Blogs from Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 4

Today we learnt that our Mr Fixer had not managed to fix us some reserved train tickets to Elle. Mr Fixer is just like the fella in the Grand Marigold Hotel! Instead of the train, he suggested a taxi all the way to Uduwalawale - but the train still could be an option if we wanted to go to the station an hour before the train leaves tomorrow and get unreserved second or third class tickets (gulp). At this point, as you can imagine, I was less than convinced but a) dad needed to be certain that there were no seats left and b) that we could just rock up and get on - so we hopped on a tuktuk and off we went to the station. What d'you know ? No tickets but yes we ... read more

Off on the next leg of our journey, departing Kandy by car with driver to head up another 4000 feet into the tea country. Stopped at a Herb & Spice farm on the way and learned all about most of the common bottles in our cupboard at home. Excellent guided tour but were a little suspicious about the products on sale at the end so bought nothing. Next stop was a tea plantation; by now rain had started so a short tour around the factory, a quickly sample of four different types of tea, bought some leaves to bring home and then on up into the clouds to Nuwara Eliya. Lots of waterfalls on the way suggested that there has been a lot of rain here recently and none too warm either - arrived in 13c ... read more

R: And so we continued onwards up into the mountains of Sri Lanka. We started the day dropping in at Dambulla Golden Temple. This is more a museum of Buddhism, built by the Japanese with giant golden Buddha and even neon signs. It was very, very gaudy, but somehow quite cheerful. I really want to go back to Japan. Being on a tour with a driver this time, we had no real control of our stops so we ended up first at a wood carving place. Initially we were very sceptical of this stop, but it charmed my inner scientist - they make a wood powder from what they described as a Sri Lankan rainbow tree. When added to hot water, this turned red. When they added iron, it turned black, when you added lime juice ... read more

R: I decided to split the last post as it was getting a bit lengthy. After our brief stop for a rest and pool time, during which time I managed to get myself very sunburned indeed, we got dressed again and headed to the Dambulla Cave Temples. As we wound our way through the roads on the way to Dambulla we came across several bullock carts that Ranjan explained were the traditional way of travelling. Though the one we could photograph clearly had tourists in the back, and was creating traffic chaos. On the way, we stopped in at the Dambulla produce market for a wander around. Its the biggest produce market in Sri Lanka due to the area's significance as a growing region, so you can see enormous amounts of root vegetables, bananas, onions, green ... read more

We arrived in Ella! The trip was long and eventful, but we were finally here. We got off the train and joined the long line to leave the platform. This town was popular! Next we jumped in a tuk-tuk and were off to our guesthouse, right through the middle of town. First glimpse, so far, so good! Nice, small town with a bit of a hippy vibe... One street with shops, restaurants and bars, surrounded by dusty roads full of guesthouses. As we got to our guesthouse we were greeted by our hosts. Very nice bunch of people, straight away you could tell that each of them had specific roles to play, dad hardly speaking any English just smiled and made everyone super welcome, mum - obviously the boss, making sure everything was working ... read more