Day 37 - Poop

Our early morning alarm was ultimately unnecessary, since the full-height windows next to our bed woke me up at 6am. After a failed attempt at a sunrise slow-shutter and a black coffee we were onto our quest to find some elephants. Following the tried and tested zoological technique commonly referred to as "follow the poop", we ventured into the buffer zone of the Yala National Park. Despite spotting plenty of peacocks, assorted birds and even hearing a Hawk Eagle not far from us, there was no sign of our adorable tusked friends.

Upon returning to our hut for breakfast, Gamini revealed that he had stood by the river bank for a few hours the night before after hearing elephant noises, but was also unsuccessful in spotting any. In an age where tourists often demand guaranteed spontaneous experiences, I personally appreciate that this place strives to remain genuine and was therefore perfectly happy that the closest thing to an elephant we saw was a collection of fresh droppings. On our way back, we ran into a crowd of gem miners heading into the natural reserve - talking to our host the day before, we learned that it is an illegal activity that the villagers resort to out of sheer desperation, just so they can put bread on the table. The brief moments when we crossed paths gave us no reasons to believe otherwise, as every single one of them greeted us with a polite nod and a trademark Sri Lankan smile.

After a dip in the Kumbuk river outside our cabin we reluctantly packed up, said goodbye to Gamini and the rest of the KumbukRiver staff and got on the most comfortable Tuk Tuk in the World for a two-hour trip to Ella, our next destination. The trip was more pleasant than the one in an air conditioned car the day before, mostly as it provided us with a much better connection with our surroundings, where children walked home from school, women picked up tea leaves and a pair of young guys rode their motorcycle alongside us to ask if we were going to Ella and wanted to smoke some weed...

At first glance, Ella seems like a simpler version of Munnar, graced with lovely views of rolling hills and tea plantation but perhaps lacking the jaw-dropping magnitude we saw in Kerala. We succeeded in visiting a tea factory this time, being shown around by an adorable old man who very keenly explained to us the four items that define a cup of tea (flavour, quality, strength and colour!) and the processes that determine these properties. He also kept pointing out to the Dutch couple that joined us that they tend to like their tea weak, then asking us how we like our tea only to get two expressions that said "we like coffee..." in return. On our way out we were greeted by even more kind smiles from the ladies who were getting off work as the production was shutting down for the day and saw bags of freshly picked tea leaves coming in to be processed the following day. From this point on, Ana struggled to contain her excitement every time we saw a truck full of these bags on the road, at least until she started getting chased uphill by an army of adorable tiny puppies, definitely a much more valid reason to get excited.

Our day ended with a delicious dinner at a hut on the side of a mountain (my Coconut Roti and Dal Curry and my sister's Egg Kottu were delicious - no peanut butter shake this time though), where the waiter revealed that the Sinhala word for "shoe" is the Portuguese "sapato", which joins "armário" (closet) in the random list of words we left behind in our short time here. Tomorrow will be spent walking up and down hills, so we need our batteries fully charged to explore Ella like the crowd of hikers that seems to have taken over and blend in with the crowd of hikers that seem to have taken over this place...

Cheers,
J-Wowww