Day 6 – Ella, Sri Lanka
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Summary
Today we had a planned tour with the three wheel (tuk tuk) driver we met last night. Below is a list of all the places we went to.
- Dowa Rajamaha Viharaya, which is an ancient rock temple with a large Budda statue craved from the stone
- Mahamevnawa Monastery, which is still under construction but has excellent views
- The iconic Nine Arches Bridge to view the train
- A walk down Demodara Railway Loop
- Dipped our toes in Ravana Falls
- Trekked up to Ravana’s Cave
- Then finished off the day with a hike to Punchi Sri Pada (Little Adam’s Peak) for the sunset
While exhausting in the heat, the day was quite rewarding, especially the amazing sunset.
Day in Detail
As promised our driver from the previous night in Ella town came to our home stay at 6am to start our tour. First order of the day…Breakfast.
In order to avoid the hefty prices at Ella town, the driver took us to a local stop called Bro (as far as I could tell), which was tiny and empty when we arrived. I was surprised to see it was open 24 hours!
Following breakfast of Fish and Egg Roti we went to the Cave Temple known as Dowa Rajamaha Viharaya. The temple has a large 11.5m Buddha Statue carved into the stone. The adjacent temple is made around a cave structure also. According to the guide the significance of the temple, is that it is connected to Ravana Falls and Ravana Caves. The legend goes that an ancient King Ravana, stole a girl from India because she was beautiful and hey, he was a king. This pissed off the Indians who invaded looking to retrieve the girl. Ravana apparently used a network of tunnels to avoid capture. The entrance to the caves are located but no one has gone through.
11.5 metre tall Buddha carved from the stone 
Located behind the temple the hole above the light is supposed to be the entrance to the ancient cave network
After spending some time at the temple and talking to a monk, we travelled to Mahamevnawa Monastery, which is under construction on the top of one of the many peaks in Ella. From the monastery, you have amazing views of the surrounding hills and the town.
Next the famous and iconic Nine Arches Bridge. The bridge was built by the British (story goes a Sri Lankan came up with the idea though) during Colonial Rule of Ceylon. We went there to see the 10am-ish (didn’t note the time) train which was running late. The view from the Asanka Cafe were quite good and I would recommend it despite the steep climb.
After the bridge, we travelled to the next station after Ella on the main line to see the Demodara Railway Loop. The train tracks curve into a tunnel which is below the station forming a loop (like a hot wheels track) under the station, and is meant to be the only one like this in the world (Verified by my dad and wikipedia). Despite the sign we got off from the Railway station and walked the loop until the tunnel where we went back up an incline to the station car park.
Next we visited Ravana Falls to see the other side of the legendary tunnel system. The waterfall is quite large, but has a few areas that both locals and tourists were having a dip. Since we didn’t bring our swimming gear only our feet got wet. After the falls we went for lunch along the way, to a large buffet of Sri Lankan food.
So until now all the sites were actually free (for locals and tourists). At Ravana Caves however, this changed and we paid 100 rupees /$0.82 AUD for two tickets to the top (local rates) The climb was only intense as we are not that fit, but after less than 30 minutes we reached inside a large opening to the cave. This opening can be accessed for maybe 20 meters before it starts narrowing up. We didn’t have torches to explore it much, but since we were the only people up there, its probably not advised to go deeper into the caves unless you know what you are doing. On the way down we bought some King Coconuts from a vendor and could see people climbing up Little Adams Peak.
After going down to the three wheel, we were dropped off at our final destination so we can climb Punchi Sri Pada. The climb to the first peak was only an hour (we are unfit) and wasn’t too bad in walking shoes. There are around 5 peaks in total and we did around 3. For views of the sunset though I would recommend the first peak. After setting up and chilling for a few hours we went down and walked to town which didn’t take too long and was relatively busy with other tourists. Due to the dogs that can attack at night time I would not advise walking after dark unless the area is busy, hence why from town to our guest house we took a three wheel.
Travelled on the 29th of August. Thanks for reading 🙂 For any extra information please send me a comment.