Holiday in Sri Lanka (5): the road to the hill country
Today (Sunday) was very much a travelling day and, boy, did we travel. At 8.30 am, we left our hotel outside Yala National Park and beside the rolling waves of the Indian Ocean. We headed due north, originally on a straight road but then on a steeply winding road that rose higher and higher and higher. In the afternoon, we turned west, still twisting and still rising. It was 5.10 pm when we reached our hotel at the town of Nuwara Eliya. In the course of almost nine hours, we had risen from sea level to 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) and gone from a hot and humid climate by the ocean to a markedly chilly one in the hill country.
Before lunch, we made two stops.
First, at Buduruwagala we observed seven huge figures carved into a rock face, belonging to the Mahayana School of Buddhism and dating back to around the 8th-9th centuries. The central figure stands at 52 feet (16 metres) while on either side there are groups of three figures about half that height. My guide book said that this location is “little visited by foreign tourists” (there were very few people there at all), but we were duly impressed by the size and longevity of the images and the beautiful wooded ambience.
Second, at Rawana Falls we viewed a lovely waterfall of 295 feet (90 metres), the clear water gushing down over coloured rocks. This was obviously a popular place for local travellers because lots of people were shedding most of their clothes, washing in an impromptu shower area, and then braving the cold water and large rocks of the falls. Clearly the authorities were not so keen on this because a sign warned of the dangers and announced that there had already been 36 deaths here.
Lunch was at the town of Ella which is like Kathmandu in Nepal or Queenstown in New Zealand, a haven for backpackers and foreign adventurers. We took a steep road followed by a steep track to the 98 Acres Resort & Spa for a meal at the hotel cafe. The view was magnificent: overlooking a steep valley with a rock formation on one side and everything covered in lush green vegetation. Lunch was four courses and we all chose tuna steak for the main course but none of us could finish the enormous helping.
After lunch, we had a short, heavy burst of rain as we kept climbing. Just outside our destination of Nuwara Eliya, we persuaded Rashmika to stop for a while so that we could check out an ornate temple, actually a Hindu one. Unusually for central Sri Lanka, the town has a population which is 30% Tamil (who are Hindu), descendants of Indian Tamils brought here by the British to work on the tea plantations.
Located so high up in misted mountains, Nuwara Eliya began life as a hill retreat for British civil servants and tea planters and is known as ‘Little England’. The post office in particular looks like a corner of rural England and, thanks to the British, the town has a horse racing course and a golf course. Our hotel here – the Grand – was established in 1891 and was originally the location of the former governor’s holiday bungalow but is now a huge, mock-Tudor affair. It lives up to its name (except oddly wifi is only available in the reception area).
For dinner, the three of us decided to do something a bit different, so we went to the Grand Indian Restaurant in the hotel grounds. I ate murg makhani (marinated chicken in yoghurt) and keshar kulfi (pistachio & almond ice cream). A lot of travel and a lot of food today.