Cow vs Van

They say the traffic in Asia is crazy, and this probably has something to do with the variety of traffic hazards that one has to negotiate. One such hazard is the humble cow. These creatures happilly wander across the road at their leisure, and usually make a home for themselves on traffic islands and road verges. I'm pretty certain that they are purposefully released by the Colombo council as a cheap way of maintaining the public lawns and keeping grass by the roads at bay.

Recently, we had a close encounter with one of these poor creatures. We were driving back from Kegalle (in between Colombo and Kandy) and we had got to a town on the outskirts of Colombo called Malebe (I always make a joke about the town because it seems to go on forever - it seems an especially long time in the awful Colombo traffic. It has to be the longest suburb in Colombo). Suddenly, Kumudu's Dad slammed on the brakes. We looked up, and in this terrible moment we saw a cow obstructing the road. It was horrifying instant because we realized that there was no way we could stop in time - it was a moment where we realized something would happen, but it wasn't clear what the outcome would be.

Luckilly, Kumudu's Dad had put the brakes on at the right moment because - although we collided with the bovine - we didn't really crash into it. So I suppose we can define it as a run-of-the-mill traffic accident rather than a bonafide crash. There was this thud, and the cow was swept up the front of the van for a moment before being thrown forward. The cow looked shocked for a moment, and then promptly wandered off quite happilly. We quickly beat it, as we knew that the farmer would be pissed and Sri Lanka is the kind of country where the term 'vigilante justice' gets its origins (joking).

Meanwhile, the van seemed to come worse off. the front of it had a huge dent in it, the right lamp was fully broken off, and the fender was dented. Moreover, the windscreen had spider-webbed (this was to grow in the coming days, heh - why get it repaired when we were renting it?). I can safetly say that the vehicle owner was furious. And in spite of the fact that it was 'insured', Kumudu's Dad still had to pay LKR 50,000 (about NZD 500-600). This was mainly because the guy was some kind of dodgy character that shouldn't be crossed (we got the van dirt cheap anyway).

Oh, and the accident wasn't our fault since the cow wandered onto the road from the wrong side (its a miracle the traffic on the other side avoided it). The thing that cracked me up most was how the van was damaged, but not the cow! As I say (rather un-idiomaticaly) me: van-ekak kadila, habe harack kadila-nehe (the van is broken, but the cows not).