On our last day along the coast we walked over to Unawatuna, which is a beach with good beginner surfing waves. We had each taken 1 surf lesson previously and were keen to try it again. We walked onto the beach and in classic Rock-Awn style we chose the first surfer dude who approached us about lessons. We headed out to the break and got to it. Similarly to my first experience I was able to get up relatively easily and LOVED IT. As a typical non-water sport person, I can definitely say surfing is at the top of my list. At one point Rocky and I were both in the shallows and here’s how our interaction went:
- Me (grinning ear to ear like an eager beaver), “This is so great!!!!!”
- Rocky (person who loves being in water usually), “I fu$#&n hate this!!!!”
You know how they say that married couples start becoming like one another? Maybe after 7 Rock-Awns we are starting to morph into one another.
The next morning we were up bright and early to see about a bus to the town of Ella. We couldn’t find any solid info on a schedule but we had 3 anecdotal stories about a 6am bus. We were so jazzed when a bus came along, we identified that it was the one we were looking for, and we were able to do the mad rush on to get seats! We had to make 1 bus transfer and our aisle seat mate shepherded us to the next bus, which was adorned with a neon Lakshmi goddess. The excitement wore off after 7 hours of loud, hot, crowded, stuffy bus time, so when we scrambled off the bus we needed to regroup with a cold drink.
Ella is a town in the mountainous area of Sri Lanka so the climate is not so melty. We wandered around but were too chicken to cross under a bridge on the main highway with lots of traffic and no sidewalks.
We did a small hike to the 9 Arch Bridge. We were nervous to walk on the tracks and then realized that crazy people stay on the bridge even when the train is going by!
We also hiked up Little Adam’s peak for great views.
We visited the beautiful Mahamevnawa Monastery and had a great tour with a monk.
We finally braved walking under the tunnel without sidewalks en route to the Kinellan Tea Factory. Sri Lanka was historically known as Ceylon and one of its major exports is tea. The factory was sweltering inside, so hot that it has become a repeating choice in our ‘would you rather’ game (ie. Would you rather have to work in the tea factory every day or be a politician? Both of us answered the latter!). We tasted a few varieties and as Rocky made the joke that it was like Ted Lasso says, they all tasted like brown water.
Our accommodation in Ella was in the perfect location and had a beautiful garden area where we saw a mongoose, a grizzled giant squirrel, and numerous types of birds. Unfortunately on our first night we could hear something crawling around in our ceiling and we FREAKED OUT! Hilariously both of us assumed the ‘turtle position’ on the bed, as if that would protect us. We frantically knocked on the door of our host, who told us that it was just some really cute squirrels. Because they were reportedly ‘cute’ we calmed down, though each morning when we were woken up by them fighting/playing/mating/dancing on our thin particle board ceiling our ‘fight or flight’ kicked in.
This morning we boarded a scenic train to the city of Kandy. This was the #1 thing on both of our ‘must-do’ lists, and it did not disappoint. The 8 hour train didn’t feel like 8 hours, until the end when it definitely felt like 8 hours! It winds through tea plantations, forests, and villages, with views of temples and waterfalls.
It is an open air, open door train, which means that at every opportunity gringos are hanging out of the train for the perfect photo op… including us!
I don’t know how she did it, but Rocky booked us the cheapest 3rd class tickets and we somehow had the whole train car almost all to ourselves. Our train official was hard core about keeping the other people in their rightful carriages.
We were glad we ordered the ‘pile of rice’ lunch.
We had lots of fun in Kandy already, but I’ll save that for the next blog!
