Trincomalee to Negomba- local bus!

We checked out of Anilana after an early breakfast and our fave tuk tuk driver dropped us off at Trinco bus station. Despite there being no available timetables it appeared we had just missed an express bus to Colombo and so now the only options were take a government bus or wait 90 mins.
Government bus it was..... which we nearly Instantly regretted as 30 mins later we weren’t even out of Trinco- Colombo being at least 6.5 hrs away by the express bus.
Anyway we sat back, grateful we had a seat (albeit pretty tight) and hoped that not many more people would get on as some were already standing.
20 mins later the man across the aisle had a seizure!! The local passengers were amazing even though they didn’t appear to know the man. They surrounded him, kept him safe, held his head and calmly rode out the seizure with him keeping him safe until he came around which he did. A woman started flicking water at his face so I quickly passed her a tea tree wet wipe to wipe his face in a gentler manner!!
15 mins fully recovered he got off at his stop with his bag And that was that.
The bus seemed to stop every 5 mins, boarding more and more people- many now with sopping umbrellas or soaking wet as it was totally throwing it down.
We discovered it was totally acceptable for a standing passenger to rest their bags on the laps of those sitting- first on the lap of an elderly man in front of me and then a wet bag landed on my lap!!! Oh the joys of public transport as we were jammed in.
By now 3 hours into the 6-7hr journey we decided to take a v sensible and time saving option- instead of travelling all the way to Colombo and the have to travel back up to Negombo we decided to get off at a junction town called Kurunegala and get a taxi to the hotel!! Suddenly K perked up!!
Getting off the bus with our bags in the allowed 15 seconds was a challenge but once out on the side of the road we breathed a sigh of relief.
The PickMe app provided us with a cheap car for the remaining 1.5 hours to Negombo- beats 3-4 hours more on the buses to Negombo.
We arrived at the Ruvisha Beach Hotel at 4pm both dehydrated and needing a bathroom as we had both been too scared to drink on the bus due to the lack of comfort stops (aka none!)
The hotel really wasn’t as advertised on booking.com but it’s clean and adequate despite the swimming pool being in the car park on the main road! The sea view is a glimpse but the beach is across the road- now just need it to stop raining. Last full day in Sri Lanka tmrw but nothing exciting planned- no public transport anyway!!Read more