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Its our first day exploring Ella. With it being high up in the hill county the weather is completely different to the rest of Sri Lanka. In the morning you are greated by warm-hot sunshine and clear blue sky. But as the morning finishes at around 2pm everyday the storms start. It absolutely pour's it down with rain and the whole area is shrouded in mist and fog. It clears up by the evening and the sun sets with a beautiful pink hue. However at night time the place is freezing! We've had to used blankets!
We woke to a delicious breakfast of fruit, toast, eggs and dhal with rottis. We took the local bus, surprisingly empty, down a windy and sometimes narrow road looking out into the beauitful mountains. We hopped off the bus at Rawana Waterfalls. It was spectualar! With all the rain from the previous night, the cascading waterfall was stunning. The locals even use parts of it for washing and showering, but not in the nude luckily for the tourists! Legend has it that The Kimg Rawana hid a pricess in the caves behind the falls. Around the falls were a few rustic stalls selling local fruit and cooked corn on the cobs. We grabbed ourselves a refreshing coconut to drink out of while watching the falls. Of course it wouldn't be Sri Lanka without the odd local bothering you to get into their tuk tuk or buy something. But we heard a new scam today. A man asked us where we were from and then told us his daughter collects coins do we have any? You may want to know that the exchange rate is currently £1 to 210 ruppees. So we found him a lovely 2p coin, he was less than impressed by our gift for his daughter. Obviously a scam! The other disappointing and embarrassing thing was two young white female tourists who had decided that in a largely religious and conservatively dressed country (especially if you are a woman) to strip down to their bikinis and sunbath in the middle of the Waterfalls in everyone's viewing point. They obviously were not fussed and a number of locals headed up that way to check them out and blatantly take selfies with them in the backround. It's just a bit embarrassing to watch as a fellow young white tourists, I hope that the locals do not think we are all so disrespectful to other countries beliefs and culture, after all Sri Lanka is full of beautiful beaches you can strip off and sunbath on without causing offence.
Anyway moving on..... We grabbed a tuk tuk and headed to a tea factory later, our sneaky driver decided not to inform us that it was shut. But we did get to walk through an empty factory and sample some Tea while looking out at the scenery. On our way down we saw a few more unsuspecting tourists being driven up by theur tuk tuk drivers. Luckily we just got back in time before the rain started at 2pm as always. The place we are stopping in has a veranda right outside our room, so we relaxed there with our books and watched the rain as it became heavier and heavier. The ground was completely flooded, luckily we were on a little hill. That evening another older German couple Daniella and Fitz arrived at the property, they are doing the same thing as us but staying for 3 months in Sri Lanka. They said they may be old but they can do what the young people do and go travelling too. We had a lovely chat with them while drinking some more Tea and recommended our Dambulla hotel to them.
It's been busy but relaxing day and we are looking forward to climbing little Adams peak tomorrow.
- comments
mum and Dad What a wonderful day you have had! The falls look absolutey beautiful, how lovely to drink fresh coconut water whilst sat enjoying the view! A shame about the young girls! Very disrespectful of them! Your hotel sounds nice especially with a veranda to sit and relax on, a bit different from your balcony in Reigate! I was thinking of you earlier as I had to put a massive spider outside, it was on my jumper that I had over the radiator! I shook it onto the floor and milo just stared at it ( no help whatsoever) it ran onto his bedding near the door so I was very brave and picked his bedding up and threw it out in the garden- hoping it doesn't return! Have you seen any spiders yet? hope not x nice to meet the German couple, there's hope for me and dad then! It's lovely to hear that you are enjoying your travels, hope you have a good day tomorrow climbing Adams peak! Xxxx
Pat Khan It just sounds so wonderful and to be experiencing all these different cultures is amazing. Papa is really enjoying your blogs.