The roads are crazy in Sri Lanka, just like in India. And, the drivers are just as insane; there’s lots of passing on blind corners and dramatic speeding up / slowing down. We took many tight turns over sheer cliff walls where you literally look out the window to your death.
There are troops on every road checking identification. Roads are randomly shut down and we had to take a really obscure route out of Colombo to avoid all the road blocks. I have never experienced anything like this before and found it really fascinating, though locals were annoyed by all the stops. There were stories, at one of these routine check stops soldiers stopped a woman who was suspected as being a Tamil Tiger. They must have been right because she took a cyanide pill while they were interrogating her.
About an hour into the drive I was feeling pretty ill and took a Gravol. Gravol knocks me out and I was comatose most of the drive to Kandy. We did make a bathroom / snack stop outside Kandy. In the hills there are truck stops where the drivers stop to hose down their trucks. It is easy for vehicles to overheat going through the hills. We stopped at one of these truck stops and I remember stumbling around like a drunk much to the amusement of the locals and truck drivers.
