24/25th February 2017
I know I'm being a fussy tourist but when a hotel sells itself on luxurious boutique experience with pool, spa and the highest quality cuisine I think I'd be forgiven for being disappointed when there are only 5 sunbeds, no spa and the worst food so far. Thai Chicken should be better than a plain chicken breast with a drizzle of bottled sweet and sour sauce...but it was at least heated to an acceptable level. Never mind ..to be fair the young lads from the local area were very willing but just lacked decent management and training. If it hadn't been one of the more expensive places on our tour and didn't promise more than it could deliver it would have been fine. There's a lot of hotels in SL so I think they may struggle if they don't take note of how other places are doing it. Looking forward to our next place.
So Saturday morning off to Ella by train. Bad start to the day as when I bent to pack my suitcase I twanged my back. Ouch! Not surprised as its had a hammering from being jiggled about on bumpy roads. As usual muscle spasm hits. Out comes the medical bag. Thank goodness for English medicine as Dommi calls it...as apposed to the herbal medicine that he recommends as a slower but more permanent remedy for all ailments. Although he did have some Diclofenac gel in the vehicle!
Firstly we visited the large botanical gardens. En route Dommi pointed out the War Cementary with WW2 commonwealth and Italian soldiers graves. SL suffered from Japanese bomber attacks but soldiers also fell foul of disease such as malaria.
The gardens are over a large area and as we only had an hour...and I was in some discomfort. .we opted for a guide and a golf buggy. Lazy way of doing it but meant we got to see it all and got a good commentary. Large mixed collection of trees, bushes and plants from all over the world. ..and the largest group of huge fruit bats you are likely to see in a park. They do kick up a fuss..like squabbling cats.
After that it was on to Kandy station. Collected our "first class" reserved seat tickets at the station that looks like something from an old movie. Old style ticket office, station master in cap and uniform. Trains are ancient and the overcrowding makes London underground look empty. Signals and points are all done manually with the old lever system. Much of the route from Colombo to Bandulla is single track and so as the trains go through the stations the guard passes onto or collects a ring from the station master. They have it down to a fine art. Whistles and flags are used with vigour but level crossing gates are rare. People seem to use the tracks as pavements..
The timetables are clearly just for show. The earlier train was running an hour late. Ours only 35 mins late. Third class was rammed with people hanging out of open doorways. Air con = glass free windows. Standing room only. Second class..you get a seat. First class you get a seat and refreshments! Hard to describe how old and worn the engine and carriages are..I've seen newer looking ones in museums. Amazing they keep going at all. The journey to Ella over and through the hill country was timetabled to arrive at 6.30. Dommi didn't seem surprised when we eventually arrived at 8.45pm. Slow and wobbly...so wobbly you couldn't go to the loo unless the train had stopped without serious risk of damage to life, limb and clothing! How the staff managed to serve water, rice and curry, yoghurt, fruit, tea/coffee. .and later, filled roll and cake with more drinks...I don't know. They were great.
The views were spectacular as we went up to a height of about 2000m. Through areas of cloud forest, terraced tea plantations and small vegetable farms. Steep drops, lots of lush vegetation, small waterfalls, hydropower dam and reservoir and some deer made the long very slow journey an amazing trip.
Sadly it was pitch dark for the last 2.5 hours..not helped to our destination as they discovered a faulty headlamp on the engine so it uncoupled, chugged away, was hand cranked round a turntable, reversed back. Recoupling involved the young steward with his mobile phone's torch assisting the engineer to reattach the power cable with the help of a bit of string. High tech. So now we had the rear lamps acting as head lamps we could complete the journey to Ella.
Thankfully Dommi had got his vehicle waiting for us and had resisted the temptation of abandoning us for his lodgings. Our hotel, 98 Acres was just up on yet another hill. Too dark to see the view which we knew was waiting to be revealed at dawn but our 1st floor chalet style room was fabulous. Huge room..Massive bed..Sofa..huge well appointed en suite and thatched balcony. Birthday wishes spelt out in flowers and leaves on the bed and Happy Anniversary cake were really nice touches as was the warm welcome and herbal tea from the staff. Lots of steps to the restaurant but beautiful design, mixing natural materials with trendy yogo retreat style. Lovely selection on varied set menus. Our selections from the Sri Lankan rice and curry options were very tasty and more than we could manage. Staff were welcoming despite us being so late.
As my back is so sore we have ditched the planned trek round Horton Plain tomorrow so we can have a lie in.
Update 28/2/17 Just uploaded train photos that had previously fsiled
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