So this post focuses on the Hill Country, in and around Ella, the tea plantations, a Buddhist temple and the train journey back to Colombo.

While it starts with a few shots from the beach of Mirissa, here is rural Sri Lanka in all its beauty.

I hope the images will speak for themselves.

Although tourism is having a massive impact on the Hill Country towns such as Ella, with a huge homestead building programme underway,rural Sri Lanka is much less affected. You don’t have to be far out of town to see a very different country.

Ella and around

 

Buddhist Temple – Dowa

This lovely old temple seems off the circuit for the Lonely Planet visitors, we only saw locals there. It is quaint and beautiful however.

 

Around Ella

The best thing to do here is to go walking. Early starts in the cool air, speak to locals and you soon leave the crowds behind.

Tea Factory

This proved much more interesting than we expected. Lots of information about the process and loads of old, belt driven machinery – plus a high tech spectrogram that is able to grade and sort tea leaves at 4 million actions a minute.

Train Journey through Hill Country

When we arrived in Ella we tried to book the train back to Colombo, but the only remaining seats were 3rd class. Having experienced the crush of second class on the trip to Galle we were anxious about the 9 hour journey. In fact all seats were reserved and the journey was relaxed and beautiful with stunning views throughout.

Next steps, flying to Kuala Lumpa, on to Penang and then Thailand for some more diving. We’re getting in to the zone!