Travel Day 1124 – Anuradhapura to Jaffna, SRI LANKA
As I was leaving the Cultural Triangle today while travelling to Jaffna, my wishes came true and there were no more ancient ruins or big dagobas from now on…
Restored Entranceof the Dutch Fort
Well, there were obviously no more dagobas in the north of Sri Lanka as I was leaving the Singhalese Buddhists behind and going to visit the Hindu Tamils. These Tamil people spoke the same language and had a similar culture as the people did in Tamil Nadu in southern India, but they still considered themselves as different. Unfortunately the Tamils from Sri Lanka also considered themselves different from the Sinhalese people and so they had been fighting a bloody civil war for the past 30 years in order to create an independent state…
About four years ago the civil war finally ended with a victory of the Sri Lankan army from the south, leaving the north and especially the area around Jaffna behind as a war ridden battlefield. Until quite recently the road up north, the A9, was still blocked or under re-construction and one needed a special permit to access the area. Now everything was open again and even if I never met any other traveller who made it up to Jaffna, I was still determined to go and have a look what was going on…
Broken Part of the Dutch Fort in Jaffna
From Anuradhapura there were only buses passing through to Jaffna, meaning they were full already and so I decided to rather go to Vavuniya first and then board another bus with an available seat to the very north of Sri Lanka. This worked out pretty well and since it was at least a 5 hour bus ride, having a seat was definitely the preferred way to travel. Also the bus in general was the preferred way to travel since the train line was still completely destroyed from the war. But to my great surprise, along the road, the military check-points still existed…
While the locals were checked inside the bus, I had to leave for an “interview”, fill out some paperwork and show my passport. At some point I thought my bus must be gone with my bag, since the formalities took quite a while, but it waited just for me, the only foreign face on board. Out of all the questions from the military I found the one: “Why do you want to go to Jaffna? There is nothing to see…” the most difficult to answer and on the other hand the most telling…
Sunset over the Dutch Fort in Jaffna
I actually wanted to go just to see it. Jaffna was part of Sri Lanka and in my eyes a very important one and I just wanted to see it. Besides, there was a big colonial fortress that the Dutch had built and as an architect I definitely wanted to see that as well. Luckily I passed all the tests and a few hours later found me in Jaffna which was definitely not a tourist destination. Finding a hotel was easy enough, the ones listed in the book were completely empty and I even got a cheaper price than the guide book suggested. This was literally unheard of since normally prices rise as soon as a hotel name appears in the guide book print…
When I finally set out to see the Dutch Fort, I couldn’t help but think that something felt different about Jaffna. I couldn’t quite pin it down yet, but seeing the majestic looking, pentagon shaped Dutch Fort was definitely a good start to fully arrive in Jaffna. Originally the Portuguese had arrived in 1620 and built a fort, but the Dutch took over in 1655 and built this heavily fortified fortress in 1680. In 1795 the British took finally over and during the civil war the fort became the scene of some fierce fighting, leaving it partially destroyed. I found the Dutch Fort in three stages, one part was nicely restored another part was left alone and broken while the third part was completely destroyed from the war. Walking around the fort was absolutely fascinating as I was able to meet some nice locals and see the sunset over the Jaffna Lagoon. Yeah, there was probably not a whole lot to see in Jaffna, but I liked the vibe already and I was exited to see more of this war scared place tomorrow…
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