Hailing the mini van in Dambulla and jumping aboard, it was quickly obvious this was not the same as the last van I caught. It was packed, all the auxiliary seating was deployed and at first I didn’t think I even had a seat. Mishee was on a mini ironing board fold out middle seat, and I ended up sitting between the driver and passenger seat, facing everyone with my back to the windshield. I waved to them all, hi everyone, not awkward at all. The two hours to Kandy was basically a feat to hold on to something, as the van sped up, slowed down, sped while taking a corner, and of course almost getting run off the road as a bus came hurdling in our lane on a blind spot. Fun ride!
Arriving in Kandy, Mishee and I parted ways as she was heading south to Adam’s Peak, while I had no interest going there and planned a few nights in Kandy. We jumped into separate tuk tuk’s and soon enough my driver had no idea where he was going. We stopped at a junction of tuk tuk drivers and they all came over to lend advice. Sure enough one of them told him where to go, and after thanking all the helpful drivers (do I need to say again that Sri Lankan’s are too nice??), we soon arrived at the hotel. And an up market hotel for my standards, that had a restaurant and even room service!
I was told that Colombo isn’t anything like the rest of Sri Lanka, and I can certainly say that’s the truth. Every town so far as been surrounded in green jungle and forests, and not the concrete jungle of Colombo. It really is just beautiful, nature is everywhere, from the leafy ferns and banana trees, to the monkeys and squirrels running around everywhere. Even in Kandy, a major city, it sits surrounded by greenery and a great lake dominates the city centre. This city was truly a pleasure just to take in and pause for a moment to enjoy doing not much at all, the only attraction being the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.
The agreed theory on the tooth dates back to before Prince Siddharatha Gautama became enlightened and spent most of his youth brawling in taverns. Spending most of his twenties in cage fights, he’d go on to loose several teeth, hairs, finger nails, and even a collar bone, all just for the thrill of the fight and the rapturous applause of the crowd. But eventually he met his nemesis, the evil Emperor Commodus of Rome. In a fixed sword fight in the Colosseum, Commodus was defeated, but Siddharatha would succumb to wounds and die, and became only known as Gladiator.
Okay, I may have made that up.
The shrine that holds Buddha’s tooth is utterly packed with the faithful, and a good helping of tourists. Getting to the shrine involves several staircases that you slowly move along with the crowds, many of who hold lotus flowers for their offering and prayers. It wasn’t all that bad getting in, but the tooth – or rather the casket containing the tooth – is impossible to get a photo of. There’s just too many people in the way to even see it. The only possibility to get near it would have involved queuing up with the actual religious people to pray at the tooth, and I felt that would have been really wrong to do that just to take a tourist photo.
The other main tourist attraction in Kandy was the cricket. Sri Lanka were playing England, and I would hazard a guess to say 99% of foreigners in Kandy were English, here to watch the cricket. They were literally everywhere. I found myself in a place called “The Pub”, which is one of the few pubs in the country. A balcony overlooked the main street, and in wicker chairs sat the English, drinking pints, reading English newspapers, I felt like I’d stepped back a hundred years and into colonial times. It was very much out of place compared to everywhere I’d been so far in Sri Lanka, and I was expecting the arrival of some lord in a safari suit come bursting through the doors with a smoking blunderbuss declaring he’d personally tracked and hunted a family of wild elephants, and the ivory was up for sale to the highest bidder.
The next stop was Ella, famous for it’s scenery and hiking. I wasn’t able to book a reserved seat, and the counter at the Kandy train station weren’t very helpful as to why. I’d find out later that it was due to all the reserved seating being solidly booked out for the past two weeks. No idea if this is normal, or something was going on, but in the morning I stood in line with a bucket load of tourists wondering to myself if they all were going to Ella too. Sure enough, they were.
I would say there must have been a good hundred plus people on the platform waiting for the train. When it did arrive, half an hour late, it was already packed. The second class ticket I had, and as did everyone else, was a free for all, however all the seats were already taken and we squeezed on with barely a centimetre between each other. The train lurched away from the station, and all we could do is joke about how crazy this was and how this trip was meant to take 7 hours.
Trapped near the doorway alcove, I had a Polish and Spanish couple to lighten the mood with me. The whole situation was so absurd all you really can do is laugh about it. After about two very long hours in, we finally had enough room to move our feet. It was a little, but welcome, victory. That is until we all realised it had only been two hours and we still had four more hours. We’d stop at stations, and the only people getting on were the snack vendors. The Polish guy would swear when they’d get on, just because there just wasn’t any room for them, yet they’d push their way on and somehow go from carriage to carriage selling treats. That’s dedication to the job (and of course their days earnings).
After seven hours of agonising standing, we approached Ella station. The Polish were keeping track where we were and counted down the number of stations to go. My feet had surpassed all concept of pain and my brain had actively blocked out their existence. When the train guard made an appearance we knew this was it, next stop was Ella. When the train pulled up, I grabbed my bags and slowly lowered myself from the carriage, then immediately went to a chair and collapsed into it. I’d made it, no sitting, I was a member of the seven hour no standing club. We should have received a free beer at the station for the effort.
Walking into Ella was a bit of a shock, as it isn’t anything like I’d been thinking in my head. I was imagining a small country village like Sigiriya, instead I was greeted with bar after bar after bar after bar. Dance music blared out, people were out drinking, this was ground zero tourist party town. I was even talking to an American couple about Siem Reap, Cambodia, on the train, and this felt very much like Sri Lanka’s version of it. Just without the Angkor Wat as a major tourist trap reason to be here. On that first night, I was really struggling to understand why Ella had became what it is, when there’s no real huge draw card point of interest to be here.
The next morning I made my way to the Nine Arch Bridge, a British built bridge that for it’s time (and even now) is an impressive engineering construct. What makes it even more amazing is the scenery, this long bridge in the middle of jungle and forest, it’s just so incredibly picturesque. In fact, Ella in general can be described as insanely picturesque. Getting away from the main street with all the bars, it’s little roads winding through mountains covered in impossible lush green vegetation. I guess this is the draw of the tourists, but I wonder how many of them went hiking the jungle and instead opt to grab a drink at one of the dozen bars.
I had decided not to go to Adam’s Peak, but here in Ella is Little Adam’s Peak. I wanted to do at least this climb, and a climb it was. Stairs after stairs, slippery dirt slides, more stairs, and eventually to the top. The views of the valley and mountains were superb. I would stop for five minutes, for a breather, but also just to take in the view.
Of course it had to start raining as I got to the peak, just a drizzle at first as the fog rolled in. I started my way back down and heavier the rain let loose. But the time I’d reached the climb entrance it started to bucket down, and thankfully there were a couple of a tuk tuk drivers hanging around so I got a ride back to Ella. Soaked with sweat and rain, I retreated to a bar and asked for a beer.
After the arduous train journey I decided I’d go with a bit of luxury to the next stop of Tissamaharama, and planned to hiring a taxi to take the 2 hour drive there.
Tomorrow I’ll be one last stop before finally reaching the south coast, and hopefully lazing around sunny beaches.