Where I'm from 2: Visiting Jaffna

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Sri Lanka five times, but I’ve only been to Jaffna twice, due to the ongoing civil war. Once in 2000 and again in 2004. Despite the fact I was there last year, no such luck, the main road to Jaffna, the A9 was shut. The ‘technical difficulties’ of a ceasefire.

I remember my first sight of Jaffna in July 2000. I woke up and looked out from the deck Red Cross sponsored ship at that time the only way to get to Jaffna unless you were part of the military. I was looking at Point Pedro. I snuck some carefully hidden batteries into my camera and took a few snaps before the army came on board. Being an NGO ship we were free from martial regulations. The day before the army searchers in Trincomolee (were our shipped had disembarked) nicked my batteries as well as exposing my film. Bastards!

We were processed and shuffled through before given a jolting ride into Jaffna Town. I didn’t know exactly where I was going, there weren’t exactly maps available to the casual traveller, no guidebook researcher had been there for nearly twenty years. All I had was the address of my Aunts and a pocket of cash. It had taken me nearly two weeks to arrange the paperwork to come here. I was lucky. I had been given preferential treatment because I was a foreigner. Even today, I cannot believe that I actually got that permit. The balls of youth, where did they go?



Off the bus and down Hospital Road, my first taste of Jaffna Town. I walked past the surprised army checkpoints and wandered on the potholed roads, watching old Asutins and Morris’ puttering down Jaffna’s main drag. I knew that one of my Aunts lived nearby, but where? I asked a few people and they kept pointing me. I think they were bemused at the sight of this lanky tourist trying to find a small side street. Here, there. Eventually I came outside a house. Hello...and the rest is history.

2004 was a completely different affair. We were enjoying the fruits of a long ceasefire (by Sri Lankan standards) and many more tourists had braved the road since I had first went. While I was dusty and confused the first time, this time I recognised the exact place and managed to get the driver to halt right outsider the road I wanted No more curfew and so I was also free to see the city at night. Not exactly bustling but always pretty. I was also able to see some of the outer islands, another attraction of the Jaffna Peninsula and spooky in some ways. Like walking through a ghost world, but well worth it.




Visiting Jaffna has always been twinged with a stroke of sadness. My father passed away before he was able to take any of us there. So as I visited the city for the first time, it was not only emotional because of the grief it took to reach it, but also due to a lot of personal grief that I was feeling. Also seeing a city such as that in ruins. Grand art deco styled mansions everywhere, now with outgrown palmyras, shelled out buildings and everywhere the sense of emptiness. A mere shell of a city. Jaffna is (unsurprisingly) a risky business. While wandering in a patch of overgrowth, I suddenly spotted a sign telling me of the land mines. If it is not tarmaced, don’t walk off the path. Also, being shelled or blitzed isn’t the nicest experience, and I was one of the lucky ones. I was able to get out.

I will return to Jaffna. One day. And live there? Maybe, depends...



Getting there: ‘Don’t’ is the simple answer to this. But for those feeling a bit risky, even in these times there are actually flights from Colombo (technically there is still a ceasefire) and a ship from Tincomolee. Take plenty of patience, a foreign (ie: not Sri Lankan) passport can help speed any beauracratic processes and loadsacash. Plastic is useless that far north and you could be stuck there a very long time.