We decided to check out a seafood platter dish but overall found quite a few problems with it. I had already complained about inconsistencies in their information presented as far as what was what with this seafood platter other food we could eat.

I had a meeting with the Assistant Food & Breverage Manager, The Food & Beverage Manager, and the Resort Manager.  Afer this they decided to give us a free bottle of wine as they had 2 seafood platters - one with a bottle of wine $140 USD and one without $88 USD.The wine (from South Africa - a Chardonay) they gave us was selling for 5,000 Rupees at the restaruant, about $45 NZD. I checked it up online and it sells in the US/Canada for between $8.99 and $12.99 USD. 
There was a little salad on the plate and a nice little fish curry along with some vegetables.
Pretty sad looking Cauliflower, dark a bit cut off it and some of it was greenish.
The main dish was a selection of seafood.

• Crab
• Tuna
• Lobster
• Prawns
• Scallops
• Squid

• We started with the Squid which was lovely and tender but it had a basil pesto on it and it was too strong a flavour for the squid I thought.
• The Tuna was lovely - no complaint there.
• The Lobster was over cooked and dry
• The Pawns were overcooked and dry
• The Scallops (there was 2) I did not see and the time I did they were cold so cant really comment.
• The Crab was overly coated in a sticky sauce which made eating them very difficult. Also the Crab legs really contained no meat, but the meat from the body connected to the legs was very nice and nicely cooked.

No finder bowl was provided and I had to ask for them to bring them.   We decided not to have desert.I let the waiter who was nice and pleasant and efficient to let the chef know my thoughts.In the end we got 50% discount off the bill so along with a bottle of water the meal came to about 7,700 rupees or about 70 NZD.I just wish people cooked seafood properly. Overall disapointed as it should have been perfect.

We arranged a transfer to take us from Koggala to Colombo since the train was very busy when we took it a week earlier with no seats free on any carriage we checked in on.

The road from Koggala to Colombo was a nice motorway so the trip only took about 2 hours.


We had some very nice food in Colombo but did not take any photos.

We arrived on Sunday at "The Fortress Resort" and this particular Sunday was "Bak Pura Pasaloswaka Poya Day" maybe it also means "Vesak Full Moon Poya Holiday"?


Bak Poya (Bak Pura Pasaloswaka Poya Day) which falls in the month of April marks Lord Buddha’s visit to Nagadipa (Sinhala: නාගදීපය).

This was his second visit to Sri Lanka after Enlightenment.

According to the ancient chronicle, Mahavamsa, He visited Nagadipa as he perceived an atmosphere of animosity between two parties of the Naga community.

The deity Samaddhisumana accompanied the Blessed One on this journey.

In simple terms for the local people this means "No Fish, No Meat, No Eggs, No Alcohol", for me this means "No Alcohol" as dictated by the government. Locals can not open alcohol and no alcohol can be served in public areas for 2 days. Fun killers.

My free 1 cocktail per day at the resort is seriously lacking since we arrived on Sunday and Monday was also run with the same rules. Lucky we bought some Vodka with us!

The beach is quite rough and had lots of rocks - but there is a nice pool right in front of it.

Although we were a mere 400-500 meters from the railway station we arranged a tuk-tuk to take us to the train station.


There was probably about 80 people in all waiting for the train which arrived at 9:23am and is scheduled to get us into Kandy at about 4pm  - a bit over 6.5 hours.

The trip started pretty well, because Ella is in the hill country the train meanders around the hills and is very slow. Kandy is only 160km from Ella but that means an average of 24km per hour.

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The trip from Ella quickly takes us up very high with some very nice views over the country side and some tea plantations.

Very few people were working in the tea plantations - probably 20 in the whole trip and there are hundreds or thousands of tea areas covering almost entire mountain sides in some locations.

We were in 2nd class - reserved and it looked pretty dingy and looked like it had never received real clean in its life.

The windows open in 2nd class about 8 inches so you can get a nice view without the glare of the windows getting in the way.

We had pre-purchased our tickets for the train journey from Ella to Kandy online using a web site at http://www.visitsrilankatours.co.uk

The cost is a lot more than buying local but we read that you can miss out on reserved seating if you do not pre-book a few days but we did not have a few days.

We payed 13 GBP which is about $26 NZD or about 2800 Rupees.

I price is 230 rupees on https://eservices.railway.gov.lk web site.



Prices from Visit Sri Lanka Tours web site - April 2018


When we arrived to pick up our tickets there was a sign saying that there was no second class reserved tickets available for tomorrow so we were happy to have pre-paid. But when we got on the train there was quite a few empty seats in the 2nd class reserved carriage.

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