Ella

A town in the hill country of Sri Lanka, at the end of the railway from Nuwara Eliya, and the first place in the series that is unmistakably built for visitors.

Getting there

• About four hours by train from Nuwara Eliya, on the stretch routinely called the most scenic railway in the world.
• $5 in first class, about $1 in third. First class is air-conditioned and comfortable and its windows don’t open, which on this line is the thing that matters — see take the cheapest class.
• A tuk-tuk from the station into town: 300 rupees, about $2.

Where and how high

Per the video descriptions: Ella sits at 1,041 m above sea level, in the Badulla District of Uva Province, about 200 km east of Colombo, in an area with unusually rich flora and fauna.

Weather during the visit ran around 25°C and sunny by day, noticeably warmer than Nuwara Eliya an hour back up the line, with mornings nearer 20°C.

The Nine Arch Bridge

The town’s headline sight, a 1921 railway viaduct in the hills outside it, with its own page: Nine Arch Bridge. A tuk-tuk out there is quoted around 1,200 rupees.

First impressions

Harry’s reaction on the platform is that this is a different country from the week behind him: tourist city, very Western, music playing, obviously prosperous. He arrives planning two days and says within minutes that they aren’t leaving in two days.

What he lists as the reasons to be here: waterfalls, a bridge, and a mountain climb he names as Adam’s Peak.

Staying there

A hotel built into the hillside above the town, which had opened four days before Harry arrived — so this is a snapshot of a brand-new place rather than a settled one. (Named and linked in the video description, so unnamed here.)

• An infinity pool over the forest, cold enough to comment on; mornings around 20°C.
• Monkeys in the trees, close to the rooms.
• 16 Mbps down and 26 up — unusually, faster up than down.
• Rooms with a body-temperature-sensing shower, tap entry, and a router intended for each room.
• Views of Ella Rock, and of a peak Harry names as Adam’s Peak.
• The snags of a new hotel: patchy wi-fi in places, and no bottle opener yet.
• A five to ten minute walk from the main road, per the video description.

Breakfast

Both cuisines are served, and Harry has both on the same morning.

• The Sri Lankan side: hoppers — a very thin, soft, bowl-shaped bread, softer than crisp — with chicken, coconut sambol and a spicy onion relish; roti and dosa; dal, creamy and not spicy; milk rice, sticky, with a chilli on top; and a spicy chicken thigh, the only hot thing on the plate.
• The English side: omelette with vegetables, potatoes, beans, tomato, and chicken bacon and chicken sausage, which he approaches sceptically and rates.

The zipline

The Flying Ravana Mega Zipline, a short walk out of town on the trail Harry calls Adam’s Peak.

• 550 metres, run two abreast.
• 4,000 rupees — about $20.
• GoPros allowed, and the lift back to the top is free, which is an inducement to buy a second run.
• The same operation also does ATV riding, mountain biking, air rifle shooting, abseiling and archery.

Harry compares it favourably with a zipline off the 43rd floor of a building in Dubai.

Eating and drinking

• King coconuts — the orange ones — cost 100 rupees in town and 150 at the Nine Arch Bridge viewpoint, cut open at the roadside with a knife. They taste much like green coconuts but less sweet, which Harry thinks makes them easier for anyone who dislikes coconut.
• Western food is easy to find and costs more: penne, a pizza, a burger and drinks for three came to 5,100 rupees, about $25.
• The best wi-fi Harry finds anywhere in Sri Lanka is in an Ella restaurant — 61 Mbps down, 39 up.
• Health food is easy to find here in a way it isn’t elsewhere in the country: smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juice and at least one vegan place. The fruit juice is the best Harry has in Sri Lanka, and he prefers the smoothie bowl to an açaí bowl because it isn’t frozen.

Roti, and the restaurant strip

Ella’s eating is concentrated on one stretch, and roti is what to order on it.

• 500 to 700 rupees a roti — $2 to $4. Three people ate and drank at a live-music place with an open fire for 4,000 rupees, beer included, which is well below what the setting suggests.
• Two different dishes share the name. The Indian style is a wrap: very thin paratha-like bread folded round a filling — prawn, potato and vegetables — with a green sauce. The Sri Lankan style is coconut roti, a thinner softer flatbread eaten by dipping, served with a hot sauce that Harry finds overpowers it.
• Dessert roti — the same bread wrapped round banana, coconut and chocolate and fried in butter — runs about 1,500 rupees, $7.
• Kitchens here are behind glass so you can watch the cooking, and asking to film gets a yes.
• Lion beer is the local one, and Harry rates it among his favourite beers anywhere.
• Places run out. One kitchen was out of roti with an hour’s notice needed.

Getting around

• A tuk-tuk out to the zipline: 300 rupees, though the return quote goes up.

Adam’s Peak, and Little Adam’s Peak

Harry corrects himself on this on his last day, having got it wrong in three earlier videos: Adam’s Peak is not in Ella. It is roughly four hours away, on the other side of the island. The climb in Ella is Little Adam’s Peak, a separate and much shorter hill.

His own observation is that the naming is genuinely misleading — normally a “little” version of a peak is the smaller hill next to the big one, and these two are at opposite ends of the country. He never climbs either.

Earlier pages in this cluster record him naming “Adam’s Peak” from Ella; that is what he says, and this is the correction.

Leaving, towards the coast

• A private car south to Weligama costs about 13,000 rupees — $70 — split between four, on a route that goes around the national parks rather than through them.

Source

• Best Train Ride in the World (Only $5)🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_b8ggPhVvA
• $200 New Jungle Hotel in Ella, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3Lm9rR7nI
• I Didn’t Expect This In Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAAahBHRNrM
• Sri Lanka’s Best Roti 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlE2VSHAcAw
• The Most BEAUTIFUL place in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHfoPiIeL-U
• Avoid This Man in Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIe_cWTfrM