Uh, My Trip Report...

Ella Area
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Ah, where to start...first of all, my typing errors are due to this crazy keyboard - not me...oh no, couldn't be my lack of attention to detail...

Since retiring from my beach days in Hikkaduwua around the 20th, I hopped on one of Sri Lanka's finest trains and headed to the Southern city of Matara - known for big crocs in the Ganga (river).  From Matara, headed North to the old hill station of Ella (such a sweet name for a town don't you think?). Ella is a tiny place of about 500 people I'm guessing - I think I met them all during my 2 day stay :)  It's up quite high - compared to the coast that is - maybe around 1800m - just a guess.  I did a couple of nice walks - one to "Ella Rock" with a local guide who was working on the railway tracks when I came walking by on my way to Ella Rock.  He saw me and dropped his shovel andbecame my guide for the next 5 hours - of course he wanted a "small present" - in this case 200 Rupees (about $1.90 CDN) - but this was a small price to pay for his good natured guiding skills and interesting command of the English language. The hike was a bit tough - well, I should clarify here...it was a nice easy ascent to the peak, but I'm a bit outta shape at the moment - suffering from Lion beer induced lethargy and a sore foot.  But, made it up, and views were wonderful.  Such lush, green hills - this is tea plantation country - the British know good tea country when they see it!  Met a nice group of school kids along the way - they're such cute kids in their perfectly pressed, white uniforms.  From Ella, it was a 2 hr train ride to Haputale - another high hill station and again, tea plantations are the main business here.  James Lipton founded his famous plantation here, and I did another hike up to "Lipton's Peak" from which it is possible to oversee his vast tea empire.  A lovely walk in the hills old chap...

Kandy
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Met great locals along the way, ate rice and dahl curry - local style - with right hand mushing up a pile of food and then trying to stuff it in my outh before I dropped it - it's really quite an acquired skill.  But, my eating skills are finely honed, thus I adapted quite quickly, prompting the locals to stare with astonishment as I polished off one spicy curry dish after another...Alex, you'd be proud. It got quite cold at night, had grab my blanky a few times, and not just due to nightmares...

Layne and I - sunset at Negombo
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From Haputale, an ardous train, bus, walk to Sri Prada - 'Adam's Peak' - a much revered, holy trek (pilgrimage to be more precise) to the peak that is undertaken by Sri Lankan Buddhists, Muslims and Christians alike. Unfortunately, I think that most of the country was trekking the mountain the night I went - I'm not kidding here - probably 10 000 people on this wee mountain turned what I thought was going to be a quiet, mystical walk into a circus ... probably 200 shops, restaurants along the way, and after 3 hrs walking, I came to an abrupt halt as I had to wait in an enormous lineup of people trying to get to the peak.  For the next 1.5 hours, I made, maybe 100 m vertical progress and was wall to wall people- couldn't turn sideways it was so packed!  For a Canuck weened on lonely rocky mntn peaks, it was simply mind-blowing.  I didn't actually make it to the summit due to the "traffic", and just made my way down through the throngs of pilgrims, had a nice breaky, and made my way to the old capital city of Kandy.  Bizarre experience!

Kidlets in Ella
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Kandy was a lovely city surrounded by mountains, and featuring a lovely man (slave) made lake in the centre.  I had a terrific guesthouse in the hills - what a view of the city!  Met up with a lovely woman from London, and we travelled around Kandy for 5 days.  Layne was working with orphans in India - doing drama and puppetry with the cute little kidlets - good on ya! We went to the Botanical Gardens, saw a massive Monitor Lizard in Kandy Lake - seriously, this guy was rather large...he was eying my injured left foot intently.  Went to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic - Buddha's tooth preserved in a gold basket apparently - we couldn't see it.  Layne went to see an elephant orphanage - I skipped that as I wanted to have an oil massage instead - little did I know it would be with a slightly nervous, young Sri Lankan man with a wandering digit...that wasn't part of the deal old boy!  Anyways, survived my ordeal, and we made our way to Negombo - on the West coast - to be close to the airport, without actually having to go into Colombo...Tamil Tigers are blowing stuff up right now.  They bombed a local bus in Colombo a few days ago - it was evacuated just in time as someone noticed the package...17 people hurt, but thank god no one killed.  Last day in Negombo was nice - cought a few waves, played some pool with Layne, and prepped for the flight back to Singapore and Thailand...which is whre I am now.  I'm in Krabi, S Thailand, and it's so nice to be back - this is the port city whre I stayed whilst doing the Tsunami cleanup work.  I'm off to Rai Leh beach today - my all time fave beach!  No waves there, just IPod, frisbee and chillin before South Africa...

Tea please...Plantation near Haputale
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I hope you're all well, miss you, and wish you all the best!

Scott