Mountains and Tea

We organised a driver to take us up to a town called Ella up in the mountains. Was a 6 hour drive to cover the 200km stretch. Not to quick as the roads aren't to straight but absolutely beautiful. Once you arrive in Ella it literally only takes minutes to relax, it's very chilled. We had booked a cheap guest house and the boy offered a beer straight away and then proceeded to make us an amazing feast of about 5 different vegetable curries and that was us sorted for the afternoon! An amazing view from there amongst the little town and then we went for a stroll and had a couple more beers in a funky new bar that seemed to be the most popular hangout.
We hired a motorbike the next day and went for a cruise out into the tea plantations and checked out a tea factory which was very interesting how they go about it. They produce between 30 and 60 tonne a day and the smell is just amazing, we had a tour and he explained the process and the different grades. They sell wholesale a 50kg bag of the premo for about 500$ so we are trying to work out how we could start smuggling tea and make a profit?! Must be a way, surely...
We carried on the day just cruising through the mountains and the people were super friendly. Everyone just waving and genuinely happy yelling out saying hello and going about there business. Everywhere you look there is food growing. Bananas, papaya, corn, cabbage you name it there growing it and there were even patches of bush with eucalyptus treas.
The next day we headed of early on the train to Kandy. The trip took 6 hours winding through the mountains and was pretty spectacular. We should have stayed on the train as when we arrived in Kandy it was a bit of a dump. Really hectic and crazy amongst the mountains seemed fairly weird. We only had the night there so just had a couple of beers and some food and woke the next morning for the trip back to Galle. The first train to Columbo wasn't too bad but the one from there to galle was.... Well Julie reckoned a zoo! It was full when it got to the station and then it was just one for all. Full on is the only way to explain. Just barge in and push like crazy until you can't fit another person on and then the train leaves. We stood for a couple of hours and then decided to bail and have a beer and swim in Hikaduwa and get a Tuk-Tuk from there back to Sunflower, was deffently a great idea. Would be great to spend more time in the quieter areas in the mountains and have a good look around some time, but the few days was still a great experience.