Friday 3rd February 2023

I was up early this morning getting ready for my weekend away with Daya in Ella. I had already booked the train journeys both ways, but I had to go to Nanu Oya to pick up the tickets. It was easier than I thought, as I just had to show them the voucher downloaded on my phone and present them with my passport and Daya's ID card. Once that was done, I went to the Tea Leaf Centre in Nanu Oya to get some work done.

I chatted to Vikas and Vidurshan today, who are the twin boys that I mentioned earlier that I had been able to offer some financial support to through the donation of a friend in Germany. Theirs is a harrowing story that I cannot go into here, but I had not appreciated how little they had seen of each other growing up (and they are now 17), so they are not close as twins, and they have a lot of catching up to do.

I did some work on the Tea Leaf Trust Volunteer Guide, as we didn't need to leave until 15:30, with the train being due at 16:04. Not long after 16:04 a train did arrive, and we were thrilled it was almost on time - only to find out that it was the previous train arriving - running two hours late - and we were not allowed on it. Our train eventually arrived over an hour late, but this is perfectly normal here in Sri Lanka.

We had a pleasant journey from Nanu Oya to Ella, the first half of which was beautiful, with stunning scenery. The second half of the journey would have been equally beautiful, but it was dark by then, so we will have to appreciate that bit on the return journey on Sunday. We arrived at Sunburst View, our Guest House, around 20:00, quickly dropped our stuff off in our rooms, then headed out for dinner at a lovely restaurant called The Ice Cube.

Today's photos show a lovely photo of Vikas and Vidurshan, a view at Nanu Oya Train Station, and one of the train eventually arriving. I wrote this blog the following morning, so I have cheated a bit and included two gorgeous photos of the sunrise from the balcony outside our rooms. We were up at 06:00 to catch this, but Daya went back to sleep in his room, whilst I got up and caught up with this and my diary. There will be so many photos taken here in Ella that you might as well get those two early!

                                   

                                   











Comments

  1. CharlesFebruary 4, 2023 at 12:24 AM

    The last two photos certainly do justice to the name of your guest house! Am looking forward to learning more about your Ella mission tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete

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