Welcome to the backpacking diaries, where I’ll be updating you weekly on where I’ve been, what I’ve been getting up to, and most importantly, how I’m really feeling about this insane decision I’ve made.
As you probably know, I’m currently backpacking through Asia after quitting my job and leaving London for good.
I want to remember every moment of this experience, and document as much of it as I can, just like I’ve documented everything else in my life post-18 on this website.
You can keep up to date with my travels on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube but for now, enjoy week three of the travel diaries!
If you missed week one and two, you can catch up here.
Day 15: Monday 1st April 2024
Location: Pinnawala & Kandy, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
The next few days are going to be a bit hectic. We’ve got a lot of travelling which means a lot of buses, trains, tuktuks and lugging our huge backpacks around.
I’m feeling a bit nervous about the Kandy to Ella train. It’s a key thing that everyone does when they visit Sri Lanka as it’s one of the most beautiful and scenic train journeys in the world, but there’s one issue.
It’s seven hours long. And it’s very popular and crowded. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand for seven whole hours, plus what’s the toilet situation?!
But that’s an issue for tomorrow. We left Pinnawala and headed to Kandy which was a very busy and bustling city. Also very hilly. It definitely wasn’t my favourite stop on our travels as it was really busy with traffic, which meant very heavily polluted and you couldn’t breathe too much without breathing in exhaust fumes.
We didn’t come across too many tourists, and the food options didn’t seem great either. Our hotel was lovely, and had an incredible view of the mountains and hills.
I was really starting to feel it today and was having a bad day (I think it was both worrying about the train journey and my period was due), but I think I needed an evening to chill out and do nothing.
Day 16: Tuesday 2nd April 2024
Location: Kandy & Ella, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
The dreaded train journey day. I shouldn’t say dreaded, I was looking forward to it, but I guess I was slightly apprehensive of standing for seven hours in a sweaty, crowded train.
Himself had done some research about the train journey and found that there may be a way to secure seats if we hopped on the train at an earlier stop than Ella.
We got to the earlier station (a separate blog post to come on this) and there were quite a few other tourists that seemed to have heard about the same cheat-code.
But we managed to get seats once the train pulled into Kandy! So I was sat on my behind, comfortably, for the seven-hour train journey.
The views from the train journey were incredible and I can see why a lot of people take this route and it isn’t something to be missed when travelling through Sri Lanka.
When we arrived in Ella we felt the change of atmosphere compared to Kandy. Ella is very much a tourist hot-spot and I was very glad to be staying here for a few days to recharge.
Day 17: Wednesday 3rd April 2024
Location: Ella, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
This morning was one of my most memorable moments of our time in Sri Lanka! We were staying up in the hills of Ella at Ella River Front and our room came with a balcony overlooking the greenery and even looked out at a waterfall.
But the main event was when a group of three monkeys decided to put on a show on the balcony while I was in the room on my own and Steff was checking us out/paying. A few came right onto the balcony and played on the chairs, and then ran back and forth on the railing.
I got some great photos and videos and will always remember this!
The rest of the day was spent down in the main area of Ella at Chill Cafe working on our laptops and catching up on work/content. We went for dinner in a treehouse (Clay Pot) and had a very tasty Sri Lankan meal before checking into a new guest house in Ella.
Day 18: Thursday 4th April 2024
Location: Ella & Yala, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
We woke up in our second stay in Ella which had incredible views of the valley from the roof. This place was better located as we could walk to the main area of Ella and didn’t have to pay for tuktuks, but I did love the view from the River Front place better (although the monkeys may have also swayed this).
We went for breakfast and ended up having to share as they had a power cut after making the first round of waffles and we were catching a bus to Yala afterwards. Power cuts are a very common thing here in Sri Lanka it seems, but doesn’t last too long.
The bus journey to Yala was probably one of the worst experiences of our time here. We’ve been on quite a few Sri Lankan buses by now and every driver drives chaotically fast, weaving in and out of traffic constantly and braking hard every few metres.
However, since we were in the mountains, there were many windy roads to make our way downwards, but that didn’t stop our driver from flying and driving way too fast for my liking, especially with the very steep drop over the side of the road.
I was ready to kiss the ground as soon as we got off the bus, but we then had a tuktuk journey to get to our hotel/lodge where we relaxed before our big day tomorrow – the safari day!!
Day 19: Friday 5th April 2024
Location: Yala & Tangalle, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
Our alarms went off at 4am as we were meeting in the restaurant area at 4.30am to head off on our Safari. This probably wasn’t the best time to have an upset stomach and needing to run to the bathroom twice in fifteen minutes, but of course that’s what happened.
I popped an Imodium and headed off in the jeep with a nervous stomach, not knowing if I was going to have to jump out and go to the toilet in the bushes and be attacked by a leopard. That would make a great travel story though, wouldn’t it? Thankfully I survived the 7-hour safari and the Imodium did its job.
Aside from this, I had the best time on safari as this has always been a bucket list item for me, seeing animals in the wild and watching them in their natural habitat, just going about their morning.
We saw so many incredible animals and birds and even spotted two leopards which isn’t always guaranteed on a morning safari.
Since we had booked the safari through our hotel, we were able to have a late checkout and relax and freshen up when we came back before heading on our way to the first beach town of our trip in Tangalle.
Day 20: Saturday 6th April 2024
Location: Tangalle, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
It was so nice to finally be back by the beach after a few days of hectic travelling, early alarms and congested areas.
We spent the morning hopping from beach to beach, had some avo toast, finally paid someone to do our laundry and simply relaxed for a change.
By relaxing I mean sitting on the beach with my kindle getting my feet roasted in the sun not realising they weren’t under the shade of the umbrella.
And that was day 20 of our travels in Sri Lanka.
Day 21: Sunday 7th April 2024
Location: Tangalle & Dickwella, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
It was time to move onto another beach town, and this time we were staying in a resort, the most expensive night’s stay of our trip so far.
Another day and night spent relaxing in a nice hotel room with food options within the resort, the beach a few steps from our hotel room and good wifi.
The south coast of Sri Lanka is also hot. April is their hottest month of the year (great choice from us) and I could feel my skin burning any time it was in the sun. So I did spend a lot of time in the hotel room in the air conditioning and working on my laptop. Blissful.
Even more Sri Lankan adventures to come in week four!
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