All Aboard!

Next sketch from my hols in Sri Lanka! These train tracks were just outside our hotel and passed through the middle of the suburb  were staying in, it was amazing to sit out eating al fresco with the trains full of commuters thundering by, people crammed in and hanging out of the open train doors, like you see in films about India.

To sketch I had to go through the hotel gates and past all the tuk tuk drivers who kept asking me where I was going and did I need a tuk tuk. The look on their faces was priceless when I pointed to this blue bench about 20m across the road! But why they asked. So I unpacked my sketching stuff and started to draw, the trains were passing to the left and on the right (although it looks quiet in the photos) cars, tuk tuks and buses kept zooming past, a totally new take on Urban Sketching. A couple of locals at shops opposite came out and kept asking me why I was drawing train tracks and electricity cables, they laughed when I replied that I thought it was beautiful and offered to take me to places that were much more beautiful. 

The tracks, the trains, the hubbub, the palm trees are all part of my impressions of Sri Lanka and that’s why I sat here for about 11/2 hours sketching in 30C! 

As for the trains, I didn’t just watch them, I went on an adventure with them ….. a day trip to Galle! Here’s the proof, our arrival at Galle Station, 80km from Kalutara. That’s an adventure for another post.