Amazing Train Journeys
Season 4
Each of the episodes presents one (or several) countries, through a route on the national railway lines. From stage to stage, we discover unusual, archaic or ultramodern trains, country twists or rolling palaces, on tiny or immense routes.
Where to Watch Season 4
6 Episodes
- Sri Lanka
E1Sri LankaBeginning of the journey in Galle (south of SriLanka): a railway station with a timetable display board old of 150 years.Philippe takes the train to Kalutara: in the train Philippe speaks with the passengers about the tsunami of 2004 who threw down the train on this railway line.Then Philippe goes to Ratnapura and in the countryside visits a precious stone mine and sees how the miners are looking for emeralds, rubies or sapphires.Then Philippe takes again the train to Colombo: again a crowded train but the passengers are quiet (it's more pleasant to travel by train than by bus).In Colombo Philippe visits a small shop of medicinal herbs and later takes the train to Paradeniya; Philippe travels in the postal wagon and sees how the mail is prepared for the next stations.Near Paradeniya Philippe goes to Anuradhapura; the lost city and former capital of Sri Lanka: a holy town for the Buddhists; villagers have come with large Buddhist flags (about 300 meters) to wrap up the pagoda.At Mayo Junction Philippe speaks with the station master and then takes a bus-train to Pothuhera (Philippe has lived the same experience in Bolivia going from Sucre to Potosi).In a small a Hinduist ceremony called Cavadee or Cavady: men with hooks in their backs are hanged to banana trunks: they are in trance and show their devotion.Philippe takes later the train from Nanu Oya to Haputale where he will meet Veddas men and women who live in the forest: they go with Philippe to the forest and look for wild honey and later they will have a dinner and a ceremony of communication with theirs ancestors.
