Living in Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka for around six weeks now, I was well exited to go on a little trip again. For the first time here, I packed my backpack with the essentials, comfortably leaving the most things in our little apartment. We wanted to visit a national park, explore some waterfalls, maybe camp (which we didn’t really found a save opportunity for), go to Ella and visit the indigenous People of Sri Lanka, the Vedda in a village about 2hrs north of Ella. The drive was beautiful, especially on the way to Ella passing Yala National Park I felt gifted with the stunning mountain views, rich jungles, wildlife encounters and beautiful weather, which sustained throughout the whole trip. It was lovely to get back into the rhythm of travel life, seeing new places and what’s out there, to wake up with a wide-open day every morning.
Yala National Park
Yala National Park is in a beautiful area, stretching between the mountains and sea it is full of nature, that gets mort lush and green the further you head north. On our way out we encountered an elephant trying to cross the road between Yala and Lunugamvehera National Park, he was disturbed by the traffic stopping and passing and indecisively kept to the side. For Yala I had decided to go on my first safari and paid quite a hight price to be driven around without much information looking for animals, this felt rather strange, we found an elephant, peacock, a jaguar in a far tree, and other animals though it did not really feel like meeting them in a wild space by fortune. Especially when the jaguar got spotted and it created a half hour long traffic jam of jeeps bringing tourists. It was another one of these things that were nice to have done once and I felt drawn to in that moment but not something I feel the need to repeat anytime soon.
Ella
Ella is a famous small city surrounded by tea plantains all over the mountains and much cooler weather than the coast. Ella is popular by tourists and locals and so many types of accommodation and gastronomy have developed here. We stayed the first night in a homestay room with an older couple that has some spare rooms, though call themself hostel to be part of the trend and moved later to a good vibe hostel with dorm rooms and nice chill out areas. There is a famous traditional curry restaurant just off the main road before the train tracks as well as western style burger and pizza places. In the surrounding there are a fair few waterfalls that are worth a visit, one afternoon we spend at the not so secret anymore secret waterfall, down by the lower pool it was quite chill and fun to use the natural jacuzzi, swings and pools to refresh. The mountains around Ella are serene, definitely worth finding some nice spot to sit and appreciate nature.
Vedda people
The Vedda live in a place called Dambana, there is a small heritage centre to learn about their history and traditions and a few families from the tribe still live here. They struggle greatly because of the development of the country since the settlement of Sinhala and Tamil people from India and live now in an area dedicated to nation parks, which is restricting their hunting grounds. As for most ingenious tribes their traditional way of life is no longer possible. The Vadda in this village jumped well on the capitalisms train which is understandable and upsetting coming with the wish to learn about their culture. Upon our arrival we were led straight from the parking lot to the subleader of the village and a little small talk quickly turned into a sales negotiation. Seeing the fee as a support for the tribe we paid the 16.000 Rupees to spend about an hour with five male members how demonstrated how their families make fire, go on the hunt, rendezvous, and sung some songs. It was interesting and equally as strange. We talked to the leader about spending the day and staying the night as well but the 14.000 rupees they asked for a simple meal and basic shelter, was just out of our budget and comfort zone.
Near Dambana is also an Ayurveda Museum displaying loads of knowledge and samples of the ancient herbal medicine. A very interesting place and with 250 rupees entrance very affordable, I was stunned by the power of nature presented here and got well exited to learn more about this in given time.
