Ella-Tangalle: From the Hills to the Beach

After seeing the hordes down in town, neither of us had any great desire to join them to tick off the tourist traps in Ella (various well-documented walks, including one with a view of the unnecessarily famous nine-arch bridge). So instead, after a nice sleep-in, we spent much of the day relaxing outside our room and by the pool, with an amazing view (if very misty – an atmospheric haze descends quickly in the morning here), of our very own. I had a huge and tasty club sandwich and pineapple, ginger, and lime juice for lunch. I’m certainly eating well – what a contrast to lndia!

A wonderfully lazy day. We can see Ella Rock and Lipton’s Seat (two famous viewpoints) from the pool, and when I talked to one of the guys love he said someone had lit a fire aand burned the vegetation on Ella Rock (probably someone sick of tourists, I expect). I’m glad we didn’t bother with the tourist trails and just relaxed for a change. I finished my book The Anarchy and started on another by William Dalrymple, White Mughals.

The only frustrating moment a when the stupid old Dutch couple in the room next to us started talking loudly to their son on video in the common area, which really annoyed me. Some people are so astonishingly unaware of other people around them – it never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway, a very relaxing day. One of the waiters tried to get us to use his friend for our car trip tomorrow, but we soon realised the guy was running a service, and when we checked with the hotel it was 5,000 cheaper. So beware “my best friend will drive you” stories, as usual. 

We’re leaving the hill country tomorrow – nice views here, but personally I found the ‘cultural triangle’ part of the country much more interesting, and we didn’t really come to Sri Lanka to hike. Tomorrow we have another rarely-visited cave temple to see, then a short stay on the southern coast at Tangalle.

8th March

We woke at 6.15 am and checked the view outside but it was still hazy, so it’s just as well we didn’t bother with early morning hikes, there wouldn’t have been a superior view to the one we have here. We had another great breakfast, got our stuff packed (I have such a good system now I can be ready in a moment), paid, and met our new driver Nandica.

Nandica was an enthusiastic fellow who probably wanted to converse more than we did – at one stage he even called his friend in Auckland on video to say hello to us, who seemed as nonplussed about the exercise as we did – but he did give us the full day without rushing us, and did suggest a couple of extra stops which turned out to be great. The first was the Ruwara Ella Falls, on the road to Wellawaya, which was an impressive 90m waterfall, though swarming with tourists (I really hope I don’t walk around with that blank ‘where are we and what are we doing’ expression on my face). The next was the day’s highlight, the Buduruwagala rock carvings, a large rock outcrop in a forest clearing (complete with fluttering butterflies) carved with seven low-relief figures – the largest a standing Buddha 16m tall.

Probably dating from the 10th centuny, these Buddhist and Hindu figures give off a wonderfully calm, serene atmosphere. It was the height of the day and very hot, and I scalded my bare feet on the hot rock shelves around the figures taking photographs.

After driving for a while, some of it along a wide, somewhat empty toll highway – one of the Chinese-funded follies of the last, corrupt government – we made our way to Mulkirigala, a temple-monastery sometimes known as ‘Little Sigiriya’. There we explored third century BC cave temples (restored in the 18th century) on a senes of terraces separated by steep flights of monkey-haunted rock-cut steps. There were very few tourists about – just a couple of groups of middle-aged Russian women, one group of which was dressed in the most ridiculously long, sheer, revealing, brightly coloured long dresses that definitely took the prize for the most inappropriate travel wear I have ever seen. We pretty much had the place to ourselves (and some creepy monkeys).

At the very top, past a small dagoba and a body tree (grown from one of 32 saplings from the Anuradhapura tree), was a fenced rock shelf with an incredible view over the thick green of palm trees far below.

On the way down, I bought some wrist ties from a monk for a ‘donation’ and he tied white blessing threads around our wrists and gave us chanted blessings whiling touching our heads.

More driving, and at about 5pm we reached Villa Blu, right on the beach at Tangalle. Like CBeyond and Chill Ville in Ella, this is a small, lovely place with a small number of rooms. Despite the price being equal to what you’d pay for a night in an average city hotel, it’s like living like a rock star. There’s a beautiful T-shaped pool (which projects into the hote under the stairs), we have the best room with our own projecting balcony, and there are only a few other quests.

We had an incredible dinner – l had huge lagoon prawns – sitting outside by the pool with the ocean booming against the shore at the end of the garden, and that night slept under the mosquito net with the balcony doors open to let in the cool night air and the sounds of the ocean.

9th March

A wonderfully relaxed day day at Villa Blu. After a delicious breakfast of rice and egg hoppers, dhal and coconut sambal, we went for a long walk along the virtually deserted beach (5 km there and back). For much of it there wasn’t a soul on the beach in front of us, and only palm trees on our right – it was like being on a deserted island.

Most the day was spent lying on lounge chairs reading, with the occasional swim in the pool. Hey, it’s been a long year, we’re all entitled to a few days of laziness on our trips! For lunch I had coconut-crusted fish and  two beers. Even Carol got into the pool for a while, which was great as we’re so rarely in the water together.

Loved returning to our room today at one point and discovering they’d cleaned the room and made a little man out of small towels sitting on the bed, wearing my swimming goggles!

Before dinner we relaxed in our room for a bit, then we went down to dinner at 7.30 pm, to find that a spot beyond the pool and further down towards the beach had been prepared for us, with tiki torches burning. Our very gracious and friendly host Kamahl talked with us for a white before and after dinner, telling us about his family and his work history. Carol had vegetarian rice and curry, and I had Ski Lankan style spicy prawn and rice (Sri Lankan medium spicy, not European medium spicy – which still wasn’t particularly spicy).

What an amazing place this has been. The way the place is designed, you feel like you’re staying at your rock star friend’s pad on his private island. I love how they have a normal kitchen where you can hang out and talk, and you can buy a bottle of wine and just keep it in the fridge. The beautiful, simple design of the place, and the way the pool comes into the house, blurs any line between inside and outside. It’s a perfect house for the climate. The only danger with staying here longer would be eating and drinking too much!