Sri Lanka welcomes you!
Yesterday we arrived in Ella, a little “backpacker” village up in the mountains.
Resting up after some hectic days of traveling with train, buses and tuk tuk’s.
We took a 4 hours tuk tuk through the mountains from Dal House to Ella, ill come to that later!
On December 15th we woke up 4:45 in Sri Lanka to catch a tuk tuk from Lanka Hostel to the train station , it was about a 30 min ride in the heavy rain, costed 600 Rupees (4USD).
First in was our bags that took up half of the tuk tuk and then us that had to share the other half, tight! – what ever floats your boat.
At the train station we walked up to the ticket box and bought us two second class tickets to Habarana, the train was an hour late so we had some time to buy us some Samosas.
Found a place and bought us a bag of mixed Samosas and rolls, a couple of meters away from me there was this man that had been following us to this little shop.
Like the poor hobo look he had, in his hands was his dick, pulling back and forth like a rubber rope, looking at Erin.
Erin noticed this and told me to look at this disgusting man, just from my side vision I could see something was going on, but I didn’t want to look and ruin my appetite for my morning breakfast, uuuaak!
We were laughing about it and I was thinking that this might be and every day thing here in Sri Lanka, because no one reacted to it, except us that reacted with a giggle and laughs.
The train up to Habarana from Colombo, a 7 hour train ride through the amazing landscape of Sri Lanka.
People are very helpful and tell you when to get on and when to jump off.
We got ourselves two seats, the whole area was filled with our bags and us, which was great because then we could lay down and sleep on our bags!
Pretty comfortable seats covered with some fake blue leather.
This was not the second class, those cars was already full, it’s like everyone is running in to get the best seat possible, what ever ticket.
Didn’t want to pick people and tell them to leave because we had tickets.
These seats might be a bit better and comfortable for sitting, but the area we picked was way better for sleeping and we had full control over our bags.
This ticket cost 250 rupees (2USD).
You don’t know where to get of, there’s not signs at all stops and there’s no one on that works on the train telling you.
So you got to ask someone and they gladly help you, we had people telling us how many stops we had left and when to get off.
When our station came this guy came up to us and told us that this was it.
From Habarana we took a tuk tuk for 1200 rupees (8USD) to Sigiriya where we came to for the famous Lion’s Rock.
The distances you go for the price is amazing, super cheap!
From the road you could see the mountain or massive rock with its vertical red rock face.
It doesn’t fit in with it’s surroundings, looks incredible.
Up on this massive rock there was a temple from the 500th century, you can still see the foundation of and it’s gardens and pools.
The view from up there is insane, you see as far as your eye’s can reach, mountains ,jungle and temples scattered all over this landscape.
Below the Lion’s rock you can also see the oldest dated gardens made from the same civilization, green and lush forest, colorful flowers and plants are growing all over and this gardens have squared shape pools placed with a certain idea to make this garden a beautiful place and a peaceful vibe.
We checked in at Flower Inn, a double room for 2500 Rupees (17.5USD).
As soon as we had our bags in there we took the hike up to Lion’s rock.
We heard it would take us about 1.5 hours up, but we have no idea have you could managed that, because for us it took about 20 mins.
In the 28C weather it was a sweaty hike for sure, but it was all stairs, you could stop at some view points here and there to enjoy the beautiful landscape.
We spend some time up at the top together with a family of monkeys, baby monkeys hanging on to their moms bellies while they’re running around.
When we got back to Sigiriya we took a well worth shower, a cold one.
Almost 8 hours of traveling and a one hour hike that day.
There’s monkeys everywhere in this village, playing around from roof to roof, they are so funny to look at, Macaques and langurs.
We found this reggae bar just across the street from us, called Rastaraunt.
Lighted up with led lights in different colors, small open huts you sit in to enjoy your food and drinks.
In the garden they had massive hammocks hanging from the trees, you could probably sit 4 people in them, really chill.
One of the guy’s that worked there told us that when it’s season they have popular BBQ nights.
There are no restaurants that serve alcohol in Sigiriya because of licens, but this place have a secret meny!
So these BBQ sessions can be a lot of fun! Rowdy.
We really enjoyed this place.
When it comes to food we have tried various kinds, etc Kottu which is is kind of chapati they chop up and it almost looks like pasta, they mix this with veggies and any meat you like together with curries!
Its great!
Pickled mangoes, ocras fried in many different spices, many things in the food here are made from coconut and it’s super good!
Samosas and deep fried rolls with a lot of spices in it!
We still have tons of foods to try, so excited!
The next morning we woke up early to catch the 2.5hours bus to Kandy 145 rupees (1USD), there’s no bus stops so you have to wave the bus down from the side of the road , if you don’t wave hard enough it will pass you.
It might be better to have one from your guesthouse help you.
It was pretty crowded, the seats are not made for big people so it’s tight but I don’t mind that.
This bus had some cool blue lights inside, around lamps it was decorated with some fabrics which gave it a hippie look.
They played some kind of super chill chanting music, I think it was one song for the most of the ride, it was soothing though!
I kept on falling a sleep all the time and waking up being scared of head butting someone, because my head was flying everywhere, this driver had a heavy foot.
We arrived in Kandy at the central train station, a busy place crowded with people and honking buses.
A guy came up to us asking if we needed help, I guess we look a bit confused about where to go, so he pointed to the other side of the road when we said Hatton.
Everything goes so fast , the 2.5 hour bus to Hatton 250 Rupees (2 USD) was going to leave within 5 minutes so we had no time to eat as planned or even thing about what was going on.
In this country it’s not a problem because there are people selling fruit, nuts and samosas everywhere.
Just go with the flow.
This bus was way smaller, so I had to sit on one ass cheek the whole ride, wonderful!
I love the vibe in this country, happy and helpful.
Updates from Ella and Yala is coming shortly!
