Sri Lanka - Day 5/6 - Ella & Tissa

According to our research, one of the must do’s in Sri Lanka is taking the train to Ella. It’s supposed to be one of the most scenic routes as it goes through the hills and tea plantations. Naturally, since this part of the trip was so important, I probably should’ve bought tickets beforehand. I didn’t.

We woke up early and took a tuktuk to the main station. I tried again to buy first class tickets or second class reserved, not a chance. So we bought regular second class tickets. We were optimistic at first because there were only a few people waiting at the platform, but it was still early. Soon enough more and more people showed up, all foreigners, so when the train arrived, everyone scrambled in to get a spot. Of course everybody had assumed the train would arrived empty. It didn’t. So we ended up standing in 3rd class, along with everyone else. We did have a good spot though, by the window.​

​The ride itself took a total of 7 hours from Kandy to Ella, but we manage to find seats for most of the trip. The highlight though, was actually sitting at the doorway and dangling our legs out of the train (which in retrospect was pretty dangerous and irresponsible). We got to see fantastic views though.

​​We arrived in Ella with just enough time to have lunch, grab a drink and take a bus to our hotel. The next morning we hailed the bus on the highway and were on our way to Tissa.

We arrived fairly early at Tissa, which is a beautiful little town on a lake. We took bikes from our hotel and cycled round before watching the sunset and going to bed. We were waking up early the next day, safari time!