12.2016 Ella, Sri Lanka
Ella - Sri Lanka's hill country.
When planning for this trip, we had to make a tough call and decide between Ella and Nuwara Eliya. I always get anxiety and FOMO when making these decisions, but Ella did not disappoint.
Ella is a small town located high up in the hills of tea country. It's incredibly picturesque, with many small hikes and viewpoints. Other than the town (which is really just one main road) bursting with tourists, it's mostly a sleepy, quiet place. The great thing about Ella is that all of the hikes are free. Since it is located up in the mountains, it also boasts a cooler climate than other places like Colombo.
After landing in Colombo, we opted for 6.5h in a hired taxi to take us to Ella rather than the 10h+ train ride. We arrived shortly after noon to Pasan Guest House, which is slightly up the mountain. After being greeted by Nimalka and her son, we turned around to this breathtaking view of Ella Rock.
Nimalka equipped us with a map, a list of places to visit, restaurant recommendations, and then we were off.
Our AirBnB was about a 10min slight uphill walk to town. The plan was to have lunch and then visit a tea factory.
Surprisingly, there was a Lavazza coffee shop, so we popped in for an iced coffee which I proceeded to spill all over the floor because I was so sweaty that I was not concentrating. Across the street, we spotted a TripAdvisor favourite, Downtown Rotty Hut, and decided that this would be the place of our first Sri Lankan meal.
We ordered the Sri Lankan rice and curry meal and egg kotthu, with a Lion beer to wash it all down. It was delicious.
During lunch we did a bit more TripAdvisor research, and decided upon a change of plans since I had planned for us to do two hikes the next day (why?). We walked the 2km from town to the entrance for Little Adam's peak, not to be mistaken with Adam's peak which is a completely different location.
The entrance is not marked, but beside a cafe where the road turns sharply. The hike began along the edge of a tea plantation where we saw tea pickers still at work.
Little Adam's Peak is a short (about 45min) and fairly easy hike. There are stairs leading to the peak. What we didn't realize was that Little Adam's Peak actually had 5 peaks. And that Little Adam's Peak has a direct view of Ella Rock. You arrive at peak 2, and only peaks 1 and 3 are visible. Peak 1 is just a hop skip away, but Peak 3 requires a steep decline and incline which I wasn't feeling up to.
Little Adam's Peak reminded us of Ngong Hills, but with a nicer view. We spent a good amount of time admiring the views =)
On our way down, we stopped at NinetyEight Acres Resort for a drink before making our way to Nine Arches bridge, which looked close on the map but was another 3km walk. It took us 20min to realize that Nine Arches was much further than we thought so we ended up turning around back to town.
It was a bit too early for dinner, and we just happened to pass by one of several massage parlours just off the main road. We were intending to get foot massages, somehow got offered a deal for a full body massage, and ended up shrugging our shoulders and thinking "why not?". The answer to that question is that that was the sketchiest massage either of us ever had.
For redemption, we choose to eat at Chill Cafe which had a wait! This was definitely the hipster spot to be. We got seated within 15min at a romantic, corner table and ordered a veggie burger and lumprice along with some delicious cocktails.
As we checked into Nimalka's place, there was a couple leaving and they had recommended getting a guide to Ella Rock because it was not easy to find. Lucky for us, Nimalka's husband acted as our guide, so we were able to leave bright and early at 7am after a delicious breakfast including coconut pancakes.
From Nimalka's place, we walked to the train tracks where we continued on for 2-3km. We turned at the second (not first!) Buddha temple, and stopped by the waterfall to take a few photos. The rest of the hike was through crops, then through the forest up to Ella Rock. It wasn't too difficult, but there is steady, steep uphill for the last 30min.
We arrived faster than expected (less than 2h) and there was a group of young guys taking a few photos. A loud, Canadian (Quebecois) girl arrived shortly after us, and we had enjoyed the view of all of Little Adam's Peaks so we headed back down.
We arrived back at the AirBnB within 3h - yay, so fast! So we took our time, showered, handwashed some clothes, and then set out for Nine Arches Bridge. After, of course, an iced coffee at Lavazza. We took a tuktuk to Nine Arches, and good thing because that place was not close! Even with a tuktuk, we still had about a 15min walk down to the bridge.
Nine Arches was built during the British rule and is an architectural masterpiece still in use today. The money shot is that of a train passing through the tunnel onto Nine Arches bridge. For this, we decided to wait for more than an hour. We took loads of photos, then positioned ourselves slightly on the hill to await the perfect shot, along with tons of others. There was even someone flying a drone.
Almost 30min later (and nearly 2h since we had arrived), someone exclaimed that the train was 2h delayed. Disappointed, we walked down to the tracks to make the 3km walk back to town. On the tracks of course! We quickly realized how central the railway tracks were to Ella - they're not only for the trains, but for people too.
It was way past lunch already, the sun was hot, and I was so hungry. Our 3km walk seemed to drag on and on. About halfway, we saw the train! Not quite the money shot, but still a shot of the train.
Finally, we got to Ella Train Station, hopped onto the platform and sat down at Ella Village Inn to eat. I had the rice and curry meal again, and we also ordered string hoppers.
Due to the overwhelming amount of time spent at Nine Arches, we had to rush to Halpe Tea Estate where the last tour was at 4:00pm.
Although we arrived in time for the last tour, we were told that the factory was no longer in session for the day because of the less than usual amount of tea picked. We still wanted to go on a tour, so an older man escorted us with a no-time-to-waste approach.
He clearly had done this many, many times, and maybe too many times that day already because he was rushing through the factory on a mission. He mentioned that their machines are unique, and much superior to others, especially Kenyan machines, so we smiled and told him we were from Kenya.
From there he opened up a bit, took more time to answer our questions, but he was not going to let us think that Kenyan tea compared to their great productions.
We had visited the tea farm in Kenya, but not the factory, so it was really awesome to learn about the process and we did still get to see the sorting in action. There was so much tea! The big takeaway is that Pekoe is king.
We weren't allowed to take any photos, but the tour guide let us sneak this one in of a huge mound of tea!
After the tea factory, it was again, still too early for dinner. We walked around a shop, and then noticed there was a massage parlour up at the top of the hill - and this one was TripAdvisor recommended. We "checked it out", and again gave in to our desires after first checking this place out. It was definitely a lot more legit than the sketchiest massage ever. We got a 1h foot massage which was great =)
We didn't have enough cash, and went through a whole ordeal to obtain more. By this time, it was late and I was hangry again. We decided to have our last meal in Ella at Downtown Rotty Hut. I got the Coconut Roti with curry, and Ad wanted Egg Kothu. Delicious.
We bought the Sri Lankan equivalent of Magnums, including one for Nimalka's son, and then head back as we had a 6:20am train to catch bright and early.
Because it was high season, we were only able to get Third Class tickets. When the train arrived to the station, it pulled up one track away so we thought it was another train. Until people started jumping onto the tracks. What? And if that wasn't enough, because we didn't get on the train from the platform, we had to climb a 6ft ladder to get onto the train. Very interesting start to the most beautiful train ride in the world.
Third Class wasn't bad at all! For most of the trip, we had 4 seats to ourselves and just watched the beautiful views. There was a family with two young girls (2, and 4) sitting opposite us and we had a nice conversation with them about what it's like to travel with young children. They seemed like a great family and one that we aspire to travel like.
The Ella > Kandy train was, as read about, spectacular =) A great end to Ella.
