Day 3 My Little Island Travels - Ella

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In spite of going to bed at 4am in the morning after finishing and uploading blogs and pictures, I was up by 540am. The birds were chattering and in general there was a bit of noise. I am so obsessed with the views from the Ella gap I quickly ran out at 6am to take pictures from the restaurant areas.

Afterwards some dude came and knocked on my door and said “Brother would you mind moving your vehicle, as I need to drop some people in the Ella railway station and their train is at 630am”. What can I say.....

Sky Green Hotel parking is a little awkward. There are 4 parking slots and it’s two in the front and two at the back. So when the guy in the front needs to move the guy at the back also has to move ;-) After allowing this guy to move I parked behind Udesh’s car so as not to be disturbed again.

Another thing to note about Sky Green entrance is to get to this place you got to do a small climb. So people are afraid to reverse especially with a light load as the wheels would spin.

Thirty minutes later, another person knocks on my door saying, my vehicle is too light to reverse down the hill would you mind moving your vehicle so that I can do a 3 point turn and turn my vehicle to go forward down the hill. I was like, OK let’s move...the only good thing in this occasion is I managed to have a long chat with driver who was working for a tour operator and found out how to hire a vehicle and costs etc. So they charge between LKR 35-45 per km; apparently the hotel provides them with accommodation and food.

After he left I went back to my room and tried to rest as I haven’t had much sleep and surprise surprise guess what happened next...a third person knocked on my room and said I need to turn my vehicle do you mind moving your double cab. These guys were really testing my patience; it’s a good thing I have a lot of it.

By this time now Udesh and Ranjiva had woken up and Ranjiva was organising a guide to take us around. The guides name is Dharshana and his number is 0773186786.

We went to the Dream Cafe and had breakfast, Udesh only wanted coffee and Ranjiva and I shared a Sri Lankan breakfast which cost LKR 350/= we got 8 slices of bread, dhal and coconut sambol.

Ranjiva’s guide friend Dharshana came and we headed towards Little World’s End in the Namunukula town. As we approached Little World’s End there was a whole lot of people playing cricket.

The vistas were unparalleled and needs to be seen to be believed. I’m trying hard to capture some of it with various methods but I must admit that I am falling well short cause you have to be there to witness it. Hence bear with me for uploading so many pictures...

On our way back we heard a phone ring near a rock and we found a mobile phone and a digital camera. We answered the phone and told the person whoever who called that we had found their mobile and camera and were bringing it back towards where they were playing cricket. As we reached them one of the guys came up to us and said he was going to hit us because he thought we had stolen the items and were now bringing it back. I was completely flabbergasted and thought of the Sinhalese quote “the temple I went to worship is falling on my head”.

Afterwards we went to the Ravana cave; the trek up to the cave was quite strenuous and took about 25 minutes. They cave itself is nothing much however we found a dead monkey inside.

Once we got down from the cave we popped into a little Buddhist temple about 100m away from the bottom of the Ravana cave.

Afterwards we went to Oodoowerre tea factory area to have a look at the Demodara train station where the train leaves the station and goes round the mountain under the station and continues to the bridge.

The mist was setting in and we decided to head back to the hotel as light was also fading. After we got back and took a shower we headed to the Grand Ella Motel run by the Ceylon Hotel Corporation. It looks a lovely place unfortunately they were having a buffet and was costing LKR900/= which we thought was too much. Second day consecutively we have had to find alternative dining places ;-) but we will go back when the a’la Carte menu is on perhaps tomorrow.

Instead we went to the Down Town Rotti Hut and had an awesome Egg Kottu Rotti for LKR250/= and had the most amazing Chocolate Rotti. It’s definitely the best I have had.

Got back to the hotel and here I am with Ranjiva and Udesh writing this blog.

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