Sri Lanka - Nuwara Eliya to Ella to Mirissa, November 5, 2017

Train day. The weather is good. We packed up, had breakfast (tropical fruits, Ceylon tea, curries, etc.) and checked out of the St. Andrews. Just before we left, the "nephew" arrived for a quick farewell. We sat in a parlor. Outside the windows were the tea pot and tea cup topiaries and gardens.

The van drove us to the Nanuoya Station for the train.  We will race him to Ella where he will fetch us.

En route to the train station we passed terraced tea plantations.  One had a large sign, "Edinburgh", evidence of 19th Century British colonial roots. A tea picker was at work one terrace above the road. One glance in his direction and he smiled. He beamed. Bright white teeth against a golden brown face. A large straw basket lashed to his back. His head wrapped in a scarf and topped with a hat.



The Nanuoya Station is modest and small in a tropical paradise setting.  To enter the platform we showed our tickets. There were waiting rooms: one for men and one for women. Toilets for locals and toilets for foreigners. The crowd was mixed. Scruffy foreign backpackers, Sri Lankans, Tamils, Muslims.



The train had a nice rhythm. Chuck uh choo, Chuck uh choo, Chuck uh choo. We sat in the only first class car.  That meant air conditioning and assigned seats. Our seats were filled with locals picnicking. For tupperware they had banana leaves unfolded with rice or curried something inside. A pinch of rice, a drip of curry, no fuss. It smelled good. We showed them our tickets. They smiled and shifted to another row. Later, they offered us sweets. Coarse ground sesame mixed with jaggery (local brown sugar) and pressed into a small square.

The train traveled on a high ridge. Most of our vista was on one side; a deep green valley. Enormous and long. With small villages and green tea terraces. Rivers and forests. We walked between train cars to get the unobstructed view, through the open door. A young guy, in Indiana Jones hat, with the same idea, sat on the floor. His bare legs dangled out the side. His head, too, was outside like a dog at a car window.

One time we stopped beside an opposing train. Faces smiled at us from few feet away.



After two and a half hours, we arrived in Ella. The small station was a hive. A buzz of excitement. It seemed both a destination and a point of departure, a nexus. Through the crowd, we saw our van driver's smiling face. Ella, as we drove through it, had a college town hippy coffee house beach bum ambiance. Lots of young adults casually idling.

The daylight was slipping away. Our destination was four hours away. The mountain roads twisted and curved. Abrupt stony, green mountains around each bend.  After a while, we took a break at a fruit hut. It's roof was palm fronds. It's two walls were mud, slathered over fabric. The floor was gleaming polished mud. Tidy and clean in spite of the materials. He had papaya mango eggplant pineapple onion banana. Nearby,  were horses, skinny cows, unowned dogs. Peacocks.  We wanted mango. Some were green. Some were yellow. Our driver sorted through the pile. We were again conspicuous. A small crowd gathered. Beside us and across the road. A sweet smiling older woman with few teeth. Children. Men. Teens. I made a few photos. The proprietor asked a favor. Could we take his photo in front of his "shop" and send it to him? We said yes and we did. I wish we could have delivered it in person.