First Train Ride Together

It has been almost 8 years since we first met, and still, there are so many experiences we’re yet to have together for the first time. Just a week ago, we got the chance to fulfill one of those small but special experiences.

Yeah… we had our first train ride together!

Over the years, we never really had the opportunity to travel by train together — not even once. In my case, I’ve barely traveled by train at all, so it was quite a new experience for me.

On this day, we planned to travel to Colombo by train to pick up our car, which we had left for some repairs. There’s a train station very close to where we live, so we decided to catch the train from there at 6:35 AM.

We were a little late, so we had to run along the platform while the train was just about to arrive at the station.

Luckily, the train was almost empty at that time, so we had plenty of seats to choose from. We chose to sit on the seaside. It was a slow train, but I felt like it passed through the main cities surprisingly fast.

We spent the journey talking about trains and train-related things. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed to see how outdated the railway stations and train facilities were.

The ride up to Panadura was really satisfying, as it passed through so many beautiful sceneries. It was quite refreshing to see everything from a different angle — not the usual view I get when I travel by bus.

At Panadura, we transferred to a different train, which was much longer. But the seating arrangement was side-facing, which made it harder to see the view outside the windows.

And because it was crowded, we had to sit separately, so the only thing we could do was flirt with each other from a distance. 😄

From Panadura onwards, my train ride kind of got spoiled. Even though I was still on the seaside, I couldn’t see the ocean anymore. 🥲

I think the journey took about 1 to 2 hours. We got down at Pettah.

I definitely want to take that ride again!