April 26,

This morning I awoke at 0600 and Jeff had been up since 0200! Wowza!! We had breakfast of last of our Muesli and yogurt. We readied and finished our packing. We shot a WhatsApp to Gita to give her a heads up. I will miss this peaceful place,  hearing the birds in the morning, but won't miss lack of AC. If we had the AC though we would have had the windows closed and not been able to hear the birds.🤔That is a conundrum! Anyway, Jeff hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Kandy train station. At 0840, we arrived. We were directed to track #2. When a train arrived at 0910, we boarded, as did everyone else. But the ticket checker declined us as well as many others, saying next train. Then we were told platform #4! 0918 as we were moving to that platform our train arrived. We boarded. Jeff figured out how to turn our seats around. So now we were facing the right way to enjoy. Yeah! He started a trend, and everyone else in the car did it also. Our train pulled out of Kandy Station at 0950 – 32 minutes late.

We are in a first class AC seat car. The trains here are not as long as Indian trains. For two obvious reasons I can think of – they don't have as much population, masses of people to move about; and Sri Lanka is a way, way smaller country. Our train ride is only supposed to be just over 4 hours. The countryside changes as we move into the mountains. The Ceylon Tea Plantations start showing up about halfway through. We both just love the look of these steep, planted tea shrubs. We don't know why we enjoy the visual of tea country, but we just do! The weather has definitely cooled and is way more suitable! 

We each did the photo op by leaning out the open train doors. Jeff, of course, was hanging out!! Crazy man!🫣 But near Watagoda Station, Jeff leaned out and picked me a flower. AHH! Maybe not so crazy😉. One of the train attendants was telling people of other photo ops like waterfalls and the tea plantations, etc. He at one point struck up a conversation while I was trying to get pictures out the open door. Later he showed Jeff a picture of his daughter – she has Dengue Fever, he said, and asked Jeff for some money. It was not much and Jeff gave him $15, hopefully it is useful and used to help. Jeff gave in good faith…  

Anyway we arrived at our destination, Nuwara Eliya. It was about 1340 – just a few minutes late. We unloaded and found a tuk-tuk driver willing to negotiate a fair fare. Jeff had sent a message to our place of our slightly early arrival. We got there at 1400 (check-in time was 1430). The “cleaning crew” was still there. They said five minutes – which was more like 20 – but we said no problem as we were early. One even offered us some Coke, I took some Jeff did not, naturally. We just sat and enjoyed the cool weather and the beautiful garden with many potted plants. When they finished, the oldest lady (who offered and gave me Coke) took us in and showed us around. A young man, Dilhan, her son and the main contact, finished the house tour. We have another small home to ourselves! It has a fairly large living room with two oversized chairs, a matching sofa, and a coffee table. A kitchen big enough for the two of us, and well stocked with basic dishes. Two bedrooms, and two bathrooms(and a 2nd floor of bedrooms we didn't see). This will do quite nicely. We thanked them, they left, and we unpacked. 

Now we made a quick grocery list and set out. First we found, Nuwara Eliya Coffee Center Restaurant. We had Nasi Goreng with beef, which is an Indonesian/Bali Fried Rice; and a Fish Sandwich with Fries. They were filling but not great. The beef was basically mostly beef gristle, but the egg on top of it was just right with a soft, gooey egg yolk. The Fish was just bits (but flavorful, like the smoked fish in the Maldives), and only about 15 french fries. Jeff did have a beer and I had a proper cold Coke. But unless this is the only restaurant, we probably won't be back here. But on a positive note, we both got a vibe sitting here for this town and there is something here we love. 

On to the grocery store! We went to the Cargill grocery… we were not impressed and may not be back here, either. We found most of our list, except fruits and veggies. We did get a couple of cukes, a lime(?) and a red onion, but that was all I wanted to try from here – our Booking host was hesitant on Cargill and Keells, rather just saying local places were good. HUMMM… maybe he is right and knows…!

We arrived back at our place and I started blogging and Jeff read/planned. Overall our first impressions: we definitely got a vibe from Nuwara Eliya, we both like!!!  I love our place, our new home! But we found places we may not go back to. I guess that is good, as we are here six nights. We had a bit of Chocolate and some Arrack (as we were still not hungry). Plan on bed around 2200.