Ella is town in the hill country of Sri Lanka popular with foreign tourists. The town itself is nothing special but it sits at 1000m above sea level and with that comes refreshing day and night time temperatures, a relaxed pace of life and great hiking in the surrounding hills! The iconic blue train covers the distance between Kandy and Ella with incredible views over the tea field clad hills. You will find every shade of green mixed with the bright sari's of the Tamil tea pickers. Leaning out of a rickety old train with your head and legs dangling from the doors, makes for an unforgettable experience. I think pretty much everybody visiting Ella hikes up to little Adams peak, and with good reason. A gorgeous and relatively easy 3km walk up through tea fields to stunning views up to Ella Rock and right down to the south coast. My little Harry Potter fans loved the Demodera Nine Arch Bridge! It was just like watching the Hogwarts train come past. We waited for the 12 noon train to pass by, before crossing over the bridge, through the train tunnel, and then along the tracks all the way back to Ella train station. We knew we had 90 minutes before the next train was due but must admit my ears were totally on alert just in case. Spend some time amongst the tea fields if you can, walking and speaking with the with the workers. Visit a tea factory to find out just what goes into your morning cuppa... it was far more involved than we ever realised; wilting, rolling, fermenting, drying and sorting! We visited the Rawana waterfall one hot afternoon for a swim. The rocks were VERY slippery and we watched 4 people fall over while we were there. A cheeky monkey stole A10's lunch while she was looking the other way and although it was nice to cool off, it's probably not a must see in Ella. The Sri Lankan food is simply devine and we learned a few tricks from Dilhani at Top Heavens cooking school. We made eggplant curry, coconut sambol, green beans, poppadom and dahl curry. Their open air kitchen is homemade with clay walls and oven. In Sri Lanka, we choose to stay in guesthouses whenever possible. You get a true experience staying in someone's home and the food is incredible. Most guesthouses will cook you meals at a reasonable price. Our favourite guesthouse was Restfull Homestay in Ella and the main reason that we stayed in Ella so long.
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It's certainly confusing deciding which temples to visit around Angkor Wat. I read and re-read and looked at our families blogs and here is what worked well for us! Allocate at least 2 days to the temples (3 if you have the time). day 1: get the tuk tuk to drive you through angkor thom's famous gates. stop for look at Bayon's 236 marvellous faces, which you can see easily from the road, drive on to visit preah Khan (45 mins) and Ta som (30 mins). The drive will then take you past the hindu temples of East Mebon and Pre rup which you can also see from the remork. Finish at the gorgeous ruins of Banteay Kdei (30 mins). day 2: the magnificent Angkor Wat for sun rise (2 hour visit) and then on to our favourite, the 'tomb raider' temple of Ta Prohm ( 1 hour). If you have 3 days, there are plenty more temples to choose from to add to this, but my advice if travelling with children would be to slow the same itinerary down: day 1: drive through Angkor Thom, Bayan, visit Preah Khan and Ta Som, then drive back past Pre Rup and Sra Sang. day 2: Angkor Wat day 3: Banteay kdei and Ta Prohm This was our first view of beautiful Sigiriya. Lion rock, they call the 8th wonder of the world. It is a 5th century citadel perched atop 2000 rock steps. We decided to climb Pidurangala rock in the dark to watch this spectacular sunrise over beautiful Sigiriya. During our walk back, to top off our magical morning, a wild elephant crossed our path, just 10 metres in front of us and we watched her pass in awe. Pidurangala Rock Temple, is almost as high as Lion rock but at 1/7 of the price, it was a no brainer for us. We loved it so much that we climbed up again 2 days later. Kaudulla National Park is just a short drive from Sigiriya, and a quieter more personal version of the famous Minneriya National Park. We took an afternoon tour by jeep and were lucky enough to see 80 elephants roaming free throughout the park. It was so wonderful to see them slowly meandering along eating grass. Some wandered in family groups and others alone. The largest herd had around 60 elephants. There were plenty of monkeys and birds to see as well. We saw grey lanur monkey, purple faced lanur and tamarind monkeys, peacocks, herons, eagles, pelicans and kingfishers. Sigiriya is a great base to explore Dumbulla, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. There are fabulous ancient ruins to explore in the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka. There are a handful of restaurants along the main road and plenty of guest houses.
Chiang Mai is a great family travel destination. Whether you are into animals, outdoor adventure, culture or food, Chiang Mai has it all! A walk around the old town will take you past moats, city gates, and gold clad temples. There are markets aplenty selling all sorts of souvenirs, clothing and food. The night market is worth visiting, but our favourite was the Saturday market on Wualai Road, with interesting jewellery and excellent street food. Changmai offers fantastic cooking schools for those who love thai food. We really enjoyed our time with "Aunty Orn" at her home on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. Surrounded by jungle and picking organic produce from her garden, made for a really authentic experience. \\nhttps://www.auntieornscooking.com/ Dragon Flight extreme zipline was an epic adventure for the whole family! The kids amazed us with their confidence diving off 10 metre high platforms without a care. We crossed deep valleys to 49 platforms in the thai jungle. Some of the ziplines were over 700m long. We also decided that we may have the worlds coolest MorMor (grandmother) who is up for anything! Siam Insect Zoo was a hit with our two kids. Getting to dig for beetle pupae and millipedes, holding stick insects, and getting up close to turtles and iguana's, what kid wouldn't love it? There are also spiders, scorpions, beetles and butterflies. Nong Buak Hard Park is a sweet little piece of green inside the city walls. If you are on the road with kids, it's always great to find somewhere to burn off some steam and play. If you have time, take the night train to or from Bangkok. It is so much fun for everyone and actually easier than flying. This night train was our fourth this year and the shortest at just 14 hours. A brilliant family adventure and the beds were super comfy! Chiang Mai is a gateway to the jungle and hill tribes closeby. You can easily visit elephant sanctuaries and see the endangered indochine tigers in a zoo if that's what you are into. We didn't do either of these trips as we have the opportunity to see wild elephants in Sri Lanka and couldn't face seeing drugged tigers as a tourist attraction. |
finding freedom with four backpacks
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