Sri Lanka Part 5 - Negombo - Kandy - Ella including the Blue Train

The day after our photography tour ended, Maggie and I farewelled Craig as he left for the airport. Shortly afterwards, we were picked up by our driver Dulip, who drove us to Kandy, a city in the central hill country. On the way, we stopped at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and got some great close up views of the elephants. Unfortunately we were there in the middle of the day and the light was a bit harsh, but here are some pics anyway!

Asian Elephants, Pinnawala Elephant Sanctuary

This organization rescues and cares for elephants that have been injured or orphaned in the wild, or born in captivity. If you want to see elephants up close, maybe get the chance to feed them, but NOT ride them, and don't mind hordes of tourists, you will have a good time here. But if you want to see wild elephants, this is not the place for you. Head to a National Park. You won't get as close to the elephants, but there won't be any in chains, and there won't be any tourists feeding them - they are truly wild animals. 

As with any other type of animal park/zoo where you can get up close to animals, there are criticisms about how things are run, and the conditions that the elephants are kept in, including the use of chains. There is signage around the park explaining why these things are deemed necessary (basically: safety = tourists = money to support conservation), and this article provides more insight: 

https://www.timetravelturtle.com/pinnawala-elephant-orphanage-sri-lanka/

Maggie and I didn't touch or feed any, we were just happy to look, and it did look like the elephants were having a great time feeding and playing in the water. For the record, the majority of the elephants we saw did not have chains, and the ones that did were not hidden away, and signage was displayed explaining why these individuals were separate and chained. 

Asian Elephant

Asian Elephant

Apparently this young male was just "practicing"... she wasn't having a bar of it and didn't take long to shake him off!

Squirrel, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

Squirrel, Pinnawala

We watched some elephants down in the river, and checked out some market stalls, before continuing on to Kandy. We stayed overnight in the house of Chandra, a friend of Maggie's,  and now mine too! Maggie works with Chandra's son-in-law in Australia, and stayed with her last time she was in Sri Lanka. We were met with a very warm welcome, and were shown to our top floor bedrooms complete with a balcony with a view across the valley. Chandra has two live-in employees, Karina, the cook and housekeeper, and Mutaya, the groundskeeper. We stayed overnight, and were treated to a delicious home-cooked dinner.

Room with a view, Kandy

Maggie on her balcony (yes we had one each!)

 

Yellow-billed Babbler

Mutaya watering the garden

The following morning we were up early again to head to the train station. We were going to ride the famous blue train from Kandy to Ella, one of the most picturesque train journeys in the world. Also one of the cheapest I would say - 300 rupees (less than $3 Australia) for a 7 hour train ride through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world! I had read some travel blogs previously, and learned that it is a good idea to catch the train from the station before Kandy, which is called Peradeniya, and is only a short distance from Kandy. This station is a lot less busy than Kandy, and gives you a better chance of getting a seat on the train. And trust me, you want a seat on a train journey this long! Dulip drove us to the station, and was kind enough to stick around to make sure we got on the train safely. He even arranged for a local man to assist us in finding a seat on the train for a "tip". Apparently quite a few other tourists had read the same blog as I had, as by the time the ticket counter opened, there was a long line of backpackers waiting. 

We did end up getting a seat without too much trouble, and one local man was kind enough to switch seats with Maggie so that she could be next to the window. We were sitting opposite each other, with a small table between us. Once we were out of the cityscape, we began to see more green, and eventually our first glimpses of the tea plantations that Sri Lanka and this train trip are renowned for.

Riding the Blue Train

Tea Plantations

Chandra had packed us breakfast and lunch to eat on the train - sandwiches, and curry and rice with other accompaniments wrapped in a banana leaf. We felt pretty glamorous eating our delicious and beautifully packed lunch while our train rolled past this beautiful scenery! 

First Class lunch in Third Class

We didn't do any of the super wild poses hanging out of the open doorways that you see all over Instagram, but we did have to get a few photos with the train!

Obligatory Blue Train Selfie :-)

Maggie being a dare-devil

The train journey was fantastic. We met lots of lovely people, both locals and other tourists, and we saw a lot of the beautiful hill country.

After seven hours we arrived at Ella Station!

Eventually we arrived in Ella, and got a tuk tuk to our accommodation, the Rawana Falls View Guest House. It was a bit out of town, and had lovely views over a vast valley. We could see Little Adam's Peak, as well as the Rawana Falls which were not flowing at the time of our visit due to recent dry weather. We had no need to leave for the rest of the afternoon - we set up on our balcony and had plenty of birds to watch, and we had dinner at the guest house restaurant. The food there was delicious, one of the best meals I had the whole time I was in Sri Lanka.   

Our private balcony

Our View - Little Adams Peak is off the to left, the falls are off to the right

Cinerous Tit

Oriental White-eyes

Oriental White-eye

Black-rumped Flameback

Our delicious feast at Rawana Falls View Guest House

 The next morning we caught a tuk tuk back into town to explore for a while. Ella is a tourist hotspot - lots of tourists seem to use it as a base while hiking in the area, as well as staying there before and/or after the train ride, like we were. There are a lot of shops and eateries, but we didn't really find a lot to do during the day. We went for a walk alongside the train line, and found some birds to watch, before heading back into town to look in some of the shops and have lunch. 

Crimson-fronted Barbet

Brahminy Kite, Ella

You will have no trouble finding a tuk tuk, or some souvenirs in this tourist destination.

Line of tuk tuks in the main street of Ella

A nice cool drink and lunch after a morning of wandering

Ella Post Office

 A beautiful attraction just out of Ella is the Demodara Nine Arch Bridge. This bridge is nearly 100 years ago, and was constructed out of solid stone and cement after steel supplies were reallocated due to WWI. It is an absolutely magnificent structure, pictures don't do it justice! The bridge is a beautiful enough sight on its own, but what most tourists do is time their visit so that they can see/photograph the Blue Train crossing the bridge. We had found that the train was due to Ella Station at about 3:30PM, so it should cross the bridge soon after that. We arrived before 3:00PM, to allow ourselves time to check out the bridge, walk across and back before the train was due. 

Nine Arch Bridge, Ella

We had a practice run when a red train crossed the bridge, coming from the opposite direction. Maggie and I had a sit down and a drink at the Nine Arch Cafe, and when it got closer to the schedules train time we crossed back over the bridge and got into a good position ready to see the train.

Red Train crossing the Nine Arch Bridge

Though the train had been perfectly on time for us the day before, it came about 50 minutes late! After all that waiting, we got to view the train for probably about 30 seconds and it was gone again... but it didn't matter, we were very happy to see this amazing sight.

The Money Shot!

We spent another happy afternoon, and the following morning watching birds from our balcony, before Dulip arrived to collect us and take us back to Kandy by car. 

White-bellied Drongo

Brown-headed Barbet

 Thanks for reading! The final post in this blog series will cover our time in Kandy, and will contain a complete bird species list for the trip.