“It is the island at its most scenic, a mist-wrapped land of emerald peaks and stupendous views, of hillsides carpeted with tea plantations and graced by astonishing waterfalls. This is a place where you can wear a fleece in the daytime and cuddle up beside a log fire in the evening. A region where you can walk to the end of the world, stand in the footsteps of the Buddha and be surrounded by a hundred wild elephants. Ride a train utterly bewitched by the vistas. Paddle a raft down a raging river. Enjoy the drumbeat of traditional dance and then savour the silence on a lonely mountaintop.”(Lonely Plant)
Nuwara Eliya
Nicknamed “Little England” it is located at 6,128feet (1,868m) in the central southern area of Sri Lanka, surrounded by rolling green hills of tea fields amidst endless clouds constantly threatening rain and English colonial architecture, it makes you believe you are in an entirely different country. A stop along the train route dubbed as one of the most beautiful in the world, a seven and a half to nine hour train journey from Kandy to Ella. Nuwara Eliya is a hidden gem, that for some exists only as a train stop, for others, it’s a nights rest to break up the journey that could have you standing for the entirety of it, squished into a car like the Japanese salary man during his morning commute. For me, it was a stop I planned for three nights and it ended up being my favorite place in the country.
The city was founded in 1846 and was the retreat of British civil servants and planters living in the capital, here they created their home away from home building a polo ground and a golf club that are still in use. Many of the public buildings still retain architectural features from the colonial period and private homes with their old English-style lawns and gardens. The post office, a red-brick, Tudor style building that sticks out like an elephant in a room is one of the most striking examples and because of this, it was a tourist attraction. I walked in to give it a look and it felt like I entered a gift shop in Disney World. For a post office they had terrible post cards, they were so poorly taken of places that would have you questioning whether or not you’re receiving one from Sri Lanka.
In my opinion the best thing to do in Nuwara Eliya is to rent a scooter, explore the countryside and do the World’s End hike because that’s exactly what I did. I rented a scooter for three days. The first day I drove into town and explored the hills surrounding it. On the morning of the second day I did the world’s end hike with other people from my hostel. We left at 5am so we could arrive for sunrise and see the valley before the clouds take over. Originally Vincent, a Dutch guy I met at the hostel and I wanted to ride our scooters there. We didn’t want to wake up for the sunrise because normally it’s not worth it, but the owner of the hostel convinced us. It was the best choice I made on the trip, we would have froze and fallen off our scooter driving along that road in the dark. It also takes around an hour and twenty minutes by van, which means it would have taken us a lot longer.
The world’s end hike is in Horton Plains national park located at 6,900 feet to 7,500 feet (2,100-2,300m). The “hike” itself is easy, about a three hour loop on generally flat ground. Before getting to world’s end you first get to mini world’s end, a smaller cliff with a drop of 1,000 feet (300m). World’s end is a sheer cliff with a drop of about 3,000 feet (900m). In other countries the area next to the edge would be roped off, but in Sri Lanka you are free to walk and fall where you want. It’s not dangerous, but you have to be sensible. A few months ago a German tourist fell to her death while taking a selfie. I was tempted to accidentally trip into the Chinese family yelling at each other.
After the hike Vincent and another guy from the hostel, Stefanos and I explored the countryside. Our goal was a waterfall about an hour away. The ride was one of the most beautiful rides I’ve done in my life; we went from being freezing cold in the clouds to sweating in the sun, going from 6,128 ft (1,868m) to 3,100 ft (945m) passing through tea fields and small villages. We stopped frequently to take pictures and to store the clothes we started with in our scooters. The falls were beautiful and riding back, just as fun.
On the third day, Stefanos had left, so it was Vincent and I. We drove to a waterfall not far from the hostel called Lovers Leap. Named so because of two people who fell in love that weren’t allowed to be, so they committed suicide by leaping off together. Together we climbed to the top, but weren’t ready to die just yet, so we admired the view instead. After, we took the scooters the opposite way from the day before and drove. The first actual town we got to we stopped and walked around. A Saturday school had just gotten out so the streets were flooded with kids in the white Sri Lankan school uniform. As we walked about the kids would say hi and giggle when we tried to talk to them more, people in houses 300ft (100m) from the road would yell out waving hello. Walking past you could feel them looking at you and a wave would be happily reciprocated. With my camera out almost every person we met wanted a picture, not with us, but of them. Being in that place, walking around and experiencing people living their lives was just as memorable as doing a “must-do” thing. For me, those are the moments when traveling is at its best. Not everyone may like Nuwara Eliya, but it was one of my favorite places I visited.
The train ride
The train ride is probably one of the most well known things about Sri Lanka. Any blog you come across will be sure to mention it and it’d be hard not to come across a picture of a girl hanging out of a blue train. Google Sri Lanka train ride and you’ll see it in the first two pictures. Aside from now being a tourist attraction, it is what the local use to get around the area and it is extremely cheap. The views are stunning and it’s worth doing, but only if you’re able to get a seat. On the way from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya I was with three other people and at the hostel the night before we asked the manager if he could get us reserved seat tickets. We had all heard about how crowded it could get and how getting a seat came down luck. He was able to get us reserved seats, but we had to pay $12, four times the original ticket price. We didn’t even think about it, of course we bought it.
The next day when the train arrived to the foreigner filled platform it was a chaotic mess; it was as if it was the last train leaving the city at the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse. Our tickets were second class reserved, but we accidentally went to an already packed second class, realized it was wrong and found where we thought we had to be. The train guy says nope, you have to go to the end of the train to third class reserved, at this point almost everybody is on the train now, the train whistles and I think, “we’re not getting on, it’s leaving without us,” but we got to the third class reserved car, showed the guy our tickets and he let us on. We all relaxed, We found our seats, which were apart, but eventually we sat together. For 4.5 hours we could get up and walk around, use the bathroom, switch between seats, it was amazing. At Nuwara Eliya I got off and they continued to Ella.
I wouldn’t be so lucky when traveling to Ella. I tried getting the owner of the hostel to see if he could find me a reserved ticket, but he could not. When I arrived to Nuwara Eliya I also tried reserving a ticket for the day I was leaving, but I could not. On the morning of I had to buy a third class ticket. As I waited on the track, I ran into a Dutch couple from earlier in my travels and we started talking and moving to where we thought the car would. While we were talking a train started pulling in, but it was red, only three cars long and 20 minutes early, none of us thought it was our train. It stopped at the station and people started getting on, we were nowhere near it. It was 100 feet (30m) past us and the car we needed was all the way at the front. We got on as the last people with what seemed like no room left for anyone else, but as we started moving a Norwegian guy jumped on, hanging off with bags in hand. He stayed there until he was forced in by Sri Lankan’s finding space where it didn’t seem to exist. It wasn’t not enjoyable, more people packed in, it was hot and I could hardly see out of the train. The doors on either side didn’t connect across, it was like an “S” curve, so one side was a blank wall and the other the bathroom. If I looked in the reflection of the glass on the door or craned my neck to either side I could catch a glimpse of the landscape as we passed.
Ella
I think Ella is extremely overrated. The town is built for tourists with expensive modern looking bars and restaurants. However, the surrounding area and mountains are beautiful, but there isn’t much to do. Luckily I met an amazing group of people, 5 were from the last hostel I stayed at, 2 I met the day I arrived and a Kiwi we met at dinner on the first night. We spent the next two days together doing everything you could do in Ella. We hiked little Adam’s Peak and to Ella rock; walked to nine arch bridge, an extremely beautiful WWI stone built bridge and did a cooking class, where we made some amazing curries; went to a waterfall and just hung out. I imagine the 8 of us could have spent a good deal of time traveling together and the experience would have been amazing: 1 Dutch, 1 French, 2 Spanish, 1 Swiss, 1 English, 1 Australian, 1 Kiwi, and me 1 American.
Fwaa! Loved this post Joe. Christ, makes me wanna go visit Sri Lanka..!
Thanks Timmy! you’d love it