About fresh mountain air, great curries, train ...

About fresh mountain air, great curries, train rides and tea plantations

Friday July 30th 2010
We are in Ella. 130km away from Pottuvil (Arugam Bay). Thursday was spent drinking, eating, sleeping, sun bathing in no particular order. I have a huge cut on my shin from the surfing board which I used as a floating tanning device in the sea. Shows you one should not use a surfing board as a floating tanning device, because a massive wave came, threw me off and the fins of the board cut my shin. My leg is okay, the cut is closed now, it’s just hurting a bit and full of liquid. There not much more to tell about Arugam Bay. Sara and I spend the evening/night with a very nice German guy, sharing his spliffs with us, so when the Danish boys come to pick us up to go out, we want to go, but our stoned bodies won’t let us. We’re in bed by 11pm, the Danish boys depart gutted (according to the owner, they looked gutted). This morning we leave at 10am to go to Ella. We share a van with an Australian couple who are on a 5,5 month honeymoon (!?!?!), an English (very posh) brother and sister and us two. The drive is not long, 3 hrs. We arrive in Ella around 1pm and check into our acco (which we booked yesterday). In the afternoon we secure our places on the 9.45am train to Nuwara Eliya on Monday (1st class, observation carriage) for a mere 750 RPS (3,50 Euros for a 1st class ticket and a 3,5 hr train ride, on supposedly, one of the world’s most scenic rail ways). Ella railway station is a cute old English building, where reservations are still written down in a book. The trains here have an old British system, where each train carries a leather hoop containing a flat metal disc. As soon as the train pulls into a station, the hoop is thrown around the arm of a man waiting, the disc is removed from its hoop and placed in a huge iron machine in the office of the station. The machine looks like it’s still from the 1900’s. It’s huge, iron cast and has handles, bells and meters on it. God knows what for. When the disc is placed, they pull a handle, a bell rings and at the next train station down the line another bell will ring. This all is to secure the line and let the next station know the train has pulled in. Then the disc the previous train left behind and which is currently in the machine, is put in the train leaving, securing the line again. Or something like that… it’s at least, quite interesting and old fashioned, and puts so much nostalgia to the whole train-experience. After making the reservation, we have a snack and go back to our hotel. The air in Ella is cool and fresh as it’s elevated at 1042m. We’re now waiting for it to be 7.30pm, so we can have our rice&curry, with the longest Buddhist prayer call in history in the back ground (it’s been going on for 45 mins. now over the loud speakers across town).

Monday, August 2nd 2010
Saturday Sara goes on a 4 hr hike to Ella Rock with the Aussies, Tom and Ed (another English guy we met in Arugam Bay). I stay behind for a lie-in, some grooming and reading my book. The afternoon is spent with a walk through town, finding accommodation in Nuwara Eliya and Kandy on internet and hanging out and playing cards with the gang. After another great rice&curry we’re in bed early.
Sunday we leave Ella to go to Nuwara Eliya. Nell had to leave on Saturday to go to Colombo to meet her parents, and Tom stayed behind. We invite him to travel to Nuwara Eliya with us. As he’s travelling 2nd class we decided to give up our 1st class tickets and sit with him. I remember the bus ride in Nepal last year, this train ride is just as memorable. It’s amazing. The country side is so unbelievably beautiful. The people on the train, the diesel fumes, the horn, the steady rhythm, it all adds to the experience.
We are picked up by the friendly staff of King’s Fern hostel. The LP describes it as the funkiest place in town and it is. It’s so super cool. The best place we stayed in so far. We have some lunch and take a small tour around the country side and visit a tea plantation and factory. I now finally know how tea grows and is processed; literally something I always wanted to know. Nuwara Eliya is the first place the Brits came to, and tried to plant coffee. As this didn’t work, they switched to tea. The climate is cool (app 2000 m above sea level) and the soil is extremely fertile. EVERYWHERE there’s tea… the plantations are huge. Apart from the plantations, the greater part of all Sri Lanka’s vegetables are grown and exported from here. I’ve seen all the fruits and vegetables in the world now. You can get anything you want, guava, jack fruit, vanilla fruit, mango, etc. etc. It’s amazing. After our tour we go on walk about through town. I love these towns and we are in awe over the stores. We walk into a Blokker/Etos/Hema/Gamma store and have a laugh. The staff shows us everything and Tom buys a coconut grinder. It may come in handy one day, who knows. At night we sit in the lounge with the fire crackling, red wine and good conversation. Tom’s really nice (20 yrs. Student, London Uni) and we share one room (cheaper + hostel full). Today we wake up late, have a late breakfast and find the bus towards Hakgala Gardens (botanical gardens). These are the first gardens which experimented with the cinchona plant, from which the anti malarial drug quinine is extracted. The gardens are beautiful, peaceful and very cool. We wander around for 1,5 and take the bus back to town. This town is full of Saudi’s. They come here to holiday and fleeing from boiling Saudi Arabia where it’s over 50c at the moment. Everywhere we see bhurka’s with sunglasses (?!, you see no skin, none), huge fat man carrying huge camera’s and lots of children. It’s weird seeing these people here, but Nuwara Eliya is a very popular destination. The town itself is quite English actually. It’s been the tea-capital since the beginning and the houses resemble English country homes. The town is cleaner and more relaxed than other places we visited. We really fall in love with Nuwara Eliya, it’s the best place we’ve seen so far (and the cool air helps!).
We have some afternoon tea and booked a table at the super posh Hill Club. Tom has to wear a shirt and tie, which of course he doesn’t have, but will borrow from the club. We have to wear a skirt and shawl. It’s super, super fancy, but set menus are only 17$, I guess we’ll pay a lot more for the wine. But we are very much looking forward to it. Waiters wear gloves, the table cloth is linen and the glasses are crystal. It’s going to be fun.
Sara and I leave Nuwara Eliya tomorrow to go to Kandy, where we’ll probably stay for 3 nights, using it as our base to do some day tours. On the list are the Piniwale Elephant Orphanage, and the ancient cities of Sigiriya and Dambulla. Kandy itself has the famous relic, the tooth of Buddha, and amazing views on forests and lakes. If we have time we will travel all the way up to Anaradhnapura (another ancient city), but we calculated: we either have a day too many or two days too short. As the Sri Lankan say: what to do?