To get to Ella, we took a bus from Badulla and got off right at the main junction at Ella. We had lunch at Ella Jade Green Restaurant which was really affordable compared to the other restaurants in Ella! I was really surprised that Ella is such a touristy place because when I first read about it on Travel Wiki, I thought that Ella was just a small place with waterfalls and not a lot of people would come here. It was the complete opposite! There were tons of tourists (but mainly backpackers).
Had vegetable choysuey for lunch but I really wanted to try the pupkin pasta (which I only saw on the menu after I ordered my chopsuey!) Haha, I had red rice (upon requesting for it).
After lunch, we checked in at our guest house - Samadhi Guest Inn Ella. It's a really nice place! It's actually someone's house and that person just rents out rooms in that house. It had a nice living room area which was good to just sit there and interact with the other tourists! The family of the house seemed very nice too and I guess it was a good experience interacting with a Sri Lankan family!
After dropping our bags, we headed off to Little Adam's Peak, which is a short distance from where we are staying at. Walked through some tea plantations to get there! :)
Pretending that this random flag signifies the summit of Little Adam's Peak
After climbing Little Adam's Peak, we wanted to go to Ella's Rock / Ella Gap but we weren't sure of the route. After asking for directions from the tourist police, we headed up the route from the main junction, and it connects to the railway track after a short while. Followed on the railway track until we reached the place where we were supposed to turn left. A short walk down that path led us to the (top of the) waterfall!
Stepped into a puddle of mud while trying to get to the top of the waterfall
We decided to continue walking and try to reach the summit of Ella's Rock. However, one of the locals wanted to "be our guide" and told us to walk through the plantations instead. We didn't want to end up having to pay him so we told him we don't need a guide. We headed up the plantations area, but it didn't really seemed like the right way! We decided to head back to the main path and continue on the main path as we didn't want to get lost in the plantations/forest/treesssss!
We don't really know where's the summit so after reaching a rock, we decided to just proclaim it as Ella's Rock and head back down instead. Haha, it seemed like an endless path to the summit and we didn't want to risk getting stucked there after sunset!
As we still had some time left, we took a bus from the main junction to Ravana waterfall. The waterfall was just right by the road so no hiking needed! Saw many locals showering using the water from the waterfall........ Like really showering with soap and shampoo...
Ravana Waterfall