Hotel Alta Vista Ella

... especially seeing the crowded buses here and travel is very slow cause the speed limit is only like 60kmhr so I hate to think how long it would take by public transport. And part of the deal is accommodation and breakfast all which is pretty good so don’t have to go searching. And where I am now in Ella is awesome and I never would have come here by myself. I just don’t think he is properly listening when I tell him I’m not just here for a holiday to blow ...

... evening set upon us we visited the &#8220;temple of the sacred tooth&#8221; which is where one of the teeth of the Buddha himself is believed to be kept. For dinner on the way home we had some street daal, roti and chickpeas which was delicious and cost us $1.75 with a drink each.<br><br>We were up early to catch a bus north to the ancient cities (abandoned sites that were once the islands capitals). <br><br>On the way up I managed to begin reading my new book ...

... all the seats were sitting backwards looking out the back of the train with windows all around.<br><br>The train was not busy and it was not hectic at all. So we just sat back and watched as the train climbed the hills and passed tea plantations and waterfalls and people ate, slept and relaxed. Before we knew it the 6h journey was over and we got off. We took a tuk tuk to the hotel as were told the hilltop rest was at the top of the hill so didn't want ...

... to "The Pub", Andrew went in first to check it out, which turned out to be a good idea as there were only 50 drunk men in there, and so I decided it might not be the best place for a western female to be! Back to the hotel to eat our crisps... Next day we woke at 5am for a drive to Horton Plains, a national park at high altitude. Our driver/guide was a wealth of knowledge and told ...

... it was still a beautiful sunrise. The valley behind the mountain was shrouded in mist and had different hues of pinks as the sun rose... gorgeous! The walk down was actually easier than going up but I think part of that was because we walked down with a couple and were distracted from what we were doing. At the bottom there is a man that puts a bracelet on your wrist and prays over you that most people stop off at. Ella For some reason the train system in ...

... The town lies six thousand feet above the bath warm Indian Ocean and here the guidebook is quite correct, it is cool. Crisp is perhaps gilding the lily and "A serene retreat from the hustle and bustle of Colombo" only applies if you are a Sri Lankan and excluded from the constant hassle of tuk-tuk wallahs. The writer who described it as "a piece of the English Lake District" clearly knows a part I don't; certainly they have tea and leeks in common and the ...

... etc etc The final products were sensational! A chicken curry, potato curry, loofa curry, dhal, a tabouli salad with coconut and of course plenty of rice. I decided to go the whole local experience and eat with Lanka style, with my hands. We got showed the technique - when you serve yourself the curries you put the rice in first then add the curries around the edge of the plate - leaving an ...

... a visit to Nuwara Eliya in the mountains. This trip wasnt quite so glamarious as a beach.... firsty our bus kept braking down on the 7 hour trip up the mountain, and secondly the place is so high up that the weather was exactly the same as the UK! I had 3 layers on and was still cold. Not only that but we didnt manage to find beds so we ended up on the floor in some farmers house with no heating... During the day was much better though, we went to a tea plantation and got to play ...

Well, the last week has been a blast. Wednesday night we took our house boys out for supper; Thursday night we went Salsa dancing at Bistro Latino in Colombo for Sarah's birthday (my time in Morocco paid off brilliantly!); Friday night we headed down to Hikkaduwa and went out to Vibration (my time at youth club with table tennis paid off here); Saturday night was spent at Moon Beam and Bar Mambo for Charlotte's birthday (my ...

Sri Lanka's highest peak rises 2,524 meters (8,281 feet) and the towns surrounding cities seem a world away from the coastal hot spots. However, our trip to this "other world" only took 45 minutes :) We left the beach town of Tangalla and were quickly in Tissa where we went to Yala National Park. The park is incredible. Less than an hour earlier we were sipping on drinks looking at a ...