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A room with a view in Ella

Ella was meant to be our short reprieve from the packed roadtrip schedule, well placed half way through the week. Given the number of posts written for this trip so far, it may seems like it has been a lot longer but we’re actually only four days in! It ended up being a break needed by our driver too. Now, now, no jumping to (wrong) conclusion that we’ve put him behind wheels excessively; rather something has gone wrong with the air-conditioning system.

We were about half an hour from Ella when we spotted smoke streaming out the unit (uh oh) – and it was definitely something that required immediate attention. Luckily the noon temperature in the hill country was relatively cool so the short trip to our hotel without air-conditioning came about uneventfully. The one concern Nilan had though, was that it was poya and he wasn’t sure if he could find a garage that would be open to look into the fault. Hmmm…

Ella is a small village without much to do if you’re not someone for the great outdoors (e.g. planning to hike Ella Rock or Little Adam’s Peak) or merely using it as a resting base, like we did. We spotted only a handful of shops around, and since it was poya, most of them were closed the day we rolled into town. Surprisingly enough though, we saw a good few Western visitors here. So far, anywhere we’ve been (except during the Kandyan dance session), we’ve been underwhelmed in terms of number and our pale skin stuck out like sore thumbs. Not in Ella.

The various views of Ella Gap

The sight on horizon is dominated by Ella Gap and we had a room which overlooked this scenic panorama. And not far from it is the Rawana Ella Falls, another pretty sight for the sore eyes. Our plan for the day was pretty much to freshen ourselves up (we were certainly not daisy-fresh after the morning hike at Horton Plains), take some time to write the postcards which we’ve bought along the way, and read a little so I could offload whichever book(s) I’ve finished on the small travellers’ library of the hotel. (Ok, fine, I admit I went overboard buying books at the airport so I had about 6-7 of them in my bag including those I brought with me in the first place, and they were getting heavy to lug around.)

For once, we also had access to internet and wifi facility. We could either use the computer at the lounge, or grab the wifi password to go online via our mobile phones. All very handy. I took the opportunity to catch up a wee bit with news of my family and friends, and organise further legs of my travel (I was heading on to Malaysia and Singapore after Sri Lanka). I even posted a picture of Ella Gap and said hello on Facebook so everyone knew I was still alive and kicking. ;)

Here comes the train - choo choo!

A couple of minutes walk away from the hotel also lays a railway track. Trains passed by a handful of times per day – often late – and the concierge gave me tips on their timetable (as well as potential delays) so I could wait alongside the railway track to take some photos. Remember my romantic idea about the tangible link between lives and railways? Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to photograph whatever I can. Not that I have a clue of what I could realistically achieve, but hey, I’m an amateur photographer – every good shot is a bonus already!

There you go, a rather relaxed and slow afternoon in Ella. The only thing missing was probably a good spa session. We could do with a session of Ayurvedic massage or something of similar nature. It was nice though, to be able to take things at a much slower pace for a change. Trust me, had we had more time for this roadtrip, we definitely would have travel slower, and savour the moments in enjoying each and every place on our schedule.

 

All posts in this series:
Sri Lanka: Ceylonese Tales
Sri Lanka: Trekking Sigiriya | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Cave temples of Dambulla | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Cultural evening in Kandy | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Pinnawala Elephant Sanctuary | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: We sort of saw Nuwara Eliya… | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Morning hike at Horton Plains | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: A room with a view in Ella | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Tissa, Yala and safari | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: The southern coast | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: The old fort of Galle | Flickr Photoset
Sri Lanka: Roadtrip ended in Colombo | Flickr Photoset



Category: Asia, Sri Lanka, Travel

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2 scribbles & notes

  1. medca says:

    nice pic of sun on mountain peak! ;)

    • Lil says:

      thanks! i created another gif for the moving train but it’s not as effective as the blowhole gif…

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