Ella, Sri Lanka

I was born in Sri Lanka and did not leave the island till I turned 26.  I have lived in Jaffna for most of my life, but I have also lived in Peradeniya near Kandy for six years, and I lived in Colombo for about two years.  I have heard of Badulla, a city where one of my aunts taught; Gampola, another city where one of my neighbors taught; Bandara Wela and Hatton, where two of my classmates in Jaffna came from.  Other than these cities, I have heard of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kataragama, and Galle, which are other major cities in Sri Lanka.  I have never heard of Ella, a town between Badulla and Bandara Wela, now the poster child of Sri Lanka, attracting hoards of tourists in recent years.  I first learned of Ella on a YouTube clip in which the Ella train station was promoted as a Green Station.  The Station Master and the Staff spent two hours a day when trains were not passing through, mending its gardens and keeping the station clean.  I travel through Sri Lanka often, and I added it to my bucket list and went there recently.

At Ella Green Train Station

The best way to travel to Ella from Colombo is by train, which will take about seven hours, or from Kandy, which will take about four hours.  Tickets are sold out months ahead, so anyone who wants to travel to Ella by train must plan and book tickets well ahead.  The next best thing to do is travel from Nanu Oya to Badulla via Nuwara Eliya and Ella.  The scenes are spectacular.  Unfortunately, I could not make any of these trips.  Instead, I had to take a bus ride from Colombo to Ella, which took four hours, sans most of the scenic beauty.  I had to settle for the views between Mattala and Ella, which were beautiful as well.  I intentionally took a daytime bus so I would not miss the views.  The bus reached Ella around 2 pm.

Ella's business district is the main road (A23), about 1 km long.  Cafes, bars, bakeries, boutiques, creameries, and restaurants are on both sides of the road, and almost everyone on the street is a tourist.  Finding a restaurant that served Sri Lankan rice and curry was hard, but they were there.  The cafe I had lunch was built on the side of a rock, on man made platform.  Getting up was an excercise itself, but fun.  I had lunch and decided to walk to the train station I saw on YouTube.  

Rice & Fish Curry Lunch

There were tourists and guides taking photos and waiting for a train to arrive.  It turned out that a train from Badulla was about to come, which would go over the Nine Arch Bridge, the poster child, which gets rave reviews.  The Nine Arch Bridge, between Ella and Demodera, is 2.5 km from Ella.  Some wanted to see the train crossing the bridge, so they walked along the tracks towards the bridge, aiming to arrive before the train crossed.  A one-way ticket from Ella to Demodera is 50LKR (15 US cents).  I got one and waited with others to board the train.

While waiting for the train to Demodera

As the train arrived, there was a bit of excitement among those who wanted to board the train.  But, they have to give way to those who were deboarding.  The train emptied itself at Ella.  I found a seat in the ordinary class (it used to be third class as I knew it), along the side from which I could have a good view of the train as it bends its way over the Nine-Arch Bridge.  Next to me was a Ukrainian couple, two of their children, and their guide.  I tried to have a small conversation, but their English was poorer than my Ukrainian, so the conversation was limited.  They offered me a piece of milk toffee, a Sri Lankan sweet, and I courteously accepted.

 From the train - while passing onlookers at the Nine Arch Bridge

The train departed Ella and crawled its way to Demodera.  A six km journey took 15 minutes.  No one was in a hurry.  Youngsters leaned outwards from the train, hanging their bodies in the whizzing air.  I had done this before; I was much younger then.  I took plenty of photos and videos, anything still and everything that moved.  

The Train on the Nine Arch Bridge

I arrived at Demodera, took an auto rickshaw, and went to the hotel at Ella.  The name of the hotel is Ravana Range, named after the demon king who abducted Sita from Rama.  Despite the villification of Ravana else where, he is celebrated in this part of Sri Lanka.  A water fall and a bar are named after him.

The hotel was about 4 km from Demodera, and the auto fare was 1500 LKR.    Compare this to the 50 LKR I paid to get from Ella to Demodera.  There's a price to pay if you are a tourist.  The hotel room was grand for the price I paid and its location.  It was meant for a small family.  The view from the balcony cut through several valleys and was delightful.  At a distance was a waterfall – Kittal Alla Waterfalls, I could see.  I sat on the balcony and watched the darkness engulfing the landscape.  As the night submerged the landscape, so was tranquility.  I could only hear an occasional three-wheeler whizzing a few kilometers away.

My Hotel Room

The Ravana Range Hotel, Ella

Kittal Ella Water Falls

A Tea Estate

Despite a long day of travel and a comfortable room, I could not sleep and was on the balcony by 5 am, waiting for the sun to come up.  I was glad that I did so, to witness every shade of every color change minute by minute.  The best was seeing the sun rising on top of a mountain.  As a kid, when we drew sunrise, the sun always came up from the valley, not on top of a hill.  Not sure why we drew so.  I was not alone; there was another middle-aged European couple, and a squirrel gave me company.

  

Sunrise at Ella - Views from Ravana Range

I then had breakfast – hopper with honey for the first time in my life and then went to bed.

Hopper with Honey

The checkout time at the hotel was noon, so I called a three-wheeler to get back to the city via a visit to the Nine Arch Bridge.  I wanted to stay on the ground and watch the train pass this time.  The luck was with me, and as I reached the bridge, I saw hundreds of tourists eagerly waiting for a train to enter through a tunnel.  A young couple was on top of the bridge, embracing each other - very romantic.  As the train exited the tunnel, the crowd clapped and cheered, and to my surprise, this train stopped on top of the bridge.  Some passengers got out of the train, and some onlookers got into the train.  It was surreal.  

A train exit from a Tunnel to go over the Nine Arch Bridge

A Train on Nine Arch Bridge

A Couple on Nine Arch Bridge

Once the train started to move, the tourists left, and I went to the town to catch the bus back to Colombo.  I kept wondering what has changed since I left Sri Lanka in 1980, which has made Ella a popular tourist destination.  The mountains, the bridge, and the trains were all there when I left, right?  I reckon it is the Tourism Industry, which was not well developed in the 1980s.  The tourism industry has become one of the country's leading sources of foreign exchange, largely due to the efforts of industry leaders who have developed Ella into a prominent destination.

Appeal for Global Cooperation to Advance Science and Technolgy

Science and Technology have significantly advanced the quality of life in numerous ways, impacting health, communication, education, transportation, increasing connectivity, making daily tasks more convenient, and providing vast range of entertainment.  Despite the progress in Science and Technology, many problems, such as climate change, clean energy, pandemics, food insecurity, etc., have no solutions yet.  By isolating each other, China and the US delay solutions reaching the masses.

Competition among researchers is good to some extent, so is collaboration among researchers.  However, the chase for supremacy between China and the US, by banning each others technology, is hurting all.  China was the first to ban US technology (e.g. Google), because it would not allow the required censorship by the Chinese.  Now it has been both ways.    

There are many benefits when powerful nations collaborate to develop Science and Technology.  Combining the strengths can lead to faster breakthroughs for the global community.  

The recent release of DeepSeek AI Chatbot showed that China can develop a Chatbot without superior chips.  Science progresses incrementally by improving what is available or thinking entirely out of the box and new.  In this case, the Chinese have taken the second path, partly because they were denied NVIDIA super chips.  This battle between the US and the Chinese confirms the adage - a pen is mightier than a sword.  

US companies wanted to use brute force, faster chips that consume large amounts of energy.  Bill Gates started promoting nuclear reactors to power AI.  I think some other tech companies have invested in nuclear reactors.  A more intelligent algorithm that uses slower chips and requires less energy has won the battle.  This also supports the thesis that the primary resource of a country is its people.  1.4 Billion Chinese will always be greater than 350 million Americans.  Of course, the population needs to be educated and disciplined - Chinese are, and Indians are not there yet.  

On the other hand, suppose superior NVDIA chips were available to the Chinese scientists?  The DeepSeek would have been even more efficient and comprehensive than what it is now.  An opportunity missed.

The sad truth is that the US and its allies ban new and efficient technologies from China (solar panels, smartphones, electric vehicles, social media (Tik Tok), or AI (DeepSeek)), citing National security when they are more worried about losing markets in the short term.  The Australian government recently banned DeepSeek from being on government phones.  It does not want its employees to use an efficient chatbot when it intends to make them more efficient and competitive than their contemporaries around the world.  Why ban proven and efficient technologies from your own workforce?  Why compete with one hand tied to the back?  What an irony! 

When the West is boycotting the Chinese Technolgy, China progresses, so, are many third world countries, who have no qualms accepting the latest (Chinese) Technologies.  Many of them have better internet facilities, EVs etc. than what we have in Australia.  That's a sad fact.

Collaboration can open up new markets for China and the US.  When globalization was promoted in the early 1990s, the case West made was that globalization would open 100% of the global markets instead of a mere 5% in the US.  This had been a very positive move, which lifted about 1/3rd of the global population out of poverty within 30 years.  China had a significant role – it made technology affordable to the masses in the third world.  A typical example is the cheaper smartphones made in China, accessed by people experiencing poverty who could not afford iPhones.  

Of course, there were Chinese phones, such as Huawei, which rivaled the iPhones and Samsungs.  Instead of competing with Huawei, the US and its allies chose to ban Huawei on the grounds of National Security.  

BTW, I think the reason given for banning Chinese technology is that the Chinese will access our data, and it is detrimental to our National Security, is pretty weak.  I doubt there's hardly any data that is not available in public databases, which will only be available if we use Huawei.  All Governments publish census data, including home addresses, demography, income data, and data on share market performance, all available publicly.  All scientists publish their findings, and their peers' acceptance of their conclusions leads to career advancement.

The US companies successfully used the manufacturing strengths in China to produce their products on a mass scale, cheaply, and make them available to the rest of the world.  Once, the CEO of Apple lamented that if he summoned all US technicians with a particula expertise, they would fill an auditorium, but in China, he would need an athletic stadium.  Another US commentator said there are more honors students in Chinese universities than all University students in the USA.  

Technological competition between the US and China leads to tensions and mistrust.  Collaboration can help build trust and reduce the risk of conflict.  By working together on shared goals, both sides can foster a more cooperative and stable international environment.   Collaboration fosters cultural understanding and intellectual exchange, which can lead to more creative and inclusive solutions.  It also helps bridge differences and build mutual respect between societies.

The potential benefits of collaboration between the US and China in technology development are immense.  By working together, both sides can drive innovation, leverage their strengths, and fill gaps in their capabilities to address global challenges and create a more prosperous and sustainable future for all.