You might rightly wonder why I have dedicated a separate post to the train ride from Ella to Kandy. Usually my posts are focused on cities or on major activities, like the Yala National Park Safari or the Slow Boat from Thailand to Laos. A train ride hardly seems post worthy. I could argue that this is supposed to be the most beautiful train ride in world, therefore it deserves a blog post. But that’s not why I’m writing it. The reason I’m writing a separate post is to justify to myself why I decided to spend a full day on a train which was really only offered gorgeous views a part of the ride. I should’ve done what most people did, to get out halfway and to take a bus to the final destination. I’m writing this post to share my experience with you guys and to maybe persuade you to not make the same mistake.
We had breakfast in Rawana Holiday Resort in Ella early in the morning. We actually wanted to get up earlier to hike to Little Adam’s Peak, but after climbing Ella Rock the day before we couldn’t face up to the challenge of climbing another hill.
Ella Train Station
So instead we went to Ella’s train station, which is said to be the most quaint train station in Sri Lanka because the overseer has tried to maintain its identity. I hope it wasn’t the overseer who sold us the tickets, because that guy seemed very bored with his work and therefore rude. If it was the overseer, I would think he doesn’t like people but he only likes stations. It might not have been him though so I don’t want to jump to conclusions. The train station is absolutely gorgeous and Colombo station, Galle station and even Kandy station pale in comparison.
We had to wait a while before the train would leave and luckily we had some doggie cookies left which we had bought in Ella. There were some dogs hanging around the station, so we gave them some food and our undivided love and attention.
Sri Lanka Railways
There are a few options you can choose from in terms of seating on the train. We didn’t want to go for the most expensive Observation Deck tickets because we didn’t think it would add value. We opted for the second class reserved seats (in case the train was busy). This set us back only 600 LKR (4 euro), but even these weren’t really needed because the train was practically empty. The main trick a lot of people use is to sit by the open doors of the train to enjoy the views and take good pictures. I was happy with my window seat though and I was lazy to get up. In regards to the question on which side to sit; I didn’t really find out. The ticket guy told us that the right side is the best side, but I have been looking at both sides and I think they’re equally good.
Scenery from Ella to Kandy
The train itself was incredibly slow, which was fun for at least 1 to 2 hours. Then it started to get a bit boring, and after around 5 hours it got downright annoying.
The pleasant thing about slow trains is the ease with which you can take photos. The scenery is every changing so there are quite a few great photo moments. The first scenes we passed through were mostly dominated by small villages.
Then the landscape turned more rugged and the trees took over from the villages.
The most gorgeous scenery was the area with all the tea plantations. There are also people working close in the tea fields close to the train so this area offered some good photo opportunities.
After the tree plantation is when we should’ve gotten out, because the tea fields stopped after we had passed Nuwara Eliya. Then the scenery turned darker and forests turned denser.
The dark landscape held on for around three hours until a cute lake appeared and we were close to Kandy.
By far, my favourite parts of the journey were random moments when you had a view over the rolling hills and the moments the train went around a bend. This is what all the tourists loved because the moment it happened was when all the arms came out of the window with cameras to take a picture of the train. I, of course, was guilty of this too, but who doesn’t love a good train picture?
Conclusion
The power of writing your own blog posts is that you have to look at experiences from a different perspective. When I write about the train journey and when I look at the pictures I’m so impressed with how beautiful it was. When I remember how I felt on the super slow train towards the end of the day, I wasn’t a fan. It wasn’t just the loud noises that were bothering us incessantly, it was also the movement your body makes on a train that swings left to right due to the slowness with which it moves.
Let me recommend something though, because this train journey is a must in my opinion in Sri Lanka. However, the journey between Ella and Nuwara Eliya was the most beautiful part of the the whole trip, so the journey can be limited to those to location. This shortens the ride considerably. If you don’t have enough time to really visit Nuwara Eliya, I would get out of the train and into a bus to continue the journey to Kandy. This will be much quicker. I saw it with my own eyes because some people on our train did this and they were in Kandy before us. In short, the train journey in the highlands of Sri Lanka is gorgeous, but too much of anything is usually bad.
