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Published: October 28th 2011
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I would like to thanks our friends for the tenths of messages we have received concerning the situation in Bangkok. Little update. We are, as of Friday lunch time, fully on dry ground. I checked around town yesterday afternoon....the closest floods are at least 10km away from us on any direction.
We have limited supplies of bottled water...something like 15 liters, and no more in any shops. I was able to find 3 more litters yesterday walking by a yoga studio...you can smile! But we have all supplies of soda water, fruit juices, carbonated drinks, milk and even wine! For health reasons, the kids have now a mandatory third brushing teeth at lunch time...with all those sodas! Another smile!
There is no issue to find food around our area...maybe not everything, but still a huge choice of great fresh food!
Schools are close till 7th November...so kids are enjoying an extended holidays...and the sky is beautifuly sunny since we came back from Sri Lanka. So the kids are enjoying the pool!!!
We have supplies of BBQ coal for a week if the electricity went off, and one of our bath is filed with clean water for washing
and even cooking...so nor real worries.
The worst may come tomorrow in term of flooding due to high tide. But be advised that a lot of the news coming from local sources are politicaly flavoured for the moment. We do not rule out little changes in the political field in the weeks to come...have to stay tuned on the news...
The most interesting things seems to have to explain to children the situation. Central Bangkok is an oasis, rather an island of peace in the middle of floods. All these while we are enjoying amazing weather.
As we have few entries to come on our amazing trip to Sri Lanka, I will update on the next few days....the worst seems to be coming this Saturday, so if we stay dry through Sunday, everything should be fine for us. Sadly, we cannot say the same for a huge amount of people in Thailand....
Back to Sri Lanka
This entry is a full day on the move. First, we did 6 hours on the train from Kandy to Ella, than a 3 hours drive to cover 100km from Ella to Tissa on the South coast.
The train ride in Central Sri Lanka must be one of the most beautiful train ride in the world. This place is also called the High Hills, and it is the place which put Sri Lanka as the third biggest producer of tea in the world behind India and Kenya.
We first ride a five minute local train from Kandy to Peradeniya Junction. I was warned rightly by the station attendant in Kandy that our train to Ella would arrived from Colombo and 2nd class could be pretty full. So we took the last four tickets in 1st class in the Observatory car. The price in first class seems to be a flat one, whichever distance you do...so we paid the 7usd per ticket, not that bad for a 6 hours ride!
The train ride was amazing. We started at 500 meters...up to nearly 1900 meters. Had we have more time in Sri Lanka, we would have made a stop to visit Nuwara Eliya. The little town is up above 1800m, and is called "Litte England". It has also one of the three golf courses in Sri Lanka. Somehow, I was quite please we didn't do that stop.
Once we reach the railway station of Nanu Oya, 10km out of Nuwara Eliya, the temperature had dropped seriously...and it was raining. We were simply not equipped for below 15 degrees celsius rainy weather...so not a bad choice.
Over ten days, we had rain on most days between 3pm and 6pm, so we ended up getting ready for those and planning accordingly. Today was another of the rainy day, so between Nanu Oya and Haputale, we had a good 40 minutes of heavy rainfalls...and no views!
We reached Ella by 3pm. The little village was surrounded by fog and rain. We are already down to around 1300 meters altitude. The day was not over as the plan was to reach the same day Tissa on the South Coast, back to sea level. Took me a little of negociation before I found a van for the three hours drive.
Not much to write about Ella beside the fact that we believe we had our best meal in Sri Lanka at the Dream Cafe. The kids were on pasta, but for us it was an amazing chicken curry with all the side dishes which were simply fantastic....yammie!
Not
a lot to write on the drive to Tissa. We saw a nice waterfall, but the rain was there, not making it easy for enjoyable sighseeing.
We got to Tissa just before dinner time, but this is next entry, coming very soon...
Enjoy the pictures, that was a train ride!
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