I want to visit my friend in China before he comes back. Free place to crash and all. So, I applied for a visa to China, from Colombo. I’m not sure I’ll get it, but this is process to at least apply. For official but incomplete info, check out the Chinese Embassy website.

This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

Cool. Soon there will be 15 hydrogen-powered ‘green’ trishaws plying the Galle Fort (where trishaws are currently banned, apparently, though I’ve seen them there). This is funded by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Dev) and I’m assuming the trishaws are Mahindra HyAlfas, which have previously debuted in Delhi. This is only a test in Sri Lanka, but a damn cool one.

This is a waterfall near Kitulgoda. I don’t remember how to get there and I’m not especially inclined to give directions. It’s a small village growing into a town and everybody seems to know where this is. On this Avurudu day, seems like everyone came. The waterfall is about 12 feet high, but what makes it notable is that it empties into what seems to be a bottomless pit. You can stand on the edges, but then it just bottoms out. I couldn’t see, feel, or even imagine bottom. There are stories of people being caught in eddies, unrecoverable bodies, etc, but everyone was jumping in anyways. Me too.

We climbed this thing. Almost. The last 100 meters or so is a pure vertical incline and you have to rock-climb up a crevice, then pull yourself up via a rope that someone attaches. You are hanging by your fingers and toes of a cliff face and this is slightly insane. Our rope wasn’t quite long enough and when the guide asked what religion we were we decided to turn back. When he started chanting ‘Buddham saranam gachami’ I was pretty confident that this wasn’t a good idea.

Of one person really, but there’s a shot with me. No homo. Above is Imaad painting in the room at 98 Acres, the resort we were reviewing. I am hanging somewhat precariously off the side of the balcony. The focus with reflections is wonky and this took a couple tries.

Stuff grows up here. I personally think Ella has the best vegetarian food in the country, but posher places insist on trucking in meat. We did have a few interesting things. One was the edible tea tempura at 98 Acres. The other was the usual veggies at Dream Cafe. Some things also feasted on us.

Honestly, just look at the picture. This is a vertical panorama which captures most of the falls. Ravana Falls (there are a few actually) is visible from throughout Ella, most notably from Ambiente. If you follow the rail tracks and turn at the second Buddha shrine, you get there. Go down to the left (or swim across) from the right and you can descend down a few levels. But be careful.

I’m in Ella with Imaad, officially to review this new resort, 98 Acres. It’s damn nice, degrees of magnitude above my usual accom. As in, this is not a place I could usually afford, but if you can, you should. It’s the best place I know of in Ella (IMHO, one of the best places in Sri Lanka) and it’s definitely unique.

I’ve had some shitty bus rides in my life. The Badulla ride was thankfully great. We left Colombo round 11 and got to Ella round 5h30. The ride was expensive at Rs. 585 each, but the conductor didn’t overstuff the bus, the A/C worked, it smelled fine and was cool. The conductors were actually quite nice. So anyways, any bus stops for eats somewhere along the way. These are some photos from our stop, in Lellopitiya.