Sri Lanka: Part III

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Holidays at Roy’s”]The Fresco Lion Villa Hostel[/ultimate_heading]

After exploring the North of Sri Lanka for a week with my friend Eddy, I went back to Roy’s, the Fresco Lion Villa Hostel in Sigiriya. I just wanted to relax for a couple of days and wait until I’d meet some nice people who were also going South – from my last time here, I knew that there were always nice people and that many of them went South; almost nobody wanted to go North. Roy was surprised – and happy – to see me again and so was I; it was good to be back to this fantastic place! Later Hannah would tell me how funny that moment was. She and Arielle were on the balcony of their dorm when I arrive; I marched in with my huge backpack, calling out loud: “Roy, I’m back”; all in the best mood and happy. 😄

And indeed, right the first night back, I met incredible people! I met Daniela from Italy and her boyfriend Josh from Scotland, Arielle from France and Hannah from the UK. The first night, I was really tired though, having visited the ruins of Anuradhapura by bicycle all morning long and then having had a 3h bus ride to Roy’s place… So, I went to bed early.

It was only the next day that I really got to know them. The weather was fantastic and so we all went to the small lake near the hostel and we spent a couple of hours there swimming and chatting and on the way back, Roy showed me how to drive a tuk tuk.

In the afternoon, everyone had plans and went out, except for me, I stayed in the hostel, relaxing, just as I would do the next couple of days. That night, 5 people from Tasmania in Australia arrived. When I told them, I had been traveling with someone from Tasmania in Kenya, Tom, it turned out that one of them actually is a good friend of his sister. The world is sooo small!

The next days were quite relaxed for me, talking to people, watching series, in the evening having delicious food and drinking a couple of beers.It turned out that Hannah and Arielle were going South as well and they invited me to celebrate Christmas with them in Weligama and later New Year’s Eve in Bangkok. For Christmas, I didn’t hesitate for a second; I was happy I found some nice people with whom I could celebrate Christmas. Concerning New Year’s Eve in Bangkok however, I wasn’t so sure… I mean, they seemed like nice girls, but I barely knew them… Who knows if we were going to get along? Besides, Thailand wasn’t on my list of countries I wanted to visit, so I waited with this decision.

Later, Denise from the Netherlands and Romi from Australia came to Roy’s place and since we all got along well and had the same itinerary – more or less anyway – they decided to join us on our way South.

On our last morning in Sigiriya, before going to Kandy, the girls wanted to hike up the Pidurangula rock for sunrise and since I had loved it the first time I was there, I decided to join them. Unfortunately, it was super cloudy and we couldn’t see anything… Still, we had a great time together! It was so much fun with these girls that I decided to join Arielle and Hannah for NYE and booked that same morning my flight to Bangkok.

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Kandy”][/ultimate_heading]

After our hike to Pidurangula and a sad goodbye to Roy, the 5 of us – Arielle, Denise, Hannah, Romi and I – took a bus to Kandy, where we arrived at around 2PM. We were starving, so our first stop there was in a restaurant. Only Arielle and Hannah had booked a hostel in Kandy, but we weren’t worried; that place still had 13 beds free, so we took our time at lunch and only arrived around 4:30PM to the hostel. Well, it turned out that this had not been the wisest decision: now the hostel was completely full… Who would have thought they would sell 13 beds in 2 hours… So Denise, Romi and I went looking for of a hostel. The first one we went to, had very good reviews but when we arrived, it was super small, it was an open space with no doors to the dorms and it smelled terribly like cigarettes. So we continued on our quest and finally found a nice hotel that had quite cheap dorms. Success!

After a quick shower, we rejoined Arielle and Hannah on the main square and we visited the famous Temple of the tooth. As it’s name says, it holds 1 of Buddha’s teeth. It’s a big and very beautiful temple and it was very impressive by night, totally enlightened. There was a huge queue of people wanting to see the tooth and we were amongst them. Of course, it’s a bit ridiculous, because you can’t see the tooth, only the golden case it is in… But hey, it was interesting and impressive how many people worship this tooth.

[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Ella”][/ultimate_heading]

The next morning, we wanted to take the 8:30 train from Kandy to Ella. We discovered that this was not the best timing because it’s holiday season and it’s weekend… We went to the train station before Kandy to get a good seat in the train before it would get too crowded in Kandy, but we weren’t the only people thinking like this. When the train arrived, it was already completely crowded and only 3 of us made it in the train; Romi and I couldn’t get in! The train was going to Kandy and then coming back to our station, so we decided to just wait and let the others try to get a seat when – hopefully – many people would get out in Kandy. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the others couldn’t even get a seat for themselves let alone reserve one for us… We were already trying to find a solution before the train came back: take a taxi to Nuwara Eliya and get the from train there or take the next train at 11AM? Then their train came back and we actually managed to get into a wagon of the 3rd class that was a bit less crowded (all tourists were in 2d class and only locals were in 3rd). It was all a huge mess, especially because the cell reception was really bad and we got messages from the others very late: we didn’t know if they had stayed in the train or got out thinking we couldn’t get in and they didn’t know if we had made it! Fortunately, in the end all was good, all of us were on the same train to Ella! 😄

The train was packed with people, but in our wagon people changed all time since it was mostly locals who didn’t go all the way to Ella like the tourists. So Romi managed to get a seat and sometimes she would let me have the seat, but mostly I was standing. Not because she didn’t want to let me sit, not at all. It was because the view was amazing and it was much better from the doors and the windows and I just didn’t want to sit down…

There I met Andree from Ukraine, a very nice guy, and we spent much of the 7 hours journey talking and taking pictures of the wonderful landscape. We also met a couple from the UK who were very nice and we would see them again the next night in the most famous bar in Ella.

Around 4PM, we finally arrived to Ella and we went to our hostels. Hannah and Arielle were staying in the Hangover hostel, the most famous – and most expensive – hostel in Ella. Romi had booked a guesthouse close to their hostel – she prefers private rooms – and Denise and I, backpacking for a much longer time, stayed in a cheaper hostel a bit out of town. Our hostel was quite nice, very quiet and with a balcony looking out over the forest. Also, we had really good breakfast included.

That first night, we all went to the hangover hostel for a cooking class; it was not about learning anything, just about getting good and cheap dinner and that it was! During dinner we met some really nice people and afterwards we watched a Bollywood movie that was so bad it was good…

The next morning, we went hiking up the Ella Rock. The way was a bit confusing and quite hard, but the landscape was beautiful and we were having a very good time. On the way up, we met a Japanese girl and her tour guide. He told us, it was his day off and he was just going up because he owed some guy there money and he would join us, but somehow I didn’t trust him. Why would he not just give him the money the next time he had a tour up there? It seemed weird to me and so I preferred not talking to him. My friends weren’t worried in the beginning, but when we lost him on the top and he ran down the mountain to follow us and catch up, showing us a shortcut back to the city, they started thinking that something was not quite normal… I might be too suspicious and not trusting enough, but, to be fair, most guides would not offer their service for free… In the end, we really wanted to get rid of him and I just looked at him with a death stare and told him he should just go on and not wait for us; he seemed to get the hint and finally left! Thank God!

Anyway, the hike had been great and the view from the top absolutely gorgeous!

When we got down, it was already quite late (2PM or so) and so we just went for a late lunch and then back to our hostels to have a shower. Later that evening, we went to a bar to play some card games and have a beer before joining some other people from the Hangover hostel in the most famous bar in Ella, the Chill Bar. Over there, we had another couple of drinks and we played some drinking games. It was such a fun night! We played truth or dare and Arielle ordered all people around, telling them what to do, even if they were not part of our group or playing the game! 😂 Finally, at 1PM, the bar tenders kicked us out so they could close up. Here in Sri Lanka, there is not such a big party culture and bars close quite early.

The next morning, Arielle and I were supposed to hike up the mini Adam’s peak to see the sunrise. I got up at 4:30AM but Arielle never came… So I just went there alone, but, of course, I wasn’t alone; there were lots of other people. The sky was very clear and full of stars and later there was a gorgeous sunrise. I loved every second up there and I met some nice people like Dave from the UK who walked back to Ella with me.

The others got up later and we all met back up at the Hangover hostel before going to a small restaurant that had the best local food (kotthu and roti) and that was very cheap. Ella is a very touristic town and there are lots of very expensive restaurants with western food like burgers or pizza. We tried it, but, honestly, it was just not good. What was good, was the cheap local food, so I definitely preferred that.

Later in the afternoon, we went to see the famous 9 arch bridge with Chris from Germany. We had bought some Christmas hats and decorations on the way and now put it all on for some awesome Christmas pictures. We had the best time and we were definitely the biggest attraction over there that afternoon… 😂

The next morning, the other girls wanted to go to the Adam’s peak for the sunrise and I told them I would go with them only if the weather was nice. Well, it was quite good and so Denise woke me up and I went with them. Unfortunately, it was much more cloudy that day and we only got to see half of the sunrise… It wasn’t too bad though and we had a great time anyway – as always -, so I didn’t regret getting up early again.

Later that morning, we walked to one of the biggest tea factories in Sri Lanka; a very nice 1 hour walk. Hannah and I did a tour there, but the other girls went back early, not interested in taking the tour. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about making black tea. There are 5 stages: 1) semi-drying the leaves with a ventilator, 2) robbing the leaves to small pieces and washing them, 3) drying them, 4) separating them in 7 categories (the smallest pieces have the most caffeine, the biggest the least), 5) separating the brown leaves from the black one (black is better quality and will be exported, brown is less good quality and stays in the country). I also learned that black, white and green tea is made from the same tea plant, just a different process, and that each person working there has to bring in 20kg of tea per day (!) to get a full salary. During the low season, machines only run 2-3 days a week, but in monsoon season (February-May), they run constantly 7 days a week. It was very interesting and their tea was really good.