Monday, 11th February 2019
Today we will be having a travelling day and this time it’s going to be by train to Ella – a beautiful small backpacker hub on the southern edge of Sri Lanka’s Hill Country; a must-do place in any Sri Lankan itenarary!
We had a leisure morning at our bungalow and I could update my blog and finish off stuff. Our breakfast was prepared by Ganesh, our house boy who has taken a liking to Gerry. Mind you all the staff we’ve met have been very hospitable. Indika arranged for us to have our check out time extended so that we could drive straight to the station in Ohiya after lunch at the lakeside.
It was a strange way how Indika acquired our train tickets – apparently first class tickets can only be bought at the train station 5 days prior to travel date and even then, they are always sold out, however there is a black market circuit and Indika acquired first class tickets for Rp 5.000 Nearly 3 times the original price!
At first I understood that the train was departing at 15.30 but when we had the tickets it was stated 15.55 – as it’s a 3 hour journey, I was worried that we would be arriving in the dark and would miss part of the scenic views we were supposed to see.
This morning Gerry was going to have a pedicure – at least Indika was to schedule an appointment at a salon. So off they went, however they returned in no time. Apparently at the salon, they were told that they only did pedicures for women – so they bought a nail cutter and some cream and when they got back Indika performed the toenail cutting………Incredible what your private chauffeur is prepared to do for you!!!
Nuwara Elija, as I mentioned in an earlier blog was a British hill-station back in the colonial days and supposedly the terraced houses, post office and few other buildings were designed the English way, however very little is left over to warrant the name of “Little England”……. anyway, on our way to have lunch at our usual lakeside spot, Calamander, we stopped by the post office which is still functioning in its old glory and took some pictures of it as well as some of the terraced houses still standing.
gotten us on time at the train station
After lunch we drove to Ohiya where we were well on time for our train. Indika explained where we would have to board for our first class seats and then he left to drive (with our luggage) to Ella. Well our train did not arrive and no signs or information was made available to the passengers so we all had to do our own investigation – it appeared that the train we were waiting for had some defects and was being repaired and hence a delay of one and a half hours……. Luckily Gerry saw the station master adjusting the “electronic” timetable on the hallway wall!!
By the time the train pulled in at the station it was nearly 6pm. Although we had very good seats in the observation carriage right at the back of the train, within half an hour it was quite dark to observe any of the scenery and by the time we arrived in Ella it was pitch dark!
Again Indika was happy to see us, he had been waiting for us for such a long time – well we were dead tired of hanging around all day! It was gone 9 pm when we arrived to our hotel, Misty Hills, and then we needed to climb some 90 steps to our bedroom. The manager told us we had the best room with a fantastic view of Ella Gap and that we could watch the sunrise the following morning.
Well after freshening up, we went down for dinner. Indika was there to greet us and in the meantime he had come up with a solution to our grumbling that we had seen nothing on our train journey. As we are staying two nights in Ella, we could take the train journey tomorrow again but we would not go all the way and step out at Demodora, where a fellow driver had an empty car and had to drive to Ella to pick up his guests from the train as they were doing the same trip as we did (but shorter). I think it was a very good idea and even Gerry agreed with it.
What seemed to have been a wasted day, Indika managed to find a good solution! The only thing now for us to do is climb the 90 steps to our bedroom……….
