Bella Ella

Ahhhhh Bella Ella.  Arrive late afternoon after two more buses and another long but beautiful train ride to find a very small, one street town with a sign that literally says “Ella Tourist Town”.  Okay.  Guess I’m here.  Guesthouse chosen as I was given a few suggestions and had spoken to the owner whilst on the train.  Tuk tuk from train stops at said guesthouse, I hop out, shoulder my STOOPID backpack and am looking forward to a reeelax in the quickly fading light.  A few steps down off the road then… Oh Gawd.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  NO!  At least 100 steps leading up to the place I had masterfully chosen.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Really, Universe?  SERIOUSLY?!  *sigh*  So I quaked and shaked my way up to a lovely little room in a lovely little town and quickly pulled out my fleece and raincoat.  Oh hill country, what are you doing to me?  Quickly discovered that the resulting agony of accomplishing Adam’s Peak wasn’t so much now going up steps, but going DOWN them.  Haven’t experienced that one before.  Youch!  But meh, no pain, no gain right?  Carry on.

Spend a couple of days relaxing in the steep mountain landscape that offered similar views to what I imagine I missed out on during our misty morning on Adam.  Went up to Ella Rock (which claims to be “Little Adam’s Peak) and pshawed such lunacy.  Come on now.  Maybe the itty bitty little teeny tiny baby toe of Adam’s Peak.  Let’s stick with Ella Rock.  (again, what’s with the need to keep climbing things??)  Up there on my own, breathing clean, clean, clean air, quiet, green, mountains.  Breathe in, breathe out.  The clouds roll in by 10am and the days I was there the rain quickly followed so when my body stopped protesting so much, time to move on.  More to see, more to do. 

Next 6am destination  – Tissa (there’s a WAY longer name but we’ll stick with what I can say).  Actually ended up in a town called Kirinda (don’t ask), in the middle of nowhere, on full moon holiday, which meant all was closed.  That’s okay.  Wander, walk, found the sea (oh how I’ve missed you, sea!) and sweated my arse off.  Yep, I’m outta hill country.  The point of this pitstop was Yala National Park and a safari.  Yala lays claim to plentiful elephants and LEOPARDS!  Oh yes, please!  Arrived in town at around 10am, had a look around, and was in a jeep by 2:30am.  I wanna see me some CATS!

I should know better by now, shouldn’t I?  I mean, SHOULDN’T I???  Our driver, whilst very nice and locally knowledgeable, well, he’s going to fall short considering I’ve been on African safari, isn’t he?  Regardless, he’s really nice so let’s see what’s going on.  He got excited about pointing out deer (that munch in our backyards back home), buffalo (that roam the streets HERE in SL), peacocks (okay pretty, but *yawn*) then oh bless your little heart, he stopped for a chipmunk.  Yes, my friends.  He stopped to point out a chipmunk.  I put my camera away.

Relatively pretty brush and small treed landscape, lots of nice birds (I’m just not a bird person) and small monitor lizards, and a shit ton of water buffalo.  Oh well, gave it a shot.  Highlight – 4 elephants stampeded across the road in front of us as they had been spooked by something.  Thought Mr. Driver was going to pee his pants.  But yes, after the mammoth, immersed experience of Tanzania, well, nothing can really compare, can it?  And leopards?  That they boast to have unimaginable numbers of?  Horseshit.  Oh well.  A nice enough day out. 

Weird experience of finding one of the only places open to go for dinner.  I was the only person around.  In the whole world, apparently.  As my food was served, the owner sat at my table to just watch me eat (yeah, that’s not the least bit uncomfortable) then his two teenaged boys sat at the next table, again just to watch me eat.  Attempted conversation to try to avert the staring, nope, not interested.  Just watch the white girl eat.  And for some reason, eating in SL is purely functional.  From proper restaurants to road side shacks, they are pulling away your plate and drink before you finish and shoving a bill into your hands.  Finished? (sounds more like “beenished”) Good?  Okay, you go now?  Okay.  You chow down as fast as you can, wipe your face on the way out the door (napkins are cut up pieces of old newspaper), and get on your way pronto.  Nothing social about food in this country.  Wow.  No wonder I’ve had a stomachache for 3 weeks.