We had heard that up north, we would see Army and Police on every corner and be stopped more times than we could count..
But! We never found that.. In actual fact, in Jaffna particularly, we saw hardly any Army or Police...

And then we took the main road from Jaffna down to Vavuniya and wella! Hello Army and Police checks!!

In the 150km from Jaffna to Vavuniya, we were stopped by 4 Army checkpoints! More than in the entire time so far in SriLanka!! 

And wow, Police! In Vavuniya, in the space of 10 minutes, we were stopped 5 times!!

Sure, one time was because Roh was speeding... but still..

On the road we also saw alot more reminders from the war. A water tower that was knocked over...

And a tribute to a soldier who sacrificed his life to help defeat the "terrorist" Tamil Tigers...

I find it ironic that with every war, the victor is always the hero, and the loser is branded a terrorist... Why can't we just all get along and live in peace?

Leaving Jaffna and heading south we saw that all too familiar post-war-torn reminder...

Landmines would have to be one of the most horrible elements of war.
Even after the war has finished, after people have started to rebuild their lives, after the emotional and physical scars have started to heal and the memories of war are starting to fade, landmines and their dangers live on.. 

As a permanent reminder to those who are trying to live a normal life. That they are not completely safe...
But what are they supposed to do? They still need to live. They still need to farm and work in order to feed their families.. 
There are so many well worn paths among the red danger signs.. It's really scary to contemplate.

Being a parent is scary enough as it is - you are constantly worried about everything your child does. No mum or dad should have to worry about their children's school being surrounded by landmines..

With some other backpackers we met at the guesthouse we piled into Kevin and head north to Point Pedro to see what the rest of Jaffna surrounds had to offer. 
We were excited, shocked and saddened by what we found...

We were excited to see beautiful white sand beaches with not a single other person on them!!

We were shocked to see so much destruction. Mostly from the Tsunami, but alot from the war aswell. Just beautiful buildings in a beautiful part of the world, destroyed and left destroyed. It really makes you wonder what happened to the owners...

And we were saddened to see another visual reminder of the destruction of our oceans, and just how far the hand of greed reaches...

Sustainable fishing on a local level is one thing.. I would never think to deprive a person of their right to fish to feed their families. 
But fishing for sharks and rays (mantaray, eagle ray etc) purely to export to China for their fins is something completely different and sad beyond words..

Does anyone know what this shark is? I know it's a baby but it was red and had really small eyes. I'm thinking deep-sea? Or bottom dwelling?

There is a big difference between hearing about and reading about a war, and actually coming to the area and seeing the scars firsthand. It's so humbling to think that every person here in Jaffna over the age of 5 has seen and lived through the nearly 30 years of fighting that took place here...

Yet the people are so happy and peaceful. Some of the friendliest SriLankans we have met so far actually.
If it wasn't for all of the bullet holes and destroyed buildings, you wouldn't even know.

Even in Jaffna city and the surrounding suburbs there is a bombed out/shot out/ destroyed house or building for every 10 or so inhabited ones. 

But the damage is really visible when you leave the city and head more into the countryside. Especially the islands. For about every 2 destroyed houses, you find 1 rebuilt. There's an overwhelmingly more number of destroyed buildings than inhabited.

And just when the people were starting to rebuild their lives, they were struck down by the boxing day Tsunami! It's not very well known that the north of SriLanka was also devastated but many many people lost their lives and what little they had managed to keep a hold of during the war. 
The ruins around Port Pedro that don't have bullet holes are from Tsunami damage.. 

It's just so sad to see all the damage here. Yet so inspiring to see how full of life the people are. Jaffna is not only a very beautiful place, it's also very humbling.
I truly hope that peace can prevail here for a long time to come.