The Flamingo Dance - on 2025 March 15 @ Mannar

 

As the flock moved away, a few of the males with colorful breeding plumage gathered to the edge of the flock and performed a beautiful ballerina dance. The beauty of it could only be totally perceived alive with the naked eye, allowing background music to play in one’s back of the mind. No photos or even this short video clip of it seem to do any justice to the live experience of that show.

Mannar Trip (2025 March 15) part 1/8 – A General Outline

 Our Mannar trip this year (2025) took place between the 14^th & 16^th March. We reserved tickets for the Fort-Thalleimannar train that leaves Fort at 3.45 pm. Though the train was scheduled to reach Mannar around 10.00 pm, on that Friday the 14^th of March it reached Mannar about one hour later that its scheduled time.  

As agreed, our chauffeur/facilitator for the trip, which we found through the internet and got connected to, Mr. Sarath Kumar had come to the station to pick us up. [Mr. Sarath Kumar: SN Travels, 123, Santhipuram, Mannar – 0742929243]. He took us to the house (advertised as ‘Flamingo Resort’) in which we had reserved four rooms for two nights.

Our main target of the tour was to see Flamingos, which we did at the Vankalai sanctuary. We spotted many more birds, butterflies and dragonflies during our stay in Mannar too. The visit to the Donkey Clinic, the 1^st SL Island of the Adam’s Bridge and seeing the tomb of Adam & Eve were among the highlights of the trip.

Having just a milk in the morning at ‘Thaladi Gimanhala’ near Vankalai, and an ice cream at Donkey clinic, we had to make an effort in finding a suitable place to have lunch in the Pesalai town area. Later we went where there were three resting-huts near the beach to have a nap. Though the surrounding was not very clean with garbage scattered all around the place, we managed to clean the cement benches of the huts and make ourselves comfortable to sleep. In the meanwhile, a few of us also tasted some of the Palmyra toddy we bought from a road-side toddy collecting center on the main road in Pesalai.

We also had a very memorable experience looking for a washroom around Pesalai. Sarath took us to a nearby church as we informed him of our need. There was a bus full of pilgrims who had visited the church and was about to leave it when we got there. So there was quite a queue formed in front of the church’s toilet. The desperation was so much that finally all in the queues settled to disregard the male-female separation and mutually help each other on a priority basis of the need. J.  

Returning back from Thaleimannar that evening, we decided to have some dinner while on the way to the house we stayed at. Our chauffeur Sarath Kumar was a bit worried that we may be too late to find any hotels open at that hour, as Mannar yet seems not to have much of an active nightlife. Our preference was to have a ‘Mannar Style’ dinner, and we were lucky to find the ‘P. Poomathevi Sivaa Brothers Hotel’ (U. C. Canteen, Esplanada road, Mannar – 0774648481) still open.

The cook was already packing his things to leave, but seeing our need he was kind enough to make us some fresh ‘Thosai’, which were so delicious and tasted better than any Thosai we had eaten before in our lives so far. The owner of the hotel who looked like the famous Bollywood star ‘Salaman Khan’ too was very courteous and helpful in fulfilling our needs.

Our train ride back home was scheduled very early the next morning and we thought it would be better to buy some buns for breakfast, so we could eat them in the train. Thus, our next stop was the ‘The Sri Bake House’, on the Hospital road, Mannar (0232-222118). It was an old fashioned bakery from outside, but soon we realized that it has almost all bakery products of very good quality and also at a reasonably low price.

Going back to the house we found two foreigners occupying the front room of the house, which was locked on the previous night when we arrived. The two gentlemen were lecturers of the Amsterdam University and were accompanying a group of students on an inter-university collaborative program. The student accommodation facility they had booked did not have enough room for the two lectures, thus they had opted to take this room so that they could have a bit of privacy as well. Hope we didn’t spoil their freedom much, as we were in a hurry to sleep as soon as possible, in order to wake up at 3.00 am the next morning.

Robin was there to pick us up sharp at 4.00 am, and Sarath had come to the station to bid us good-bye.  If it wasn’t for them, our trip may not have gone as smoothly and well as it did. They were very helpful and cooperative to us especially in filling communication gaps when the language was a barrier for us in communicating with local vendors and community members. Thanking them for their support given to us, we left Mannar in the train that was heading Colombo at around 4.40 am on Sunday, the 16^th March 2025.

Mannar Trip (2025 March 15) part 2/8 – The Flamingo Dance

 We woke up around 4.00 am on the morning of the 15^th March 2025, hoping to leave the house we stayed around 5.00 am. It was Sarath Kumar’s brother ‘Robin’ who picked us up in the morning and took us to the Vankalai Bird Sanctuary area, where our main target of the trip; the Flamingo flock was said to be.

The dawn was yet dark when we reached the edge of the lagoon where the flamingos were roosting. We heard their calls from quite a distance and went forward with caution. Already there were enthusiastic birders lying on the sandy shores – well camouflaged with the surrounding shrub forest, and ready with their camera lenses pointed towards the flock of birds. We too, creeping under the thorny shrubs, joined them in silence and waited for the sun to rise, giving us some light to get better captures.

Unfortunately, not all present there had the same patience and discipline. The flamingos seemed disturbed and irritated by the noises made by some photographers who came late, that they moved further away from the edge of the lagoon.

As the flock moved away, a few of the males with colorful breeding plumage gathered to the edge of the flock and performed a beautiful ballerina dance. The beauty of it could only be totally perceived alive with the naked eye, allowing background music to play in one’s back of the mind. No photos or even a short video clip of it seem to do any justice to the live experience of that show.

While one flock moved from Left to Right of the lagoon, another less colorful flock which was at the further end moved in and merged with them. The meeting of the two groups also was very dramatic, with individuals courting and gesturing to each other of the opposite group in a very special way. A flock that had been far-away too, flew-in and joined this group after a while, which was also another moment that our cameras were unable to capture in total.