We arrived to "Ella nature view" B&B by train from Peradeniya (6km from Kandy) + tuktuk yesterday.

The train trip was the real deal here, and it felt quite luxurious. Actually the wagon was filled with tourists (mainly Norwegian) and maybe one or two Sri Lankans (Mihiri included). The Norwegians entered the train at the same station as we did, all of them squeezing on before us declaring that "we're a group! We're a group!". Apparently they needed their guide to show them their (numbered) seats. Me and Mihiri amazingly found our seats without a guide.

The religion of choice in the mountains is Hindu, and the colorful things are small statues. They can be quite detailed and I wished I could have got a closer look. The train trip is highly recommended as the view is unmatched, and possibly we would have been able to see more of it from the outside part of the train cart, but that part of Sri Lanka was currently occupied by Norway.

The cost for the train trip was roughly 115 SEK per person and that includes one meal, as much tea or coffee you can drink and a small box of bread.The train trip was supposed to take 6h but actually took 8h.

Those of you familiar with the Swedish railway (more specifically the commuting trains) might also know about the quarrel that has been going on for some years between the railway and the phone operators, preventing us travelers from using Internet on board. Apparently it disturbs the signaling systems, so the only train company with Internet just so happen to be SJ. Well I have a solution for banverket (or whatever incompetent agency keeps causing annoyance for a few thousands travelers per day): throw away your non-ce compliant bullshit system and take a look at Sri Lanka. They actually use steel wires and rods for the switches, and thus they can provide free Internet on board! (Well ok, it didn't actually work but at least they tried!).

All right enough ravings about Östgötapendeln. To their defense they are actually trying (as well) to, for example, inform about delays by e-mail. Unfortunately with similar functionality since that email is usually as late as the train. Ok so in Ella we took a tuktuk to "Ella nature view B&B" (http://www.ellanatureview.com). In the darkness I couldn't see much else than what was just in front of the tuktuk (road like a roller-coster, dogs, cows, other tuktuks etc) but the mountain view from our balcony as seen the next morning simply could not be given justice from my smartphone camera.

After breakfast (toast, tea, fruits and egg) we set off with Mihiris parents to see some sights in the area.

The Lipton seat

After some driving by car we switched to a pair of tuk-tuks and bumped along a mountain side road for a while. The road shifted from bad to worse, then back again. It's quite possible that some of my inner organs shifted place while the poor abused vehicles propelled us upwards. It was damp and cold as we actually passed trough a few clouds, so I felt quite at home with the weather which reminded me about a common Swedish summer day.


Well shaken but not stirred we reached the top to find a statue of Mr. Lipton himself and a dramatically unexpected view:

That's right, we were inside a cloud so we couldn't see much but white.

The curly way up (and down) trough the tea fields, interrupted at times with colorful (and inventive) clusters of (approximated) houses, were the real sight this time. Oh and on the top we also met with three DIFFERENT dogs that were not brown! Mihiri gave them some biscuits for making an effort of not being brown.

The loop (Demodara station)

If you had a toy railway as a kid you might relate to the problems involved in having the railway go from the TV table down to the floor. A direct path straight down gives a one way ride and usually a collapsed heap of train engine and carts at the living room floor, to much distress for the imagined passengers. Outside Ella they had the same problem but on a larger scale. So they made the train go in a loop, not under a huge TV table but in a tunnel under the station, thus maintaining the regulated declining angle and avoiding a heap of carts and angry people at the end of the hill. Tunnels are not that common in Sri Lanka (especially not in Colombo) so it might be worth seeing (especially if you're from Colombo and use to get stuck in the tunnel-free traffic).

The Demodare bridge

Switching back to the car we drove on for a while, heading up a narrowing road in the jungle until Mihiris father realized something was wrong. After some advise from a guy we found in a crossing we doubled back and took another road. There is always a tuktuk, so even here we switched to a tuktuk and drove on. Did I say the road was bad at the Lipton seat? Well THIS road quite possible ate small Toyotas for breakfast. It was basically a cow trail (and we did meet some curious cows). Eventually even the much abused tuktuk couldn't go any further and we had to continue by foot.

We climbed a steep slope and, disregarding any Swedish rules against walking on the rails, a while later emerged from the kind of train tunnels that usually produce a train when you're half way trough. Outside were the old bridge.

This nine-arch bridge was (as anyone who can ask Google knows) commissioned 1921 and is the largest in Sri Lanka. It has an interesting story that I didn't know anything about until something like a minute ago when I read about it on the net. Though the bridge itself is impressive enough I recommend reading the history before a visit, as it supplies an explanation to why no steel was used as well as a better perspective of the enormous work needed at that time (read: no machines) and at this altitude.