A Foray into Ella Village
It's not a guest house as such, but a family home with a couple of rooms for visitors. Bed and breakfast would be the nearest equivalent, only here breakfast is 300 rupees extra, about £1.50. A reasonable size room though, with a comfortable bed and it's clean, not bad for £6.60 per night. Not sure how long I'm going to be staying in Ella yet, but 3 nights paid for since this place fits the bill.
Quite a quiet area around here, away from the village centre by about 1/4 of a mile on the Passara road. Time to take those first exploratory steps and find out what makes this place such a popular tourist spot. A trek down into the village reveals a host of guest houses and other such dwellings offering rooms, nestled between the palms and banana trees. Plenty of building going on too, a small hotel looks like, half complete and some smaller dwellings soon to be capitalising on the areas popularity with western tourists no doubt.
At the only junction in the village. Left is south, leaving the village heading towards the Indian Ocean. Right is back towards Hatton and into the village. A quick wander to the left, it's more guest houses and some larger hotels situated high into the hillside. Back towards the village, about half a dozen restaurants and cafes all conveying a western theme alongside native cuisines. A quick look at one menu confirmed what I had been expecting - significantly higher prices. A look at another, yes this is a tourist trap all right - well and truly trapped I would say. Pretty much all the eating places here are western contrived. I can only find one place that looks a bit of a locals spot, will have to check it out later.
Under the railway bridge and out of the village. Next left is a small, well made road leading up into the hills, has a few guest house and hotel signs indicating viewpoints. Hiking up the reasonably gentle gradient, past the village garbage dump, which they set fire to by the looks of things. Climbing ever higher as the sun begins to sink. Views from here are very nice, especially now that the light is changing to a slightly golden hue, and with the dark blue sky is making for some really spectacular photography.
Better head back to the village, I need to eat. First port of call is the locals cafe spotted earlier. Eating with the locals is a far more rewarding experience, both culturally and financially! So, what's on the menu? Not a great deal actually. There's a host of those flat breads with fillings or there's Kottu - a stir-fry which includes shredded flat bread. I'll take 3 vegetable roti please, 50 rupees each for these, 30 in Hatton. The Kottu is 200 rupees as opposed to 160 in Hatton. So, this suggests the local economy must be healthy if even the locals have to pay higher prices. Oh, and the least expensive dish in the western contrived eats, 490 rupees for rice and vegetable curry. 150 in Hatton and that's with a cup of Sri Lankan tea. Tea here is by the pot, about 4 cups worth for 250 rupees. So, visitors here who want to eat a basic curry with rice and wash it down with tea will have to pay around 740 rupees, about £3.80. On the plus side there is wifi available in half a dozen establishments but it's painfully slow, so that pot of lasts as long as it takes to upload 10 photographs!
It's not a guest house as such, but a family home with a couple of rooms for visitors. Bed and breakfast would be the nearest equivalent, only here breakfast is 300 rupees extra, about £1.50. A reasonable size room though, with a comfortable bed and it's clean, not bad for £6.60 per night. Not sure how long I'm going to be staying in Ella yet, but 3 nights paid for since this place fits the bill.
Quite a quiet area around here, away from the village centre by about 1/4 of a mile on the Passara road. Time to take those first exploratory steps and find out what makes this place such a popular tourist spot. A trek down into the village reveals a host of guest houses and other such dwellings offering rooms, nestled between the palms and banana trees. Plenty of building going on too, a small hotel looks like, half complete and some smaller dwellings soon to be capitalising on the areas popularity with western tourists no doubt.
At the only junction in the village. Left is south, leaving the village heading towards the Indian Ocean. Right is back towards Hatton and into the village. A quick wander to the left, it's more guest houses and some larger hotels situated high into the hillside. Back towards the village, about half a dozen restaurants and cafes all conveying a western theme alongside native cuisines. A quick look at one menu confirmed what I had been expecting - significantly higher prices. A look at another, yes this is a tourist trap all right - well and truly trapped I would say. Pretty much all the eating places here are western contrived. I can only find one place that looks a bit of a locals spot, will have to check it out later.
Under the railway bridge and out of the village. Next left is a small, well made road leading up into the hills, has a few guest house and hotel signs indicating viewpoints. Hiking up the reasonably gentle gradient, past the village garbage dump, which they set fire to by the looks of things. Climbing ever higher as the sun begins to sink. Views from here are very nice, especially now that the light is changing to a slightly golden hue, and with the dark blue sky is making for some really spectacular photography.
Better head back to the village, I need to eat. First port of call is the locals cafe spotted earlier. Eating with the locals is a far more rewarding experience, both culturally and financially! So, what's on the menu? Not a great deal actually. There's a host of those flat breads with fillings or there's Kottu - a stir-fry which includes shredded flat bread. I'll take 3 vegetable roti please, 50 rupees each for these, 30 in Hatton. The Kottu is 200 rupees as opposed to 160 in Hatton. So, this suggests the local economy must be healthy if even the locals have to pay higher prices. Oh, and the least expensive dish in the western contrived eats, 490 rupees for rice and vegetable curry. 150 in Hatton and that's with a cup of Sri Lankan tea. Tea here is by the pot, about 4 cups worth for 250 rupees. So, visitors here who want to eat a basic curry with rice and wash it down with tea will have to pay around 740 rupees, about £3.80. On the plus side there is wifi available in half a dozen establishments but it's painfully slow, so that pot of lasts as long as it takes to upload 10 photographs!
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