Travel life — Part 1 ( Hatton to Nuwaraeliya via NanuOya)

Hello friends, recently we had completed an amercing journey to central highlands of Sri Lanka. First I will explain our journey from Hatton to NanuOya.

We used train to go to NanuOya from Hatton. First thing first, train timetables. You can check it from Sri Lanka Railways official site. Please select the date you are going to take the journey. As train timetables change for week days and weekend days. If you start your journey from Hatton, then train may get late by at least 20 minutes ( very common thing in this line).

Then food before starting journey. I can recommend one place to have a good meal around Hatton railway station. Railway Lodge ,walking distance from Hatton station. Friendly staff ,really good food for reasonable price and clean place. Also dont forget to get water bottles, snacks for the journey . There are many local vendors selling snacks inside train. Its all upto you to select the best way to have snacks.

Weather is unpredictable in this region, so you better to get ready for wet weather. Keeping umbrellas and raincoats would be a good idea.

Latest Intercity train Denuwara Manike (with newest S14 power-set) arrival to Hatton from Badulla.

If you want to enjoy the train journey , staying close to a door. This is a bit dangerous. You must always be holding something , even when you take photos or selfies. Luckily we got a place and we shared it with a foreign traveling couple.

The best place to enjoy the journey.

Other couple we shared the place throughout the journey.

One important thing, this is a normal train, so many people use it for their daily works. So please give them space when train stops at a station.

You can enjoy the best scenic train ride. Mountains, Ceylon tea plantations, tunnels also local people.

Up country tea plantation .

We got Podi Manike train ( Travels from Colombo-Fort to Badulla), it uses Chinese built S12 power sets, simply famous blue trains in hill country.( or blue dragons).

Train travels slowly through mountainous tea plantations.

Mountain forest lands.

Mountains changed into tea plantations.

Colonial age bridges.

These rail roads originally built by British people to bring tea, rubber and other plantation to Colombo fort. Still those bridges even their pretty old signalling systems are used with these modern trains.

Narrow path between mountains.

When you travel these kind of places, you must be careful. As gap between train and rocks is very narrow.

NanuOya station.

Train ride took around 3 hours at that day. This may vary with weather, derailment (very common in this line with bad weather), and signal delays.

To go to Nuwaraeliya, you can easily get a bus from Nanuoya town. But you must not pay attention for tuk tuk drivers near station. There are enough buses from to Nuwaraeliya and they take around 23 rupees per person to Nuwaraeliya (early 2020).

Tips :

• If you are a foreigner and want to book a ticket, you have to be careful, its kind of scam. Tickets are taken by blackmarket guys and sold at very high price. Locals cant buy tickets sometimes in advance.
• Always keep your bags with you, wallets inside your bags.
• Tuk tuk drivers are kind of headache. Their price is too high at the beginning. Do not pay more than 50 rupees per kilometer. You must settle the price before get into tuk tuk. (If they have a meter, tell them to switch on, if its broken you know whats going to happen).
• Good mobile connection throughout this journey. Always make sure where you are.

Next post I will share our experience in Nuwaraeliya town and things to do there.