Our last night in Galle, we had a lovely evening with both old and new friends. Australian Sam and Russian Asya had finally escaped the flooded north, and we shared some covert rooftop beers amidst the mosques of Galle. We shared a tuk tuk out of town and met up with Sri Lankan brothers Kumar and Ravi (left) and Chami (right) at the original Indian Hut in their neighborhood.

Afterward, we sped off into the night in search of mountaintop tea plantations. Actually, no. I just put on the helmet and sat on the bike to get a picture to scare my mom. I wound up scaring Kumar as well. He had no idea I just wanted a picture and kept saying, "This is new bike!" Ha ha ha ha ha...

We really did head for the hills the next day. After a long day of buses, we arrived in the mountain town of Ella, which was finally free of rain. The next morning we arose early to start a hike to the top of Ella Rock. This rocky point juts out over the town of Ella and the shear drop to the valley floor below. As there are not many roads through this landscape, we took the local "highway", the railroad tracks.

First we came across transplanting in the rice fields.

Never one to shirk from hard work, Kate set off into the flooded fields to do her part. After all, we did eat rice and curry in Sri Lanka everyday for a month. All I did was pick a bunch and tie it up, and I was still given a nice hot cup of tea for my efforts.

The steep mountain sides were perfect places for tons of beautiful waterfalls. Perfect spot for beautiful photographers to pose.

If you lose your way, the monk will help you find it.
He will simply put you in his tuk tuk and drop you off deep in the jungle with a smile and a "quite alright".

Beautiful. But challenging to climb up and will leave you a bit sore the next day. Or days.

During our hike, the Wandering Jew met the Wondering Jew.

After many hours of climbing straight up hill and then straight back down and then up and then down again and again, we returned to our guesthouse which was famous for its vegetarian curries, most notably: garlic curry (center top yellow). Multiple heads of garlic cooked to melting consistency in a sauce of slightly sweet cardamom curry. Heaven. Ten other dishes including and sweet and sour eggplant with caramelized onions, fried thinly sliced bitter melon in an onion salad, and Avner's favorite: pineapple ginger chutney. SO much food you really need to arrive hungry. This was not a problem for us.