Haputale —-> Ella – August 2nd
Even the weather seems to notice my great regret in leaving Haputale, a grey sky and a fine drizzle sadden the atmosphere.
I leave my luggage at the hotel front desk warning that I will return to pick it up at around 13.30. I decide to walk towards Adisham Hill and the monastery. It’s a walk of about 3.7 kms, according to Google Maps, going up on Temple Road and then follow the signs along other plantations of tea.
The last stretch is in the middle of a forest. Only one part of the building can be visited
I go back under a heavy rain, and have lunch at Risara, 160 LKR. I look for the smiling elderly tea man, but he is out of shift, I am sorry not to be able to say him goodbye and thanks for everything.
The doors of the station ticket office open precisely 50 minutes before the train arrival, I queue and purchase a 2nd class seat to Ella (50 LKR). A tout gives me a business card of a correspondent at destination.
On the train there are no seats, so I stand next to the door, to see some panorama. The guides say that the route is very scenic, but after the yesterday walk, I am not any longer impressed.
The square in front of Ella station is a mess, the Haputale tout told me to look for a small and skinny little woman, the Sri Lankan standards of feminine figure. So I give up and do not even try. Miraculously she manages to find me. She takes me to her home, the Rock Face guesthouse, up a steep staircase that leads to the hillside, away from the main street, under a giant power line pylon, but with a decent view, and, above all, very quiet. She shows me a couple of rooms, I choose the one that seems the best, with separate entrance. It costs 2000 LKR, since Ella is an expensive town, it seems like a good deal to me. The bathroom is nice
I confirm to one of the owner’s pretty daughters that I stop for dinner. I go back to the station, fortunately at the right moment, and I immediately buy a ticket to Kandy (600 LKR), pre-booking my seat. It would be too much to travel 7 hours at night standing and without sleeping. At the station I meet again the two New Zealanders from Haputale, we sit at the Bloom Café, I order a ginger tea (150 LKR), and we talk about a lot of interesting things, from the Arab / Israeli conflict to the rigor imposed by the Germans to Italy and Greece (they want to know my opinion since I am involved in the matter), then we move on to more personal themes. We greet and exchange email addresses, hoping to meet again soon. I realize that there are no cheap restaurants, so it a was right choice to eat at the guesthouse. A rice and curry, with fruit, costs me 350 LKR, plus 80 LKR water.