Category: Kandy, Nuwara Eliya & Ella

Yesterday we spent a leisurely morning updating the blog and then headed to the train station to take the scenic 2 1/2-hour ride to Ella. The scenery was breathtaking, with lush forested valleys, mountain-sloped tea plantations and the occasional cascading waterfall.

We had booked the correct seats—”right side is the best side”—on the train, but as luck or something would have it, our train car was the only one with the seats facing to the rear of the train. So our right seats were in fact the left seats, and all the right seats were taken, so we missed a few “cascading waterfalls” pictures, but we were ultimately treated to as good or better views on our side as the train got nearer to Ella.

After checking into our hotel in Ella, we wandered out onto the busy streets teeming with young backpacking travellers and a sprinkle of older adventurers. The main street was lined with restaurants, bars and every type of accommodation. It was a very cool town and we had a very chillin time.

 

We arrived early this afternoon after an amazingly scenic drive from Kandy. The road took us up 1,500 metres into the clouds and mountainous tea country, lush with plantations scattered throughout, waterfalls cascading everywhere and scenery straight out of a fantasy film.

It is a rainy day here and there is not much to see, so we’ll relax and do pretty well nothing. This is just a stopover point for tomorrow, when we’ll catch the 9:30 am train for what is supposed to be an incredible journey through the mountains to the town of Ella.

There was supposed to be a train strike starting at midnight last night, but fortunately it was called off as talks continued with the government and assorted unions, and it looks like the petrol strike has ended, so hopefully the country will get back into some normalcy.

We departed Sigiriya on the 7th for a relatively short but scenic drive. En route to Kandy, we stopped at the Golden Temple of Dambulla, a World Heritage Site and the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka.

The Golden Cave Temple

The traffic in Kandy is worse and more chaotic than Colombo, with narrow roads and steep hills, and is exacerbated by huge long lineups of every vehicle type along the sides of the roads in both directions, in addition to long lines of people with a variety of glass and plastic containers, all waiting to purchase fuel, which was in short supply due to a recent petrol strike.

We checked into a nice hotel with a view of Kandy Lake, which is situated in the city centre, relaxed a bit and then headed out to see a Buddhist ceremony at the Temple of the Tooth. This temple holds a tooth from Buddha and the site is revered by Buddhists from around the world. We watched a drum ceremony and then proceeded to wait in line for the tooth viewing. There were many people here, but the tourists were greatly outnumbered by locals. The temple is only open for about 1 hour. The crowds need to be moved quickly past the tooth viewing window. A bell rings (I think); the gate opens and we proceed to shuffle barefoot towards one of the most revered body parts of Buddha. We quickly get to the viewing area and inside, manned by three men, is a large donation plate, which catches your eyes right away and diverts your attention from the main attraction nestled in a large ornate temple behind the men blocking the view while being continuously shuffled onward. We didn’t see the tooth.

Temple of the Tooth.

The next morning, we spent several hours strolling through the Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, about 5.5 km outside of Kandy. The garden includes more than 4,000 species of plants, including orchids, spices, medicinal plants and palm trees, and is spread out through an area of 147 acres. There is also a large group of flying foxes estimated to number more than 24,000.

Royal Botanic Gardens