For the first time since I arrived in Sri Lanka I left the coast. As now usual, I took a bus to Tissamaharama (also known as Tissa) to visit the Yala national park. Apparently they knew I was coming since a few people were waiting for me at the bus station saying they were missing only one person for tomorrow's safari. I first told them I was not interested in safari and went for a walk in the city, searching for a cheap place to stay. I quickly realized that every single hotel and guesthouse also organizes safaris, so I gave up and found a deal for the safari including 2 nights accommodation.

We left around 5am aboard a nice safari jeep and 30 minutes later we entered Yala national park. The park is known to own world's greatest population of leopards, as well as elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, monkeys and many kind or birds. Unfortunately, during the 7hours trip we were unable to spot any leopard, but we saw dozens of wild elephants, thousand of monkeys and a few crocodiles. Best part of the day: we met a baby elephant (10 days old) walking around with his mother.

The day after I took another bus to Ella. Bus ride was fun: we climbed from sea level to approximately 1000 meters on very damaged roads at about 15km/h for 3 hours. Beside his beautiful name, Ella also is a lovely and quiet small city on a steep hill. The center actually consists in a few shops around the main road, but all around there are dozens of houses, guesthouses and local restaurants hidden in the jungle with no road access. In the afternoon I went for a trekking around starting from train station. I walked along the railroad tracks for a few kilometers, then climbed what they call Ella Rock: a big mountain facing and over-viewing the city. I was joined by a group of locals going on top to pray (that's at least what I understood). On our way to top, we walked through beautiful tea fields, and once on top I could enjoy the amazing view of the surrounding landscape. By clear weather one can even see the coast.

On my second day in Ella, I started walking on the railroad tracks with no particular goal. After a few hours walking, had after having crossed some trains, I met a young guy who invited me to join him and his family for a cup of tea and lunch. As I suspected, even if Sri Lanka people are very kind, they rarely offer things for free. When I arrived at their home I saw dozens of pictures of the family with tourists from all around the world. They even had a guestbook with messages left from the "invited" people. The actually didn't directly ask for anything after lunch, they just tells you that last week a Dutch tourist left them money and candies, two weeks ago a Spanish tourist left them even more money and a watch and so on... Well, in a few words I was trapped! I realized they spot tourists walking on railroad track from their house, and they send one the 4 very friendly sons. When I arrived at their home a couple of tourists was leaving...
They do good business, are friendly and meal was good. So I promised to come back in the afternoon with something for them. I hesitated to go back (mostly because of the 2 hours walk), but I finally went back and give them some chocolate, a cake and few pens.

After that long walking day I was happy to finally lay down on a bed and rest.