After our time in Ella trying to escape the hordes of tourists in town, we would be forced to join them for the next leg of our trip. The famous Ella to Kandy train ride, which winds its way through the stunning hill country and tea fields at the heart of Sri Lanka. The train ride is instagram-famous, as you can risk your life by hanging out the side to snap scenic photos (die for the gram). We did attempt this but it was a serious struggle to get a half decent photo with the camera (still a bit of work to be done on our photography skills). This was the first time we had paid extra for reserved seats on a train, and it was well worth it. Instead of doing the entire 7 hour journey from Ella to Kandy, we disembarked at Hatton, a small town in the hill country. From here we immediately jumped on a local bus (this time without the tourists) which took us on a windy hour-long trip through rolling tea fields to our next destination, Adam’s Peak / Sri Pada.

Sri Pada means 'sacred footprint' in Sinhala and the mountain is revered as a holy site due to a boulder at the summit containing an indentation resembling a footprint. It is revered by Buddhists, Sri Lankan Hindus, Muslims, and Christians who all believe that their respective god or deity was responsible for the footprint. This makes the mountain a major pilgrimage site and thousands of pilgrims climb the 5000+ steps every year to reach the summit. It was pretty inspiring to see people of all ages and stages climbing and descending this sacred peak, some looking pretty broken by the end. We saw young parents carrying up babies, groups of friends egging each other on with chants, and older relatives being helped up and down each and every step. For a lot of locals, they start the climb in the evening and take the whole night to get to the top, with lots of rest and naps along the way. Although we took it a lost faster, it was by no means an easy climb, with 5,000 concrete steps taking a toll on the body. Should have done more stairmaster at the gym. We felt very overdressed in our RAB shells and La Sportiva hiking shoes, most people were wearing jandals and were wrapped in blankets they had bought at the aforementioned shops. 

Another feature of Sri Pada, is the conical shadow it casts on the surrounding plains at sunrise. Naturally we decided we had to be up there for sunrise to see this legendary shadow. Unfortunately, this would mean a 2 AM start for us as the hike was supposed to take around three to four hours on the way up and two hours on the way down. We had met a friendly Italian called Alberto at our accommodation, and so we started the day at 2 AM and set forth on an adventure with bleary eyes. The start of the hike is like nothing I have ever seen before. For the first 30 minutes, we walked past an endless line of stores selling everything from local sweet treats, polyester hats, gloves and blankets for the top of peak, ayurvedic treatments, temple paraphernalia, foot massage machines, and even kids toys. We eventually left the bulk of the stores behind once the stairs started, although there were tea shops dotted all the way up the mountain which sold tea, cold drinks and snacks. We had heard some horror stories about the final 10% of the climb becoming a standstill due to the combination of narrow steps and the mass of pilgrims trying to reach the summit for sunrise. Fortunately, our homestay host had given us some killer local advice to take an alternative route near the summit connecting us to another path that would take us to a spot just below the summit from where you can watch the sunrise and the shadow simultaneously. This worked perfectly, and we made it to the spot with time to kill before sunrise. So we settled in enjoying the moment as our plans came to fruition. We sipped our tea, listening to buddhist monks chanting, while we watched the sun creep up over the horizon behind buddhist prayer flags flapping in the wind. As the sun continued to rise in the sky, the triangular shadow cast by the mountain slowly started to appear on the horizon. It was an incredible moment, and we found ourselves spinning in circles taking photos of the sunrise and then turning around to take photos of the shadow in the other direction.

Once we had finished feasting our eyes on the scenery and filling our camera rolls with photos, we pushed on to the summit to see the temple and the sacred footprint. There was a bell at the top which pilgrims would ring once for every time they had visited the peak (we watched in awe as an old man rang it well over 30 times). The footprint itself was actually covered by a golden cloth for protection (apparently it is very rarely visible) and photos were prohibited, Alice actually walked out saying “where was the footprint?”. Print or no print, the summit was a very peaceful and spiritual place, with people from many religions coming together to worship. We eventually decided it was time to go, and started on our way down. On our way we passed a long standstill queue of pilgrims stuck on their way up the mountain, which we had managed to avoid with the wise advice from our homestay host. The walk down was a breeze in comparison to the uphill slog and we skipped our way down many of the steps getting to the bottom in only two hours. Waiting for us at the bottom was breakfast served by our lovely homestay host, who was stoked to hear his shortcut worked a treat. By this stage our knees were starting to ache and our calves starting to cramp, but we still had a long travel day ahead of us. We needed to catch the hour and a half (windy) bus back to Hatton where we would hop back on the train we had left the day prior to finish the rest of the journey to our next stop, Kandy. We were very excited to sit down for the rest of the day and hopefully find some time to nap along the way.

“Ella” means waterfall in Sinhala, and the many waterfalls around this hill country town, along with the tea plantations, scenic train rides and hikes attracts many visitors to Ella during their time in Sri Lanka. The Main Street is the heart of the backpacker scene, with restaurant on restaurant selling pizza, beer and all night parties. The souvenir shops and hustling drivers felt like a far cry from the Sri Lanka we were falling in love with. We were staying slightly out of town, up a series of switchbacks, a marginally paved road and some under construction steps. The highlight of our accommodation was the view from the deck that looked out directly at popular walks Ella Rock and Little Adam’s Peak. It was otherworldly, with mist swirling down through the valleys and jungle-clad ridges stretching back as far as the eye could see. The type of scene you see in a guide book or computer desktop, and we had a front row seat from our $15 a night guest house!

It won’t come as a surprise to any of you that we largely avoided the Main Street, apart from a few visits to sample the local culinary delights including a pizza, gelato and coffee. All great, and much appreciated! We also got up to our usual nonsense of walking into places and eating whatever we were given, and one morning had some leftovers from a family at our guesthouse (unbeknown to them) who skipped the coconut pancakes and the fried roti rolls - absolute madness!!! 

Our first full day in Ella was one of our absolute favorite days of the trip so far, and included the Ella trifecta of tea estate, waterfall and a hike! On a recommendation from Juliet, who we met in Galle, we had done some research into AMBA estate, a tea estate about a 30 minute drive from Ella. AMBA is an organic farm, guest-house and social enterprise, where maximising local employment and income is prioritized, while preserving and restoring the natural environment. Although the accommodation was slightly out of our budget this time, they have a daily tour at 11 AM which we were very excited to join. Learning about the tea growing and production was fascinating, before this day I actually had no idea that all the different types of tea (black, white, oolong, green etc) were all made from the same plant, just treated differently during production! Our wonderful guide also went into detail about the role of tea in Sri Lanka, and how this has changed over the years. It was brought to Sri Lanka from China by the British, and at the height of this period Sri Lanka was producing 800 million kilograms of tea each year! Sri Lankan tea is the equivalent of a fine French wine, the soils and climate produce a vastly superior product compared to other parts of the world. Since Sri Lanka gained independence, tea production has reduced significantly (down to about 350 million kilograms) as a lot of the skills and knowledge were lost after this time. The teas we tried at AMBA were delicious. The flavours were bright yet subtle, each tea astoundingly different from the last when you remember that they are all made from the same plant! It reminded me of a wine tasting, learning about the different notes you get from each and what food would pair nicely. They do actually offer a tea and food pairing tasting! 

Another very interesting conversation was around the tea pickers. Historically, the British brought Tamil people from India to work on the plantations without proper pay or documentation. This has led to generations of undocumented Tamil people living and working in the highlands of Sri Lanka, who are still today an incredibly oppressed group of people that face large stigmas about their work and identity. Tea picking is seen as an inferior role in society, and the lack of ownership over a business or assets (as opposed to being say a tuk tuk driver with your own vehicle and business), is a major barrier for getting young people into the industry. This is part of what AMBA is trying to combat, giving workers buy-in to the business through a profit sharing type model. 

I also particularly enjoyed the conversations about brand. A lot of Sri Lankan tea is blended with the tea from other countries, and not differentiated as a luxury, superior product the way it could be. To me, this was reminiscent of the start of NZM, and the way New Zealand wool was traded as a commodity product with no differentiation from its Australian or South African counterparts! The main issue here is budget for global marketing, and a lack of a unified approach from the industry nationally. AMBA specifically is doing some amazing work and has small boutique retailers all around the world carrying their product. 

Outside of just tea, AMBA also produces delicious coffee and a range of jams and preserves, which we got to sample after our tea tasting. We also stayed on for a delicious lunch of freshly made roti and pumpkin soup which was simply divine. 90% of what they serve is grown and made onsite at AMBA!

AMBA has a number of walking trails around the property, one which connects to a trail that goes all the way back to Ella, via Ella rock. This was our route home, and after lunch and coffee we started the walk, which we expected to take about four to five hours. The walk was full of amazing moments, including the ‘World’s End’ view point, a secluded swimming hole at the very top of the legendary Ravana Falls (featured in the Ramayana), a forest monastery, sunset at the top of Ella Rock and a dusky/dark walk out through tea plantations and gardens to the railway that would take us back to our accommodation. I could write paragraphs on all of these moments, but I will let the pictures do most of the talking, apart from the forest monastery, which was a very special moment for us. And as we couldn’t take photos, I will have to explain!! 

We had seen ‘Forest Monastery’ on the map and were suitably intrigued. We’d just reached the top of the biggest climb in the walk and were wandering along the ridge towards Ella rock when we came across possibly the most peaceful place I’ve ever been in my life. There was a beautiful garden and a small selection of wooden buildings, and a couple of young monks in orange robes playing with a paper plane. We said hello to one of the more senior monks, who invited us into an empty hall, probably used for teaching, meditation, worship etc. He invited us to sit down and offered us some snacks, and proceeded to ask if we had any problems we would like to discuss with him! We used google translate to discuss big ideas such as the root cause of happiness and sadness, fixes for modern day anxiety and the importance of living in the present. The conversation ended with a group meditation, which felt like an immense privilege to experience in this environment. It’s hard to explain how special this all felt, being at the top of a mountain, conversing with a monk about life over google translate, in the most beautiful of locations. It’s definitely a touching experience that will stay with us. We could have sat and talked for hours, but it was starting to get towards dusk outside, and we still hadn’t made it to the top of Ella rock! As we said our goodbyes the leaving remarks of the monk were especially poignant and will stay with us as we move through this trip and beyond. 

Feeling incredibly touched we made our way up to the top of Ella rock where we appreciated the last of the sunset, before making our way back down to Ella using the light of our phone torches. We found a gorgeous local spot for dinner, newly opened and with the family cooking right in front of us. They asked us for google reviews which we were happy to oblige, as the curries were delicious. 

We had one more full day in Ella which we filled very easily with a 6 AM yoga class, chasing waterfalls and a visit to an active Buddhist monastery at sunset. The road up to the monastery was wild. Buses passing buses on blind corners, vehicles going head on towards each other daring the other to be the one that backs up, and so many unpaved switchback turns! Josh did an incredible job navigating all of this on our rental scooter, but by the time we got to the top I felt anything but centered and peaceful! The monastery itself was beautiful, and experiencing the processions of offerings and chanting at sunset was really special. The buzz and energy was worlds away from what we had experienced the day before, but totally moving in a different way.

The next day we packed up and headed to the train station, to depart on one of the most scenic train rides in the world and head towards our next stop, Sri Pada / Adam's Peak. After our first underwhelmed impressions at Ella town, we managed to have an incredibly special few days around the Ella area. My advice to anyone visiting would be to use the town as a base, but spend your time exploring the surrounding area to get to the heart of this hill country town. 

After a week on the coast, I was finally feeling ready for some different scenery. We packed our bags at Tangalle, and made our way to the bus station. It was time to head inland towards dusty savannahs and lush hill country with tea fields. Our next stop was Udawalawe National Park, famous for its wild elephants, with a herd of about 250 believed to be permanently resident in the park. We arrived by local bus and had about a 20 minute walk along the edge of the national park from the bus stop to our homestay. On this walk we saw two elephants, which heightened our excitement for the safari the next day.

The safari experience in Sri Lanka is full-on. We woke before sunrise, and crawled out of bed into the jeep waiting outside in the dark. The race was on now to beat the other jeeps to be the first into the park. We booked a safari with a guide called Lahiru recommended to us by some friends from back home. He was a friendly Sri Lankan with a wealth of knowledge about the national park, and had been guiding safaris for over 13 years. With his VIP status we were able to skip a large queue of jeeps to be one of the first to enter the park. 

After the rush and chaos before sunrise, things settled down as the sun came up over the wide and open savannahs of Udawalawe. As we drove further into the maze of the park, we gradually left behind the other jeeps. It was peaceful, and Lahiru with the eyes of a hawk started pointing out wildlife hidden in the trees and lakes. We saw crocodiles sleeping, water buffalo grazing, mongoose darting through the bush, and countless birds including a hornbill reminiscent of Zazu from The Lion King. 

However, we were most excited to see elephants and I was delusionally hopeful that we might spot a leopard, even though the leopard population at Udawalawe was tiny. For the first hour we saw lots of beautiful wildlife but no elephants, and just when we were starting to worry along came a huge lone male elephant. Not long after that, we came to a section on the road known to be a crossing point for elephants in the park. Elephants can travel up to 200km per day, and are almost always on the move. Seeing them in the wild made me sad for elephants in captivity. Lahiru said he could hear elephants coming so we waited at the crossing, and lo and behold a family of five elephants appeared including a baby elephant that was only a year old according to our guide. Our jeep was parked at the crossing, and the elephants walked right in front of us as they crossed the road, giving us ample opportunity to photograph them.

This safari was our biggest expense so far in Sri Lanka, and about half of the money went to the national park. The rest went to our guide and driver, who were more expensive than other operators but well worth it. Lahriu had excellent English and his years of experience and knowledge about the wildlife in the park was astonishing. I had heard stories of the safari drivers chasing animals and scaring them, but I saw none of this at Udawalawe. There was a lot of respect shown for the wildlife, and it is great that they have these protected national parks in Sri Lanka which are only accessible on a safari.

The coast so far has been busy! We loved the surf spots, the beaches, the food and the hustle, and when talking to people at home it’s been hard to reconcile what we have done so far into a mere ten days.

Tangalle was our last coastal spot for a few weeks. From here we will venture into hill country and the worlds of ancient civilizations, tea plantations and of course, elephants. We wanted our final days on the coast to be relaxing, and we splashed out on some slightly nicer accommodation with the main attraction being a gorgeous pool! Cinnibar Resort is located right on a wild beach with a beautiful restaurant on the sand. Although the resort had many tree houses, our room was on the ground level, with the most comfortable bed and sheets (it’s the little things!) and an outdoor shower. It was open to the elements, so we kept the mosquito net very well sealed around the bed, and Josh worked on his centipede phobia with a few small ones we encountered in the bathroom!

Unfortunately, our time in Tangalle was dominated by the Sea Urchin saga… for those who haven’t yet heard, an encounter with a couple of sea urchins during a swim resulted in the first test of our travel insurance! The prickly spines of these creatures have backwards hooks so once they are stuck in your digits they are very hard to remove. After having a good dig with a needle and tweezers (unsuccessfully, the spines just got even deeper) the amazing team at the hotel foraged us a local plant to help. The sap of this plant is supposed to dissolve the spine so the body then expels it naturally. After 24 hours, only one of our spines had dissolved, and swelling was starting. So we made the decision to visit the local hospital and have the spines removed under local anesthetic. Our experience in the hospital was amazing, it was much faster than any medical experience I have had in New Zealand, and we felt very well looked after. Now fingers crossed our insurance accepts the claim, although it only came to about $80 NZD which is pretty cheap if you ask me. 

Outside of the hospital visit, we spent lots of time in Tangalle just relaxing, reading and swimming in the pool. We got some much needed washing done, and used this as some time to recuperate before the next leg of our trip. We didn’t eat in the resort restaurant at all due to our budget, but instead found a few places down the road that were a bit more cheap and cheerful, still with ocean views!! 

Tangalle did spur a number of conversations about how we want to travel, and how our travel impacts the communities we are visiting. To be honest, it’s something that has been occupying quite a lot of my brain space. I would recommend having a read of this instagram page and watching this Tik Tok video (no account needed) which has impacted my thinking. 

It is such a privilege being able to travel on the other side of the world. A privilege that the majority of people on this planet do not have. I want to try my best to move through this trip in a way that is helpful and not harmful. It is easy to see why and how travel has been described as ‘modern day colonialism’ in a country like Sri Lanka which has a very rapidly developing tourism industry. Examples include Tuk Tuks that won’t take locals anymore due to price inflation from carrying rich tourists, cafes where only western food is served, displacement of local communities for the building of resort towns, and locals moving to destinations such as surf towns for work which consequently removes young people from schools and communities. 

On a personal level, it has been fascinating to look at the variety of experiences we have had so far, and how much the quality of these experiences is dictated by how much (or how little) they are catered for tourists. For us, all of our best restaurants have by far been little places where we walk in and there’s no menu and we eat what we are given! The nicest places we have stayed have been guesthouses in local homes, where you might need to use google translate to communicate but you know you are directly supporting a local family. Even in the surf towns, we loved visiting the side of the road shops for stuffed roti or fresh hoppers from a local grandma. I don’t want to sound like I am up on a high horse here (just this morning I bought a flat white for the same price as I would in NZ - yikes), just wanted to share something that is really on my mind at the moment. 

I think Tangalle made this very obvious, as we felt like we had been a little bubble in the area around our resort. After we visited the hospital (in the main town), we went to a local market that was just next door. Here we had some amazing interactions with incredible people and ate some delicious (and cheap!) food. It made us ponder what our experience would have been if we had stayed in the main town, as opposed to our resort on the beach.

So, the question I wanted to ask myself was, “How am I going to travel for a year and ensure I am helping and not harming the communities I visit?”

Some ideas I have so far are:

If anyone else has any other ideas or thoughts on this I would love to have a discussion in the comments, as I know there are many avid travellers reading this blog!!! I want to reiterate that this is not about judging anyone else’s travel or holiday decisions, it’s my personal experience and something that’s important to me and my values, especially seeing as we are travelling for an extended period of time. It’s also something we’re not going to get right every time, and I’m sure you’ll still see the fancy flat whites on my Instagram from time to time.

After getting a little taste of Sri Lankan surfing while we were in Hikkaduwa, it’s safe to say I was full of excitement for our next stop on the south coast, the surf mecca of Midigama. There are a whole selection of amazing surf breaks in the area, including a famous left hand point break dubbed “Lazy Left” which was situated directly in front of our accommodation. I was able to roll out of bed and walk over the road with my board for a sunrise surf after which we would grab a big Sri Lankan breakfast. 

On our first day in Midigama we went and treated ourselves to an expensive coffee in a place reminiscent of many western style coffee shops in Bali. While we were planning our day, Marie, one of Alice’s ex-colleagues from NZM, walked in. It really is a small world! She had been in Midigama with her partner Ollie for a couple of weeks. They had collected a group of friends who adopted us and showed us the best surf spots and places to eat over the next few days.

While Hikkaduwa and Unawatuna were both packed full of Russians, Midigama seemed to have almost none. Maybe Russians don’t like surfing? It was predominantly Europeans of every other variety, and at times it felt like I was surfing in Europe with all the different European languages I heard people speaking.

Here is a breakdown of my favorite day in Midigama. It started with a sunrise surf at Lazy Left while Alice went to a morning yoga class. After my surf I rented a scooter with a surf rack (it’s actually really hard doubling on a scooter with a surfboard), and went to pick up Alice from her class. We brought some cheap but delicious breakfast (coconut pancake rolls and a coconut cake), and found a beautiful spot on the beach to read our books and enjoy our coconut heavy brekky. Outside of just Midigama, the surrounding southern coast of Sri Lanka boasts a huge selection of beautiful surfing beaches, with waves ranging from beginner to advanced. We took our scooter for a drive to explore some of these beaches and found ourselves in nearby Mirissa, where we parked up at a beachside bar offering happy hour cocktails (“hour” in this case meaning from 9am till 9pm 😂). After reading more of our books with a cheap cocktail while watching the local surfers, we made our way back along the coast to Midigama. In the evening I went for a sunset surf at another local spot named “Coconuts” for the towering coconut trees dotting the beach. An alternative name could be “Coconuts & Turtles” as there were turtles everywhere, and the combination of getting some great waves with a beautiful sunset, surrounded by turtles really exceeded all my expectations of surfing in Sri Lanka. We finished off this perfect day, by meeting up with our friends for dinner at a great local spot near our accommodation.

Our friends had been in Midigama for a few weeks surfing every day, and by the time we were about to leave I was feeling a little envious as three days didn’t feel like enough. I can definitely see myself coming back here one day for a dedicated surfing trip, as it really is a surfers paradise. 

The only real downside was the localism, which for the non-surfers reading this is basically a general unfriendliness towards non-locals at a surf break. Unfortunately, it  is a part of surfing, and as the Earth’s population increases, beaches erode, tourism increases, and surfing’s popularity grows; surf breaks are getting increasingly crowded. This is definitely not exclusive to Sri Lanka, I have seen localism at New Zealand surf breaks. However, it was quite brutal at times when a group of the locals were out. They would often take over the lineup, totally disregard surfing etiquette and hand out cold stares at any tourists. Not following surfing etiquette is dangerous and can cause injuries, so when this happened I would usually call it a day. It is frustrating, but at the same time I totally understand why they do it. Many of them likely only have a few months a year when the surf is good, and they have to deal with hordes of tourists getting in the way and competing for the waves.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our old and our new friends, as we continued on our way down the coast. I left Midigama with my body aching from all the surfing, sand everywhere, but totally stoked.