Ella Days 1-3

 

Ella is a full-on tourist town.  For lots of good reasons. 

The landscape is beautiful.  The weather is warm during the day and cool at night.  There are lots of neat animals to see.  There are cute shops and restaurants to keep a person busy on a rainy day.

We stayed at Herbal Breeze.  Fairly high on a mountain with trees all around.  There was a bird/chippy feeder right in front of our porch.  It was fun to watch the interactions of the chipmunks and birds as they came to feed.

One of the best ways to get around Ella is to walk the train tracks.  It's illegal.  But everyone does it.  It's mostly safe because it's easy to hear the train coming. Except this one dog...  He stayed on the track as the train approached.  Unaware?  Playing chicken???  I don't know.  But he ducked between the ties as the train passed.  Then.  Crazy!!!  He got impatient??  Ran out between the train wheels as the last few cars went past.  It took me a little while to settle my emotions after that....

Pictures
1-Toby on our patio at Herbal Breeze.  It was really nice to have tea there in the morning and evening.
2- On our first night at Herbal Breeze, we ordered dinner for the patio.  We had no idea it would be so pretty.  All for 600 Rupees, about $4 Canadian.  And in the end, they didn't charge us for it.  Maybe because we extended our 3 day stay to 6 days?
3-On our first walk in Ella, we discovered a restaurant called Serenity.  The view from there was awesome!  The monkeys playing were super awesome!
4- The hosts at Herbal Breeze kept putting rice, bananas, etc on this feeder in front of our porch.  It was great to watch the animals and birds interact.
5- At a local cafe, we played a game of carom, a popular game in Sri Lanka.  Toby won, but it was pleasantly close! This Jewish man only spoke Yiddish, but he watched us play and cheered us on.   And when the game was done tried to get my last pieces into the little corner pockets.  Fun!
6- Walking the train tracks was really pleasant. 
7- The Nine Arches bridge was built in 1921.  It's especially remarkable because the metal for its construction was reallocated to the British front when WW1 started, so locals built it with only stone, bricks, and cement.
8- Some big pretty flowers in Ella.
9- This was a tiny food place beside the road to Nine Arches Bridge.  It was impressive because it was so cute and clean, and the food was tasty too!
10- There are lots of small/medium gardens/farms in Ella and the surrounding areas.  They're often irregular in shape and on little inclines.  The locals seem to use mostly/only hand tools to work, and hoses/buckets to water them. This man was growing tomatoes right beside the Nine Arches Bridge.
11- One of the many incredible views from the hills in Ella.  The pictures cannot convey the whole feeling of space and beauty