Grand Ella Motel

I have heard about Ella area many times, mostly about the beauty of the place. Last time when we were travelling from Badulla to Galle through Ella, we thought to stay in Grand Ella Motel and see the place.
Ceylon Hotel Corporation owns the Grand Ella Motel. Ceylon Hotel Corporation has many rest houses/hotels in scenic locations around the country. Grand Ella Motel is located on the road connecting Wellawaya – Ella - Kumbalwela (Kumbalwela is on the Bandarawela-Badulla road). It’s around 1-2 km from Ella railway station. The place is great as a stopover when you travel, because it connects Bandarawela/Badulla to Wellawaya (then the whole south of the country).


From Grand Ella Motel you can easily reach many beautiful attractions around: Rawana falls, Bogoda wooden bridge, Dunhinda falls etc. From Ella to Wellawaya, it is a steep decent which is also the border between central hills and almost flat Southern part of the country. So, you can view the panoramic view of Ella gap from there.

The Grand Ella Motel is a nice place to stay. The view was great, staff was friendly, food was also reasonable. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a room with the view of Ella Gap, if you are staying ask for a room with the view. That will complete your stay.

Bogoda Wooden Bridge

Bogoda wooden bridge is over 400 years old, but still it is surviving from all the disasters. It's a nice place you can easily visit from Badulla town.

The bridge is located around 8-10 Kms from Hali Ela junction (Hali ela junction is on Bandarawela-Badulla road, just 6km to Badulla).

The road from Hali Ela to the bridge is a narrow one, but you can easily go there by a car.

Nuwara Eliya Travelodge

Nuwara Eliya is different from other Sri Lankan cities in many ways. Out of many reasons, cool climate comes as the number one. Nuwara Eliya usually is the coldest city in Sri Lanka. This has a great value when Colombo is in burning temperatures, while Nuwara Eliya is still cold as a city in winter.

Last time when we were in Nuwara Eliya, we stayed at the “Travelodge”. It is a colonial type of bungalow located on the Badulla road, in front of race course ground. With 10 minutes walk you can get to Nuwara Eliya town center easily.

If you cannot find the contact details for the place, feel free to mail me.

"Changeling" and Sri Lanka today

I watched Clint Eastwood’s movie: Changeling. It was a good story to watch after a while. Angelina Jolie’s contribution was so superb; I didn’t feel the movie’s runtime of 141 minutes at all.

In summary, the story tells about a mother who challenges political corrupted and lawless authority to find her missing son. After all troubles, with the help of civil society leaders, she was able to find a reasonable justice for her and others’ cases.

When I watched the movie, I felt that the problem in the story depicts the situation in Sri Lanka nowadays. “Uchitha’s blog” has a good post about the way things are going today. With the current situation in country people are feared of authorities going politically corrupted and lawless. But the problem is civil society is getting afraid to lead the socity, so end to the problem is unlike. As I feel, this transition period for Sri Lanka should be over soon to see a better country for all of us. Otherwise, the transition period will be longer than we think.

Thanks Vagi for the movie.

Kite Runner : The book and the movie

I usually watch movies, also read novels (occasionally). But, it’s really rare to read a novel and watch the movies based on that novel. Last time it was Da Vinchi code, like everyone who did that, I like the book over movie.

Uchitha mentioned about “Kit Runner” in his blog few months ago. He has watched the Kit Runner movie and mentioned about it with full credit.

With his introduction to the movie, I bought the Novel. It took a long time to start the reading. But that was a real good novel to read. The novel was based on Afganistan, but some parts of it were related to the Pakistan I knew. So, I found it’s bit familiar to me. Also, the story for so good to keep the readers addicted to the novel.

After the book, I found the movie. I watched it. As I feel, the director has done justice to the book. But the book is far ahead without any doubt.

Trip to Doovili Ella

On April 14th, we went to see the “Doovili Ella”, which is located near Neluwa (Close to Sinharaja forest). The route from Galle is Galle->Udugama Town->Thawalama Town->Neluwa Town->Turn to Pelawatta road, around 3-4kms-> turn to the Doovili ella access road.

Doovili Ella consists of 3 falls. It’s really a nice view to see. But the main attraction according to my thinking is the natural water pool located at the bottom of the pool. Water from the fall is directed to a man-made water pool. So, it’s really a secure bath there.

Only problem I faced is the time it took us to travel. From Galle town, it took around 2.5 hours to get there. But, it’s really worth trip to go.