If ever a place was undersold in the guidebooks it's Point Pedro, Sri Lanka's farthest north point on the gorgeous Jaffna Peninsula. Janet found us an Airbnb place here that's part of an economic development scheme called "Nevermore," which markets out of the way lodgings for independent travelers who are not looking for luxe.
But luxe there is here in Point Pedro (the Tamil name is nothing like this strange amalgam of Portuguese and British colonialism ). Luxe alplenty in the light as day comes to an end, the sounds of birds as the day begins, views of the tropical ocean and an ancient quarter just down from the bus stand which is not to be believed. Kovils and ocean breezes abound, quiet lanes and rustling palms.
Point Pedro must have been a sad town, like so many places in Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami, still in the throes of civil war that affected people up here in Jaffna with special severity. But in these first hours here (we have four blessed days ahead of us) we don't see the sadness, or even the destruction. If Sri Lanka is a society in the process of rebuilding then Point Pedro is doubly so. Every kid on a bike reaches out to us with a "hi" or "howyadoin?" We are more than foreigners here. Our rarity only adds to the spectacle.
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