Hello everyone, welcome to the 3rd instalment of my blog.

This will be my final blog post about Sri Lanka as we are set to leave for Bali in 1 day!

The last 6 days have been just as busy as the first 5! We have been to Ella, Kandy, Sigiriya and will be going back to Colombo for the final night.

Ella

In my last post I mentioned that our next stop would be Ella. After a 3 hour taxi journey in a comically sized Suzuki Alto we arrived at the quaint mountain town of Ella.

We wasted no time once we arrived, after dropping our bags off we set off on the trail for Little Adam’s Peak, a famous hiking spot in Ella. We got hit with a short shower of rain once at the peak but it gave me the opportunity to capture a cool shot of a faint rainbow.

I also took what I think to be my best shot of the trip so far (even if it isn’t of me!).

On our way down we met 2 German girls who had just started a 1 year trip who were adamant on seeing another popular landmark called the Nine Arch Bridge.

We managed to get completely lost and ending up trekking through some remote village nearby but was lucky enough to finally find a viewpoint of the bridge. I found this sight to be a bit overrated…

After dinner back in Ella town I met 2 different girls from Berlin in our room. We had originally planned to hike Ella Rock the next day but after talking with the girls and looking up pictures from Ella rock it looked very similar to Little Adams Peak.

We ended up joining the girls on a trip to Diyaluma Falls.

Boy was I glad we decided to do this, it had great views and small pools that we could relax in!

Ella to Kandy Train

So after our short time in Ella was over it was now time to catch the famous Ella to Kandy train.

The reason why it is so popular for tourists is that it boasts some incredible views, to which I can vouch for!

It was another 5am wake up for us as the ticket office opens at 6am with the first train leaving at 6:49am.

We thought with that the the early start would mean less tourists and locals, we were wrong.

Every year there is a religious festival in Kandy from the 16th until the 26th of August. This meant that our train was already packed by the time it had reached our station…

It was a painful 7 hour standing train ride in total but luckily we shared a small part of the carriage with 4 other English people which made the arduous trip bearable at least.

Kandy

Once we had arrived in Kandy we were very relieved that we had picked this location to be the place where we would spend a bit more than usual, we ended up staying at a 5 star hotel for about £60 each which by all standards is seriously cheap.

Throughout my travels in Sri Lanka I had heard very mixed reviews on Kandy but most people didn’t speak highly of it. Due to this Matt and I decided to relax and stay at the hotel whilst Marco headed into town to have a beer with some of the other people we met on the train.

So it turns out that you cannot drink in Kandy whilst the festival is on! So Marco spent the evening fruitlessly trying to find a place with the other people before doing a bit of sightseeing and heading back to the hotel.

Arrivederci Marco

The morning after we had to say our goodbyes to Marco who had an additional 10 days in Sri Lanka compared to us so he wanted to visit some other places before heading home.

Marco set off for Trincomalee, a place similar to Arugam Bay but famous for diving instead. Matt and I were setting off for Sigiriya.

Sigiriya

Our final stop before heading back to Colombo. Sigiriya is famous for Sigiriya Rock, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the first day we had arrived too late to be able to hike up the rock but had we had a great view of the challenge ahead from our hotel.

Next morning we set off at 7am to tackle the rock. After what can only feel like 1 million steps we reached the peak and we were both glad we did it and that we had decided to do it so early as the number of tourists were limited.

Colombo

Once we arrived back in Colombo we both agreed to just relax as by this point we were both exhausted from all the travel.

We probably have gone to see some of the sights of Colombo but Cities have never really appealed to me.

What would I have done differently?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and with the limited time we had we were always on a tight schedule, so we never had much room for change.

If I could do Sri Lanka from the beginning I would definitely focus my time on Arugam Bay and Ella around this time of year.

Arugam Bay had the best social scene and surfing whilst Ella had the best hiking and nature.

I would have removed time spent in both Tangalle and Kandy, Tangalle because it was off season and the sea was too rough to swim in. Kandy because as a city it doesn’t have much to offer.

As always, thanks for reading and next time I will be writing from Bali!