Saturday 31st August 2019

We have experienced how busy the traffic in Colombo could be, travelling either by taxi or tuk tuk. We were strongly advised against travelling by public buses – and now we might consider private coaches, too!

For the painting trip on Saturday to Weluaumanapuru, which was about three and a half hours’ journey from Colombo, we traveled by “luxury bus” for 33 people.  Well, as Misa described it: it was a safety hazard all the way. I didn’t think we would make it home.

The driver, a young man, 25-30 years old, radio on at 4.30am with loud Bollywood music, all the time notifications on his mobile phone receiving messages, SMS, WhatsApp (on loud setting), no hands free and him periodically receiving phone calls while driving, using his horn in a way ”I am coming, do not pull in front of me on the short stretch of motorway or “move now, I am passing you” on a single road, using his big bus to show his power and superiority with the other road users (mainly small cars, tuk tuks, motorbikes and push bikes scattering out of his way). Misa was scared!

On the way home coming in the dark, it was even worse.

We are driving along, small minibus behind our bus, just few minutes after a collective stop at a family restaurant for a nice simple noodle dinner, and on the dashboard a large STOP sign appears with a flashing lights and noise, in green letters “pressure”. He ignored it. Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep……………. Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep………. Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep……for miles……..and suddenly the bus starts slowing down. I thought he is slowing down to show us elephants who sometimes roam on the road, well, no, the bus stopped on its own, the driver having run out of gears to change down.  Steve explained that the problem was a lack of vacuum to keep the brakes off as on public service vehicles they are designed to fail “on” – so eventually the brakes overcame the ability of the engine to keep driving.  The driver kept stopping and starting the engine, then revving it hard, but to no avail.  Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep.  We are in the middle of nowhere. The driver of the minibus from our group came to have a chat with our driver.  It is about 9pm by now. He kept trying and suddenly, the STOP sign went out and off went – but a few minutes later, buzz buzz buzz, beep beep started again.  Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep……………. Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep………. Buzz buzz buzz, beep beep…………..for over 2 hours, we heard it over 4000 times (Steve calculated it) as we sat at the front and the noise was highly irritating trying to relax while feeling hot, bothered, filthy and tired.  I was anticipating the bus to stop at any point and thinking we will not be in our beds tonight!

We were doing 60 MPH on the motorway just before Colombo when suddenly BANG and a strange whooshing noise comes our way – the front door sprang wide open and stayed open, slowly closing over several minutes. Steve thinks it also needs vacuum to work. The driver somehow ignored the dashboard warning sign all the way, whilst being extremely impatient with other road users and frequently using his extremely loud two-tone klaxon that made us jump every time. Add the incessant buzz buzz buzz, beep beep and warning sign STOP, and concern for the unexpected given breakneck speed, at night, with cyclists, pedestrians and animals roaming freely in the dark, we had the journey from hell. I am not surprised travelling by bus is not recommended! And this was supposed to be a luxury travel!