THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC TRAIN RIDE, Kandy to Ella, Sri Lanka, 2019.12.11

Day 7 (1 of 2).

Established in 1864, the railway system of Sri Lanka was constructed by the British colonial government for tea transportation. While not the fastest way to travel, making intercity journeys by train was a unique way to absorb the history of Sri Lanka, and enjoy the beautiful scenery in a relaxing pace.  Some journeys are particularly more popular than the others because the beautiful scenery they offer.  The journey from Kandy to Ella is one of the most popular routes, and is often referred to as one of the world’s most scenic train journey.

Getting a reserved ticket (1st class or 2nd class) from Kandy onward to the hill country is a challenge for many tourists, including us.  We tried purchasing through online agent 1.5 month prior to our departure, but failed to land on any reserved tickets for our desirable date.  We planned to try our luck to buy unreserved tickets and get on at an earlier stop.   At worst we might need to stand for a period of time until someone get off during the 7-hour ride.  The staff at Villa Rosa heard about our situation, and helped us to obtain two 2nd class tickets with reserved seats from a local agent on the day before our departure.  We were grateful for his help.

The wooden timetable board at Kandy Station looks like it has been around since the colonial time.

As the train slowly left the train station, we bid farewell to Kandy and moved on into the hill country.

Soon we arrived into the tea plantation country.

Hindu temples are often erected in tea plantations as many Tamils working in the plantations are Hindus who came from Southern India.

The entire hill country is lush green and dotted with houses of pitched roofs.

Our train passed by one village after another.

On occasions, our train would get close to a sloped tea farm.

It was amazing to see so much land have been converted into tea plantations.

The tea farms seemed never ending.

Some tea farms seemed to receive poorer maintenance.

Since the train was relatively slow, many tourists chose to sit at the doorway with their legs hanging out of the train car.

Tourists took turns to lean out of the doorway of the train to take selfies and enjoy a moment of “flying” over the tea farms.

Many villagers stood near the railroad to watch our train passed by.

Many locals walked on the train tracks.

And so as dogs wandering around the railway stations.

Near the end of the journey, the weather suddenly turned breezy and foggy.

 Fog covered much of the area near Ella.

After 6.5 hours, we finally arrived in the area of Ella.  We would stay in Ella for two days before moving on to the south.