The old train chugged onwards, slowly climbing upwards and upwards into the mountains. Fine mist swirled and enveloped us, making the trees surrounding the rail tracks seem like ethereal ghosts, its limbs and leaves almost lost in the whiteness of everything. We passed through a dark tunnel cut into the earth, compressing our view. And as we emerged from the darkness, a vista of the plains below opened right before our unglassed windows, clouds gently flowing like the sea over ridges of the mountains, a white stupa barely able to peek through the cottony blanket.

TAKING THE BUS TOWARDS ELLA TOWN

Knowing that we’re in for a ten-hour train ride going back to Fort Colombo, we started our day quite early. Packing our bags from the Ella Jungle Resort, we navigated the make-shift cable car up, then piled into the 4x4 truck that would bring us back to civilization.

“Where the heck are we heading?!” I asked C as we rumbled through a dense jungle at the back of a 4x4 truck. After what seemed like a very long time of twisting and turning along a dirt path, the driver pausing once to chop a hanging branch blocking our path, the monster of a vehicle finally came to a stop. On a ravine, what looks like a makeshift cable car waited for us and our backpacks. We obediently boarded and were soon creaking and careening down to the plains below.

INTO THE JUNGLE OF ELLA

Apparently, we were heading to our home for three days in Ella, a mountain town at the Uva Province of Sri Lanka. It wasn’t easy getting there from the east coast of the country. It took us a total of three correct bus transfers, one incorrect drop-off (which added another trishaw ride), the better part of the morning, and a lot of patience to get from Arugam Bay to Monoragala (LKR249.00), then to Welawaya (LKR49.00), and finally to Ella in Badulla (LKR69.00).

And we weren’t about finished just yet.