangoda. Both these cities are accessible from Minuwangoda via different highways. Yet, being able to ride the rails is something I always enjoy here.
Some of the equipment and many of the stations date back to the British era with some iron construction techniques that Queen Victoria herself would've recognized. And it all still works, of course with more modern diesel locomotives.
We were only travelling about 20 minutes up the line, so our tickets cost SR 30 which is about CA $0.11 each for the one-way trip.
Jay and I didn't really do much in Veyangoda. We walked to see the differences since the last visit and noticed that there's a flyover and a ring road so all the highway traffic no longer needs to go through the center of town. We bought some Elephant Brand Ginger Beer. I love the real ginger taste, not what we can get at home. In fact, my lips burned a little.
Rather than going home from here we decided to take another train back to Gampaha and have a little lunch.
We were going to eat at the Rest House restaurant but although it still has an online presence, it appeared to have been closed. We went to Perera and Sons which was serving lunch in an upstairs restaurant. This bakery establishment has stores all over the country and has been serving customers since 1902.
We used the PickMe app to hire a tuk-tuk to return home and were back before the heavy afternoon showers.