Trip to Kandy - Bradby 2nd Leg

The much awaited post (after my take on the 1st leg) is finally ready for publishing. My apologies for not coming through sooner. This was not due to "Hang Over" problems but being drained out on Sunday, and loaded up with work on Monday. The trip yielded as many up's and down's you'd expected from a proper Roller Coaster ride. (I haven't had the luxury of it yet, but traveling in 120 Route Bus is a close second I believe).

Colombo-Kandy

Traveled in style. Our group/batch had organized a Bus (not just any bus.. one of those Jet Wing Tourist busses. Breakfast was provided on the bus, and lunch was arranged at Devon. Altogether there were 45 of us, from the batch, so got the chance to talk to most of them, and figure out who's doing what and catch up on old times. Basically nothing to complain about, and this part of the journey could be attributed to the "incline" of the Roller Coaster.

The Match

26-5 Trinity. Doesn't that say it all? I'm sure most of you have read the paper review, watched the match on TV or watched it live. So I won’t go into detail. Except the fact that we freaking lost! I mean the Royal Team looked so disorganized. I think the injury of the Center, Senanayake had a big effect in upsetting the team. Basically as predicted the lack of a proper Place Kicker lost us 8 points. 2 Penalties Nikki (Captain of the side, tried he's hand or foot at kicking) screwed up, and a kickable conversion was messed by Hassen him self. Something Jamaldeen should spend some time on.

Everybody looked lazy, or burnt out well before the 2nd half. Forwards didn't secure the ball at rucks or mauls and the line didn't charge the kicks made by the full back. Although the kicks didn't have the power not the height, when going for “up & unders”. Tackles were slow and lacked power. When that "Sean" dude started running it took like 3 guys to bring him down. Not that he's that big, but our guys weren't going low. I attribute the lack of fitness, to the warming up. They warmed up and did their drills for more than Half an Hour I think. Funny part of their drills was that during the tackles, they kept tackling late, which was the same case in the match and in the Pathana match too. Wonder why the Coach hasn't been speaking to the lads about this.

The Trinity side looked far superior and looked with brains on top of their shoulders. Made far lesser mistakes and made good the opportunities they got. The working of the line was pretty good, with the wingers cutting in, unlike our chaps who were caught thinking and getting tackled in the process, lack of forwards to support and eventually turning the good ball over.

Clearly this part can be attributed to the "down" side of the ride.

For those Automobile fans : A Ducati, Black Hummer and an RX8 were among the Vehicles that caught my eye.


Here are some reviews :
• Shanaka (You need to organize that site mate, or start you blog mate)
• Sunday Observer
• The Nation

And the much awaited 2nd Leg Video off MTV/Sirasa TV (as I mentioned in my earlier post, download this fast, as they might take it off soon)

• First Half
• Second Half

( Best Viewed on 360 X 288 Pixels Resolution Screen Size, To enhance Picture Quality Connect Your PC's VGA LINE OUT to your TELEVISION LINE IN )

Grounds-Bungalow

After being heart broken during the match, the consolation was some sort of a fireworks display. 100 bucks seemed ok, considering the fire works. Anyway, the deal was I come to Kandy with one set, and stay the night with another set, thereby getting to spend time with more buggers, and in the end have more fun. Well the start to that wasn’t' that great. Why? The Van that they came had broken down on the way, so it was in the garage.

That meant we had to walk from the Grounds to Cargills, to stock up on essential items. Funny thing was, there were only few people that we didn’t know, each person I bumped into at Cargills was from Colombo, like the entire place was filled with them. Wonder whether it's the same feeling people get when they go to places like Melbourne?

After filling up on stocks, decided to grab dinner from the next door KFC, as the lunch at the Bungalow ended up being too authentic (looking at the card they gave us, it doesn’t say anything of Authentic Chinese, only Traditional Sri Lankan & Western Cuisine) for the liking of my friends. After that it was a bloody long walk, in the night back to the bungalow, with stocks in hand, and my heavy bag. Walking around the Nuwera Weva, in some what darkness and the incline and decline of the hills, could be definitely attributed to more downward slopes in the Roller Coaster ride. To add to it, once you get there you realize that the Mobile Signal of all three operators, is only available in the garden at one particular spot. :) Need I say more?


The Night

Hmm, since we did not have transport to check out any night spot in Kandy, we decided to stay in and get high. It was fun, watching each other getting high on their own potent nectars, from Martini (Yes, one dude drank a whole bottle of it, don’t ask why?) to Smirnoff to White Rum and a bit of left over OR. As is always the case we found the shandy running out, why because some dude bought like 7 bottles of Coke at Cargills, and finished their stock. I'm pretty sure we sang the chorus's of pretty much every song we could think of from English to Sinhala, with the accompaniment of one of our chappies strumming away at a guitar till he's fingers were numb. This point of the trip can be attributed to the highest point of the ride. Felt we were closer to heaven at that moment (no no, I wasn't that high, and didn't get myself blind drunk). It was called a night around 3am, although many of the souls were knocked out before that.


The Morning

I woke up around 6am. No hang-overs as I was well within the limit. One of our buddies who was called upon for some emergency “rolling” had to leave early, to catch up with his set. After saying bye to him, I got out my IPOD, looked around at the rest of the buggers fast asleep. The dude at the Bungalow was cleaning up and asked me how the night was. I told him it was good, and asked him whether we kept him up with all that singing. He just smiled. Offered me a cup of tea and started chatting, asking me what I do for a living where I am from etc. He then got on to say how there were lots of people from Colombo in the City last evening, and lot of nice girls and how he could tell they were from Colombo. So I asked him How? He was telling me by the way they dressed. Supposedly Kandy is more conservative, girls don’t dress in tight/mini skirts to go to Town. Only when they go Clubbing or similar sort of places. The disadvantages of a small town, is everybody knows everybody and rumors spread fast if you wear something short, or do something not so conservative. :)

After that, I strolled down the road for a morning walk. Funny thing was people kept staring at me, that is when I realized I was still wearing my skinny and shorts. I don’t think many people in Kandy are use to seeing a Hairy bugger walking in the morning with an IPOD. I ended up near the Nuwara Weva (Kandy Lake), and was chilling on a bench, my god the atmosphere was so serene, no hustle an bustle of the City, (maybe coz it was a Sunday) little kids dressed in white going to Sunday School. I decided I need to live in Kandy. Soon a "Bulath" (Beatle) selling dude pushed his cart and started selling. He seemed to be a regular coz all the people passing by smiled and said "Good Morning" and gave me a weird look. I came to the bungalow a good one an half hours later to find about half of the group awake and chatting about the previous night, while one by one the others got up, some complaining about Hang-Overs and others still High.

This part was the lateral movement from the previous highs reached on the Roller Coaster.

Kandy-Colombo

Just before we left, we got the bill. Realized that the bed tea, served on a table cost 30 bucks each, the string hoppers, pol (coconut) sambol, potato and fish curry cost each person 250 bucks. Need I say more?

The van was fixed, in the sense the alternator had got fried. So the driver had charged the battery over night at some other joint, and hooked it up, disconnected the everything that could kill the battery (Brake Lights) and we drove off to Colombo without A/C as well. Did I mention that I got stuck on a jumper seat from Kandy to Colombo? Oh yes, my butt didn’t find that too entertaining specially a big bugger like me self. The repercussions of that ride were felt all through out the next day I tell you. So you would guess that coming back was a bit of a Low.


There, that’s the end to the Roller Coaster Weekend I had. Hope you enjoyed reading it.