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Published: January 19th 2010
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The train to Ella departs Kandy at 8.40am so we arrived at the station about 45minutes early to ensure that we had plenty of time to buy our tickets. However, they only start selling the tickets about 20minutes before the train departs. We assumed this was because they have to wait and see how many seats remain before they reach the station, but when the train arrived it was clear this was not the case! We couldn’t even step into the second class carriage as it was already crammed full of passengers so we fought our way into the restaurant car and grabbed a patch of prime real estate on the floor, surrounded ourselves with bags, made ourselves as comfortable as possible and settled in for the six hour ride.
We were both really looking forward to the train ride from Kandy to Ella as Lonely Planet described it as particularly scenic, and it did not disappoint. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous; tea plantations, forests, jungle and rice paddies. We arrived in Ella six hours later with slightly sore butts but otherwise quite unscathed and relieved that we didn’t have to endure the journey standing up as some other people
had to.
The tuk-tuk driver that took us to Sigiriya recommended our hotel in Ella and described it as having a really good view. That was probably the biggest understatement ever! The small family run hotel, Sita’s Heaven, was about a five minute walk from the town and had panoramic views of the valley between Little Adam’s Peak and Ella Rock. In fact, the view was so spectacular that basically all we did for the next few days was read our books, talk to the lovely hotel owner, talk to our new friends Sarah and Roly and catch up with Emma…all while admiring the view from the comfort of our balcony.
Our laziness was interrupted by the annoying nagging in our stomachs saying that it was time for food, and boy is Ella a wonderful place for food! We ate most meals at our hotel; they were delicious and all cooked by the hotel owners lovely wife. The only meal we didn’t eat at our hotel was our final night. At 5.30 the five of us (Sarah, Roly, Emma and us) headed off to watch our dinner be cooked. We had booked ‘rice and curry’ at Rawana -
the Lonely Planet ‘our pick’. We had a great time watching all of the fresh ingredients being mixed together masterfully and we were all absolutely starving by the time 8.30 came around. It was lucky that we were all so hungry as we were served up a delicious meal of 13 different curries (which were topped up as soon as the bowl was empty), two chutneys, two types of rice, papadams and dessert. This meal was made even better by the excellent company and, in particular, Roly’s drunken humour. It’s a massive call but I think this was the best meal of the entire nine week trip.
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