Horton Plains. World’s End.

I have a post planned about how the world at times feels like its going to shit (i.e. armageddon) – this is not this post. Instead, it is about the visually most exhilarating experience I have had in Sri Lanka so far.

The past days I have been busy traveling by train from Colombo via Kandy and Nuwara Eliya to now Ella (the classic touristic route – by the way, notice how apart from Nuwara Eliya all these city names are super easy to remember, crisp and fun to say? I have a theory that is why these places are so popular). I decided to join up with two girls from Munich, whose plans align with mine for their first week here.

Riding the train is sort of a must-do in Sri Lanka and there are entire websites dedicated to providing information as to how to get a ticket, which train and wagon to take as well as where to sit.

As soon as these trains hit the incline towards the mountains, they become super slow. They also have open windows and doors.

Which is why everyone thinks they need to take pictures like the one on the left. This is obviously stupid, and a few people die doing this every year.

Also, please don’t jump into the Munich Eisbach, as a similar fate awaits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kandy itself is overrated in my view, however Sigiriya Rock (a daytrip from Kandy) provided amazing views as well as documents that men were boob-obsessed already thousands of years ago. Please check these pictures for details. Probably safe for work, since it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We decided to be lazy and not do Adam’s Peak, which is a 4 hour hike that you need to begin at 2:30am. However, I think it would have been tough to top the experience we had visiting the Horton Plains and hiking to a place called World’s End. You may wonder why they call it that, and so did we. I think you need to be there to understand, but hopefully the pictures give you a bit of an impression. Apparently the gods were smiling upon us, as we experienced both a breathtaking sunrise…

…as well as literally reached World’s End at exactly the right time to witness the clouds moving up from the valley. Imagine this view initially:

(again these pictures cannot remotely capture how this looks like – I was torn between thinking that this is what Nirvana must be like and then considering that this would be an ideal movie set for a fantasy or science fiction movie. I literally thought that you cannot make clouds move like that without a special effects team. I should stop watching so much Netflix.)

Anyway, so we get there and within the next 20 minutes the place becomes even more mystical. Just check out the sequence of the following pictures. (I cannot upload videos, unfortunately)

I am looking forward to the year-end video where this will get way too much airtime.

The rest of the hike wasn’t bad either (foto credit of some pics: @kayteesch):

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Also, we now know what happens to you, when you kill 1400 elephants:

Karma is a bitch.

Good karma is subscribing to this blog on the right. 🙂